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"It is critical that governments and companies turn the tide to uphold defenders’ rights and protect them rather than persecute them," said the lead author of the new Global Witness report.
At least 142 people were killed and four were confirmed missing last year for "bravely speaking out or taking action to defend their rights to land and a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment," according to an annual Global Witness report published Wednesday.
"Year after year, land and environmental defenders—those protecting our forests, rivers, and lands across the world—continue to be met with unspeakable violence," said Laura Furones, the report's lead author, in a statement. "They are being hunted, harassed, and killed—not for breaking laws, but for defending life itself."
"Standing up to injustice should never be a death sentence," Furones declared. "It is critical that governments and companies turn the tide to uphold defenders' rights and protect them rather than persecute them. We desperately need defenders to keep our planet safe. If we turn our backs on them, we forfeit our future."
The report, Roots of Resistance, begins by listing the activists who were murdered or disappeared for six months or more in 2024. It also says: "We acknowledge that the names of many defenders who were killed or disappeared last year may be missing, and we may never know how many more gave their lives to protect our planet. We honor their work too."
The most dangerous country for environmental defenders, by far, was Colombia, with 48 deaths. Jani Silva, a defender there living under state protection, said that "as this report shows, the vast majority of defenders under attack are not defenders by choice—including myself. We are defenders because our homes, land, communities, and lives are under threat. So much more must be done to ensure communities have rights and that those who stand up for them are protected."
Colombia was followed by Guatemala (20), Mexico (18), Brazil (12), the Philippines (7), Honduras (5), Indonesia (5), Nicaragua (4), Peru (4), the Democratic Republic of Congo (4), Ecuador (3), and Liberia (3). There was one confirmed killing each in Russia, India, Venezuela, Argentina, Madagascar, Turkey, Cameroon, Cambodia, and the Dominican Republic. The four disappearances were in Chile, Honduras, Mexico, and the Philippines.
"This brings the total figure to 2,253 since we started reporting on attacks in 2012. This appalling statistic illustrates the persistent nature of violence against defenders," the report states. It stresses that while the new figure is lower than the 196 cases in 2023, "this does not indicate that the situation for defenders is improving."
The report notes that "120 (82%) of all the cases we documented in 2024 took place in Latin America," while 16 killings occurred in Asia and nine were in Africa. It emphasizes that "underreporting remains an issue globally, particularly across Asia and Africa. Obstacles to verify suspected violations also present a problem, particularly documenting cases in active conflict zones."
A third of all land and environmental defenders killed or disappeared last year were Indigenous. The deadliest industry was mining and extractives, at 29, followed by logging (8), agribusiness (4), roads and infrastructure (2), hydropower (1), and poaching.
In addition to detailing who was killed or disappeared, what they fought for, and how "the current system is failing defenders," the report offers recommendations for "how states and businesses can better protect defenders."
Currently, said Global Witness project lead Rachel Cox, "states across the world are weaponizing their legal systems to silence those speaking out in defense of our planet."
"Amid rampant resource use, escalating environmental pressure, and a rapidly closing window to limit warming to 1.5°C, they are treating land and environmental defenders like they are a major inconvenience instead of canaries in a coal mine about to explode," she continued.
"Meanwhile, governments are failing to hold those responsible for defender attacks to account—spurring the cycle of killings with little consequence," she added. "World leaders must acknowledge the role they must play in ending this once and for all."
The recommendation section specifically points to the upcoming United Nations climate summit, COP30, in Belém, Brazil, "a city amid one of the world's most biodiverse regions—and one of the most dangerous countries to be a land and the environment defender."
"The protection and meaningful participation of land and environmental defenders at COP30 and beyond is an essential element of the fight against climate change," the document says. "It must become a core principle of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity process."
"A just transition is not a luxury or a campaign to be used for greenwashing; it's a matter of survival and securing our future," said a movement member in the host country.
The Fridays for Future movement announced this week that it is planning the next Global Climate Strike for November 14, the first Friday during the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Belém, Brazil.
The movement began in 2018, with then-teenage Greta Thunberg's solo protest at the Swedish parliament, which inspired millions of people to hold similar school strikes for climate action around the world.
The U.N. summit, COP30, is set to run from November 10-21. Brazil's website for the conference states that "the main challenges include aligning the commitments of developed and developing countries in relation to climate finance, ensuring that emission reduction targets are compatible with climate science, and dealing with the socio-economic impacts of climate change on vulnerable populations."
On November 14, "under the banner #JustTransitionNow, young people around the world will mobilize to demand urgent, justice-centered action to phase out fossil fuels and build a sustainable future for all," according to a Monday statement from Fridays for Future.
"Global leaders must stop listening to fossil fuel lobbyists... It's time they start listening to science, to young people, and to traditional communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis."
According to the movement, the upcoming global strike will highlight the urgent need to:
"Global leaders must stop listening to fossil fuel lobbyists or seeking alliances with groups like OPEC+," said Daniel Holanda of Fridays for Future Brazil, referring to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other leading oil exporters.
"It's time they start listening to science, to young people, and to traditional communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis," Holanda added. "A just transition is not a luxury or a campaign to be used for greenwashing; it's a matter of survival and securing our future."
