More than 300 individuals have been nominated for the world's top peace award, the Nobel Prize, with the nominees coming from the fields of environmental activism, pharmaceutical research, education and diplomacy. 

The Oslo-based Nobel Committee has confirmed that the list for 2021 includes the third highest number of candidates ever, while adding the current record of 376 candidates reached in 2016 still stands. 

Among those named are the climate activist Greta Thunberg and the former U.S. President Donald Trump. Political activists like exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, along with figures from the Black Lives matter movement, are also among those included for their contribution to promoting peace, fraternalism and conflict reduction. 

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In a year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, groups and figures at the forefront of the fight for a treatment have also been named including the Vaccine Gavi Alliance, which lobbies for equal access to doses for the world's developing nations, and the World Health Organization which has spearheaded the global response to the virus. 

"It has been a special year... and it would have been surprising if this had not been reflected in the nature of the nominations," Nobel Institute director Olav Njolstad told reporters.  

Previous winners of the award have included the World Food Programme.

While the names of the nominees are generally kept secret, sponsors who may include politicians, former Nobel  laureates and university professors may choose to make their choices public.

The committee will unveil its final choice on October 8, ahead of the award ceremony planned to take place in Oslo in December.