The movement's announcement of the next strike follows last week's landmark advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ)—the U.N.'s primary judicial organ—that countries have a legal obligation to take cooperative action against the "urgent and existential threat" of human-caused planetary heating.
"We now have a common foundation based on the rule of law, releasing us from the limitations of individual nations' political interests that have dominated climate action," said Ralph Regenvanu, a minister in Vanuatu, which introduced the U.N. General Assembly resolution that led to the opinion. "This moment will drive stronger action and accountability to protect our planet and peoples."
Plans for the strike also come as U.S. President Donald Trump's administration and congressional Republicans work to undo the limited progress that the United States has made in terms of taking accountability for being the biggest historical contributor to climate pollution.
In addition to the United States ditching the Paris agreement, again, Trump's return to power has meant the elimination of the State Department's Office of Global Change. The latter move, CNN reported Tuesday, "leaves the world's largest historical polluter with no official presence" at COP30.
The International Court of Justice held this week that failing to protect the planet from global warming could be a violation of international law.
Of all the frustrations that go with watching the rise of the MAGA right here and around the world (and the rise of their billionaire and corporate allies), perhaps none tops the sense that they are never held accountable for anything—that on any given day U.S. President Donald Trump, and the minor Donald Trumps of the world, do things that at any other point in our lifetimes would have ended their political careers or landed them in jail. And… nothing. Some combination of utter brazenness, flooding the field with so many scandals that none stick, and the fear they induce in too many who might otherwise raise questions has let them get away with, well, murder. (And rape). But there’s some sense this week that that might not go on forever.
In the Middle East, for instance, Israel and America’s cruel decision to starve Gazans into submission is beginning to bring even the timid off the sidelines—as the pictures of protruding ribs flooded the news, France announced yesterday that it would recognize a Palestinian state, and it seems possible that Britain may follow suit as early as today.
And in America the Epstein case seems, at the least, to be making the White House sweat—they may well be able to cover up files, buy off witnesses like Ghislaine Maxwell, and shutter D.C. till things die down. But for once it’s not automatic—one senses that a few more Americans are seeing through to the ugly core.
Meanwhile, in the longest-running crime of all—the decades-old and ongoing effort by the oil industry, with massive amounts of government backup, to wreck the planet’s climate—there was an interesting new development. The International Court of Justice held this week that failing to protect the planet from global warming could be a violation of international law. As The Associated Press explained, judges in the Hague ruled that “countries could be in violation of international law if they fail to take measures to protect the planet from climate change, and nations harmed by its effects could be entitled to reparations”:
“Failure of a state to take appropriate action to protect the climate system... may constitute an internationally wrongful act,” court President Yuji Iwasawa said during the hearing. He called the climate crisis “an existential problem of planetary proportions that imperils all forms of life and the very health of our planet.”
The ruling came in a suit brought by the low-lying island state of Vanuatu, and backed by 130 other nations. As United Nations chief António Guterres said:
This is a victory for our planet, for climate justice, and for the power of young people to make a difference. Young Pacific islanders initiated this call for humanity to the world. And the world must respond.
It’s not clear what this means in the immediate future—there’s no way for the court to force, say, Exxon, or the United States, to pay reparations for the damage they’ve done. As the chief judge said, international courts can play “an important but ultimately limited role in resolving this problem.” But for those nations that still pay some attention to international opinion (which would be most nations except ours), the ruling will be one more spur to action—it will certainly heighten the rhetoric and the stakes at COP30, the next global climate talks which will be held (sans America) in Belem, Brazil in November.
And it’s not as if there’s no chance that this will eventually mean something. European-based oil companies, for instance—which often have some state ownership and control—may be more exposed. "The legal consequences resulting from the commission of an internationally wrongful act may include... full reparations to injured states in the form of restitution, compensation, and satisfaction," said ICJ President Yuji Iwasawa on behalf of the 15-judge panel.
At the moment the oil companies imagine themselves to be unshakable colossi, astride the world because they control Washington. But as so often, it is in the moment of greatest hubris that disaster looms. Here’s an ominous little note for them: Chinese data yesterday showed that Beijing has managed to essentially end all imports of oil and gas from America. That’s a big change—as Bloomberg notes: “Crude is the most heavily traded commodity in the world and China the biggest buyer. In June last year, its purchases from the U.S. were worth nearly $800 million.” But no more—remember, China is currently installing 100 solar panels a second, and more than half the cars it sells have a plug dangling out the back. They’re figuring out how to say buzz off to Big Oil.
So imagine, for a moment, a scene in 2029, when the balance of power has shifted in Washington—and when it’s become clear that we no longer really need fossil fuels to power the world. It’s not impossible to imagine that an America seeking to rejoin the world, and needing to make amends for the utter stupidity of the Trump years, might not see the oil industry as a useful sacrifice to offer the rest of the planet. “Restitution, compensation, satisfaction.” Justice delayed is justice denied, as the British Prime Minister William Gladstone correctly remarked. But to everything there is a season, as King Solomon also correctly remarked.
At any rate: we keep fighting. Next stop on our calendar is of course Sun Day, and in honor of the glory days of high summer here’s a particularly juicy version of the logo that popped up in the global gallery this week: