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May Day Demonstrations Worldwide Condemn US-Israeli War on Iran, Champion Workers
"Working people refuse to pay the price for Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East," said the European Trade Confederation.
May 01, 2026
May Day demonstrations across the world on Friday denounced the US-Israeli war against Iran, which has caused a global energy crisis that is disproportionately harming working-class people.
Among the earliest May Day demonstrations took place in the Philippines, and a video published by The Associated Press shows protesters clashing with police near the US Embassy in the capital city of Manila.
While many demonstrators held signs that referenced local issues, American foreign policy was also a major focus of the protesters, as marchers in Manila carried a large banner that read, "Down With US Imperialism."
Josua Mata, leader of the SENTRO umbrella group of labor federations, told The Associated Press that the war with Iran was a central focus of protests because of the impact it's had on energy costs.
"Every Filipino worker now is aware that the situation here is deeply connected to the global crisis," Mata explained.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto attended a May Day rally held in the capital of Jakarta, where Jakarta Globe reported that he announced a host of worker-friendly policies including plans "to build daycare facilities for workers’ children and accelerate the construction of at least 1 million homes."
France 24 reported that hundreds of demonstrators in Istanbul, Turkey were arrested after attempting to march to the city's iconic Taksim Square, which police had sealed off.
The Turkish Contemporary Lawyers’ Association (ÇHD) said on Friday afternoon that at least 350 demonstrators in Istanbul have been detained as a result of the protests, with hundreds more potentially in custody.
May Day demonstrations are also taking place across Europe, with many demonstrators blaming US President Donald Trump's war for the deterioration of workers' living standards.
The European Trade Union Confederation, which represents 93 trade union organizations in 41 European countries, released a statement declaring that "working people refuse to pay the price for Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East," adding that "today’s rallies show working people will not stand by and see their jobs and living standards destroyed."
Trump is also facing protests at home, with more than 4,000 "May Day Strong" events planned across the United States.
Daniel Bertossa, general secretary for Public Services International, said this year's May Day demonstrations are providing a desperately needed backlash to power grabs being made by the global billionaire class.
Bertossa pointed to the US-Israel attack on Iran, as well as Trump's repeated threats to invade Greenland, as key turning points that have pushed workers to organize and fight back.
"Rising living costs caused by the war are now driving anger among working-class people and producing a rare and powerful moment to connect and educate," said Bertossa. "Fascists don't have the answers to the economic pain they exploited to get elected—international affairs impact us all—and international working-class solidarity matters."
Bertossa added that "May Day is a vivid reminder that working-class politics is not a spectator sport," and "we have never won by watching, waiting, or relying on great power leaders to gift us our future."
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We Need a Global Movement to Unrig the System Exploiting Indonesian Nickel Workers
Labor activist Raraa Rahmawati argues that the hazards in her country’s nickel industry are part of the broader problem of a global economy rigged to favor the wealthy
Dec 09, 2025
Electric vehicle sales are rising rapidly around the world. But few people who purchase these cars know anything about the workers who produce them.
Labor activist Raraa Rahmawati is trying to change that for one group of e-vehicle supply chain workers: the more than 230,000 Indonesians who toil in the nickel mining and processing industry. Recently, she reported on the reality of these workers’ lives at an international “People’s Summit” held parallel to the G20 leaders meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Indonesia boasts the world’s largest reserves of nickel, a key component of the lithium batteries that power electric vehicles. To capture more of the value of this essential mineral, the national government banned raw nickel exports in 2020. This has triggered a boom in domestic nickel processing.
Who’s benefiting most from this boom? The Chinese firm Tsingshan ranks as the top investor in Indonesia’s nickel processing operations. The company has contracts to supply carmakers around the world, including a $5 billion deal with Tesla.
“People who buy electric cars think they’re contributing to a ‘just transition’ away from fossil fuels,” she told the international crowd in Johannesburg. “But they should know this is really just another form of extractivism."
Tsingshan’s founder and chairman, Xiang Guangda, has accumulated a fortune worth an estimated $3.7 billion. Known as the “Nickel King,” the Chinese tycoon closely guards his privacy. But Bloomberg last year spilled one revealing tidbit: that Xiang had purchased a $62 million mansion for his daughter in Singapore.
The contrast between the living and working conditions for Xiang’s family and his employees could not be more extreme. Rahmawati works with an organization, Sembada Bersama, that is documenting the severe workplace hazards in this industry.
In a new report, Sembada Bersama reveals disturbing information about the Indonesia Weda Bay Industrial Park, a massive nickel mining and smelting complex in a former rainforest in the northern part of the Maluku Islands. Tsingshan owns the largest share of the project.
The most disturbing finding: an apparent pattern of “sudden deaths” among the plant’s workers, who are mostly 25 to 35 years old. Nearly every worker Sembada Bersama interviewed was aware of these tragic incidents. Rahmawati said that while lack of transparency and oversight make it impossible to prove, these deaths are likely the result of cardiac arrests related to grueling working conditions.
Smelter operators typically work two 12-hour shifts over two days, often having to rotate between day and night shifts, with a third day off. To document additional hazards, Sembada Bersama collaborated with workers to take meter readings inside the smelters. The data they collected reveal workplace heat temperatures of as high as 108.5°F, excessive levels of inhalable dust particles that can cause respiratory disease and cancer, and noise levels high enough to cause permanent hearing loss.
These occupational health risks come on top of the Indonesian nickel industry’s devastating environmental costs and high accident rates. Two years ago, an explosion at a Tsingshan plant left 21 workers dead.
Tsingshan recently signed an agreement with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization to improve ecological practices and industrial skills training at its Indonesia operations. This suggests the firm is feeling some pressure. But with few alternative job opportunities, local communities and workers remain vulnerable to the enormous power of Tsingshan and other nickel corporations.
The Sembada Bersama report ends with detailed recommendations for the Indonesian government and corporations. Rahmawati also argues that the hazards in her country’s nickel industry are part of the broader problem of a global economy rigged to favor the wealthy. International solidarity and cooperation, she feels, will be key to unrigging the system.
“People who buy electric cars think they’re contributing to a ‘just transition’ away from fossil fuels,” she told the international crowd in Johannesburg. “But they should know this is really just another form of extractivism. We need a cross-border movement. It’s time for us to be united.”
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Flooding Kills 1,000+ Across South Asia as Climate Crisis Fuels More Extreme Rain
“We need to confront climate change effectively,” Indonesia's president said.
Dec 01, 2025
More than 1,100 people across South Asia have died after torrential rains fueled by warming temperatures caused widespread flooding and landslides in recent days.
Following days of unprecedented cyclone conditions, people across Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand have been left with their homes destroyed and forced to flee for their lives. A separate cyclone in Sri Lanka has left hundreds more dead.
The worst devastation has been seen in Indonesia, where Cyclone Senyar has claimed over 500 lives as of Sunday. On the island of Sumatra, rescue teams have struggled to reach stranded people as roads have been blocked by mudslides and high floodwaters. Many areas are still reportedly unreachable.
As Reuters reported Monday, more than 28,000 homes have been damaged across the country and 1.4 million people affected, according to government figures. At least 464 were reported missing as of Sunday.
Other countries in the region were also battered. In Thailand, the death toll was reported at 176 as of Monday, and more than 3 million people are reported to be affected. The worst destruction has been in the southern city of Hat Yai, which on November 21 alone experienced 335mm of rain, its single largest recorded rainfall in over 300 years.
At least two more have been killed in Malaysia, where nearly 12,000 people still remain in evacuation centers.
Sri Lanka has witnessed similar devastation in recent days from another storm, Cyclone Ditwah, that formed around the same time as Senyar. Floods and mudslides have similarly killed at least 330 people, and destroyed around 20,000 homes, while leaving around a third of the country without electricity. More than 200 people are missing, and over 108,000 are in state-run shelters, officials say.
Work has begun in Indonesia to restore damaged roads, bridges, and telecommunication services. But after he visited survivors in Sumatra, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said that the work will extend beyond merely recovering from the storm.
“We need to confront climate change effectively,” Prabowo told reporters. “Local governments must take a significant role in safeguarding the environment and preparing for the extreme weather conditions that will arise from future climate change.”
Southeast Asia was top-of-mind for many attendees at last month's COP30 climate summit in Brazil. As Winston Chow, a professor of urban climate at Singapore Management University and part of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told the Straits Times, this is because the region "is highly vulnerable to climate change."
"As a whole, it faces multiple climate risks and hazards, such as rising temperatures, sea-level rise, increasing droughts and floods, and the intensification of extreme events like typhoons," he continued.
In recent years, the region has been hit by annual devastating heatwaves, resulting in record-shattering temperatures. In Myanmar, where temperatures exceeded 110°F last April, Radio Free Asia reported that 1,473 people died from extreme heat in just one month.
Floods have likewise grown more deadly in recent years. Just this month, floods killed dozens more people in Vietnam, and a pair of typhoons killed hundreds more in the Philippines and forced over a million people to evacuate their homes.
While it's difficult to determine the extent to which any one disaster was caused by climate change, in aggregate, they are growing more intense as the planet warms.
"As the world’s oceans and atmosphere warm at an accelerating rate due to the rise in greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, tropical cyclones are expected to become more intense," explained Steve Turton, an adjunct professor of environmental geography at CQUniversity Australia in The Conversation on Sunday. "This is because cyclones get their energy from warm oceans. The warmer the ocean, the more fuel for the storm."
According to the National Centers for Environmental Information, part of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, October 2025 was the third-warmest October on record globally and had above-average tropical cyclone activity.
"The warming atmosphere is supercharging the global water cycle, and peak rainfall rates are increasing," Turton said. "When more rain falls in a short time, flash flooding becomes more likely."
At COP30, protesters from across Southeast Asia assembled to demand action from global leaders. On November 10, shortly after her home in Manila was battered by a pair of typhoons, 25-year-old activist Ellenor Bartolome savaged corporations and world leaders who have continued to block global action to reduce fossil fuel usage.
“It gets worse every year, and for every disaster, it is utterly enraging that we are counting hundreds of bodies, hundreds of missing people... while the elite and the corporations are counting money from fossil fuels," she told attendees as they entered the conference.
Ultimately, many climate activists and scientists left the conference enraged yet again, as the final agreement stripped out all language related to fossil fuels.
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'Intolerable': Global Outrage as Israeli Forces Fire on UN Peacekeepers in Lebanon
"Attacking U.N. personnel and property is a major violation of International Humanitarian Law," said the foreign minister of Indonesia.
Oct 11, 2024
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday joined human rights organizations and the foreign ministers of major countries in condemning the Israeli military's targeting of U.N. peacekeeping forces stationed in Lebanon, where Israel has killed more than 2,000 people in bombings and ground attacks in recent weeks.
"This incident is intolerable and cannot be repeated," said Guterres after the U.N. Interim Peacekeeping Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)—an international body of more than 10,000 military and civilian personnel from dozens of countries—issued a statement accusing Israel of "deliberately" targeting the operation's positions. UNIFIL has been present in southern Lebanon since 1978.
On Thursday, UNIFIL said, "two peacekeepers were injured after an IDF Merkava tank fired its weapon toward an observation tower at UNIFIL's headquarters in Naqoura, directly hitting it and causing them to fall." The two injured soldiers were from Indonesia.
"Indonesia strongly condemns the attack," Retno Marsudi, the country's foreign affairs minister, said in response. "Attacking U.N. personnel and property is a major violation of International Humanitarian Law."
Global outrage soon followed, with the top diplomats of Spain, France, Italy, China, Turkey, and other nations issuing statements forcefully condemning the attack.
The United States, Israel's top ally and arms supplier, offered a more muted response, with the Biden White House saying it was "deeply concerned" by the attack while repeating Israel's claim that it is conducting "targeted operations" against Hezbollah, the Lebanese paramilitary group and political party.
Asked about the attack during a briefing on Thursday, Pentagon Press Secretary Patrick Ryder said he would "refer you to the IDF to talk about their operations in that regard."
Israel's attack on the peacekeeping force came after the IDF requested that UNIFIL relocate from the Israel-Lebanon border—a request that the U.N. mission denied.
"The peacekeepers are currently staying in their position, all of them," Jean-Pierre Lacroix, U.N. under-secretary-general for peace operations, told reporters last week. "The parties have an obligation to respect the safety of and security of peacekeepers, and I want to insist on that."
Israel has killed U.N. personnel in unprecedented numbers since late last year, mostly in the Gaza Strip. Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday demanded an urgent international probe of Israel's attack on peacekeepers in Lebanon, calling it an "apparent violation of the laws of war."
"With over 2,000 people killed and over a million people displaced in Lebanon since mid-September, it is crucial for UNIFIL to be allowed to fulfill its civilian protection and humanitarian functions," Lama Fakih, HRW's Middle East and North Africa director, said in a statement. "Attacks on UNIFIL not only impede the peacekeeping forces' work but also the ability of civilians in the south to access much-needed humanitarian aid."
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Genocidal General Declares Victory in Indonesian Election
Prabowo Subianto "is the most notorious massacre general in Indonesia, and he's also the general who was closest to the U.S. as he was carrying out his mass killings," said journalist Allan Nairn.
Feb 14, 2024
Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto—a former U.S.-trained general in an army unit implicated in genocidal violence—declared victory Wednesday after polls closed in the archipelago nation's presidential election, although no winner has officially been announced.
Unofficial results showed Prabowo, of the right-wing populist Gerindra party, with nearly 60% of the vote. His two rivals—former Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan of the Coalition of Change for Unity and Ganjar Pranowo of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P)—have not yet conceded defeat. In order to avert a runoff, Prabowo needs more than 50% of all votes and at least 20% in each of the nation's 38 provinces.
"We should not be arrogant. We should not be proud. We should not be euphoric. We still have to be humble," Prabowo told jubilant supporters in a packed Jakarta stadium Wednesday. "This victory must be a victory for all Indonesian people."
U.S. journalist Allan Nairn explained in a Tuesday interview with Democracy Now! how Prabowo ran a "two-pronged" campaign that involved "pressuring and coercing the poor with threats to their well-being" as well as a "PR campaign that portrays the general as a cuddly cartoon character."
Nairn added that "none of it would be possible" without the support of popular incumbent PDI-P President Joko Widodo, whose son Gibran Rakabuming Raka is Prabowo's running mate.
In addition to concerns about potential democratic backsliding, critics noted Prabowo's bloody past.
"Gen. Prabowo is the most notorious massacre general in Indonesia, and he's also the general who was closest to the U.S. as he was carrying out his mass killings, abductions of activists, and systematic tortures," said Nairn. "He was also the son-in-law of the former dictator of Indonesia, Gen. Suharto."
Prabowo, who trained at Fort Benning in Georgia, joined the elite Kopassus commando unit in 1976, shortly after then-U.S. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger greenlighted the genocidal Indonesian invasion of East Timor after the former Portuguese colony declared independence.
Over the following two decades, around 200,000 people—approximately a quarter of East Timor's population—were killed or died from starvation or disease.
"He is the general, most importantly, who led many of the massacres in East Timor after the Indonesian army invaded," Nairn said of Prabowo. "In one case, in the village of Kraras, Prabowo and his forces killed hundreds of fleeing civilians. He later was involved in other massacres and directing assassinations of political activists in Aceh and West Papua."
Nairn and Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman witnessed and survived a 1991 massacre of hundreds of East Timorese pro-independence demonstrators in Dili. Nairn was also briefly jailed by Indonesia's military in 1999 and subsequently deported.
Prabowo also allegedly orchestrated the worst atrocity of the period immediately preceding Suharto's 1998 fall from power. Kopassus troops under Prabowo's command led the mass rape and murder of at least 160 Chinese-Indonesian women and girls—many of whom were reportedly burned to death after being sexually assaulted—and the slaughter of hundreds of other Indonesians of Chinese origin.
The Clinton administration cut ties with Kopassus in 1999 and banned Prabowo from entering the United States the following year. However, in 2010 the Obama administration, citing the unit's improved human rights record under a democratic Indonesian government, resumed cooperation. This, despite reports that Kopassus was still committing atrocities against Christians in independence-minded West Papua.
In 2020, then-U.S. Defense Secretary Mike Esper invited Prabowo to the Pentagon as the Trump administration sought to bolster ties with Indonesia to counter the rise of China.
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Head of Bombed Gaza Hospital Appeals Directly to Biden
"You have destroyed the international rules of the game, insulted the authority of the U.N., torn apart the sense of justice... and tarnished the face of human civilization."
Nov 21, 2023
The director of the aid group that runs the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza—where Israeli attacks killed at least a dozen people on Monday—appealed directly to U.S. President Joe Biden, imploring him to push Israel to accept a cease-fire in a war that's killed or maimed more than 40,000 Palestinians.
"Gazans are facing death every day. Every five minutes, a Palestinian child is killed," Sarbini Abdul Murad, head of Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C) Indonesia, wrote in a letter to Biden.
Noting that Israeli forces have attacked "babies, children, women, the elderly, the disabled, hospitals, ambulances, medics, schools, teachers, residential complexes, worship places, and much more," Murad asserted that "this is completely genocide and ethnic cleansing."
"It is very unfortunate that your siding with Israel by facilitating weapons of mass destruction has actually made the conflict even wider," Murad continued. "Your action clearly contradicts various international treaties and agreements that apply to the existence of Palestine. You have destroyed the international rules of the game, insulted the authority of the [United Nations], torn apart the sense of justice, hurt human values, and tarnished the face of human civilization."
"Mr. President, we believe you still have a conscience," Murad wrote. "Your great country certainly wants to be seen as honorable for its humanitarian defenses. Moreover, your administration has determined to make the principles of multilateralism, justice, and human rights the foundation of United States foreign policy. So, actually, this is the right to prove it."
Urging Biden to "avoid double standards in dealing with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict," Murad added: "For the sake of peace and humanity, we demand that you immediately do [a] cease-fire. Restore the dignity of the United States as a country that upholds human rights. The cease-fire must be implemented now, so as not to increase the loss of life on both sides."
Murad's letter came as Israel Defense Forces tanks surrounded the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza after IDF artillery shelling killed 12 people in the facility's compound, including patients and their companions, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry also said many people were wounded in the attack, including patients in critical condition.
"The attack is a clear violation of international humanitarian laws. All countries, especially those that have close relations with Israel, must use all their influence and capabilities to urge Israel to stop its atrocities," Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said Monday.
According to Gaza officials, there are about 700 patients, staff, and other Palestinians trapped in the Indonesian Hospital. People trying to flee the compound have reportedly come under Israeli fire.
Marwan Abdallah, a medical worker at hospital, told Al Jazeera that Israeli tanks could be seen maneuvering around the compound.
"You can see them moving around and firing," Abdallah said. "Women and children are terrified. There are constant sounds of explosions and gunfire."
The World Health Organization (WHO) said it is "appalled" by the attacks on Indonesian Hospital.
"Health workers and civilians should never have to be exposed to such horror, and especially while inside a hospital," the agency said in a statement.
"There have been multiple and ongoing attacks on health facilities in the last six weeks, that have resulted in forced mass evacuations from hospitals, and multiple fatalities and casualties among patients, their companions, and those who had sought refuge in hospitals," WHO continued.
"The Indonesian Hospital had already reportedly sustained damages due to at least five attacks since October 7," the organization added, referring to the date when Israel began bombarding Gaza by air, land, and sea following the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people, with another 240 or so taken hostage.
"The world cannot stand silent while these hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation, and despair."
"WHO has recorded 335 attacks on healthcare in the occupied Palestinian territory since October 7, including 164 attacks in the Gaza Strip and 171 attacks in the West Bank," WHO noted. "There were also 33 attacks on healthcare in Israel during the violent events of October 7."
"The world cannot stand silent while these hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation, and despair," the agency added.
On Tuesday, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, said two of its physicians—Drs. Mahmoud Abu Nujaila and Ahmad Al Sahar—were killed along with another doctor, Ziad Al-Tatari, in a strike on al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza.
"We condemn this strike in the strongest terms, and call yet again for the respect and protection of medical facilities, staff, and patients," MSF said in a statement.
Israeli officials
claim Hamas and other Palestinian militants are using hospitals as headquarters. However, Israel has provided no proof to support its allegations, which Palestinian and international medical professionals working in the facilities resoundingly refute.
According to Palestine's WAFA News Agency, at least 205 Palestinian medical workers have been killed by Israeli bombs and bullets during the war.
The WHO said Tuesday that one of its employees, Dima Alhaj, was killed in an Israeli attack on Gaza alongside her husband, their 6-month-old baby, and two of the woman's brothers.
Israel and Hamas appeared close to reaching a Qatar-brokered multiday cease-fire agreement on Tuesday, with hard-right holdouts in Israel's government—most notably, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich—opposed to the deal, which would reportedly involve the release of around 50 civilian hostages held by Hamas and of Palestinian women and children imprisoned by Israel.
Gaza officials said Tuesday that the death toll from Israel's 46-day onslaught rose to at least 14,128, including over 3,900 women and 5,800 children. Tens of thousands more Palestinians have been wounded, nearly 1.7 million others have been forcibly displaced, and around half of all homes in the embattled strip have been damaged or destroyed.
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To Restore Nature, Governments Must Tackle Financial System Bankrolling Extinction
As long as money continues to flow towards expansion of economic activities that lead to nature destruction, there is no way we will be able to meet global commitments.
Nov 05, 2023
The world is facing multiple crises when it comes to our climate and environment—we know this too well. We are direct witnesses of this destruction and the suffering it causes in our respective countries, Brazil and Indonesia, two countries that are home to ecosystems vital to the ecological balance of our planet.
We follow international efforts to protect and restore nature with concern, determination and hope. As part of efforts to tackle the biodiversity crisis, nearly 200 governments signed the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) in December 2022. One of the goals of this agreement is to maintain, enhance and restore the integrity and resilience of ecosystems.
This means we need to stop the destruction of nature right now and allow the recovery of these ecosystems. This should apply not only to forests like the Amazon, Congo Basin, or Carpathian forests, but also to other essential ecosystems such as savannahs (like the Cerrado) and wetlands (like the Pantanal, South America’s largest wetland extending across Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay). This action would produce the highest impact in the shortest time. But how do we get there?
A drastic reform of the financial system is urgently needed to address the ongoing loss of species and natural areas
Commitments to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises are being undermined on a daily basis by a finance system that serves polluters and the funding of industries and projects that accelerate environmental degradation and species extinction. Billions continue to flow unabated into destructive activities.
Therefore, a drastic reform of the financial system is key to address the ongoing loss of species and natural areas, and emissions. As long as money continues to flow towards expansion of economic activities that lead to nature destruction, there is no way we will be able to meet these commitments.
Activists attended the biggest annual insurance and reinsurance conference in 2023. (Photo: Greenpeace)
In the Global Biodiversity Framework, governments committed (target 14) to ensure that all financial flows would be aligned with the biodiversity conservation goals and targets before 2030. This means governments need to better control public and private money flows.
Governments need to improve existing regulations and develop new regulations that prohibit large banks and other finance institutions from investing in activities that harm the world’s remaining biodiversity—all coupled with rigorous enforcement and transparency, to stop nature destruction and hold wrongdoing to account.
Trillions of dollars in subsidies and investments continue to finance the destruction of natural ecosystems
We are living through a climate and biodiversity crisis, but governments and the private sector are spending around 3.1 trillion dollars a year on harmful subsidies and investments in problematic sectors such as livestock, timber, and palm oil production, leading to the destruction of nature and violations of human rights.
We need legally binding regulations that prohibit banks, asset managers, pension funds, and other financial institutions or investors from financing farms, projects, and companies that harm ecosystems and local communities depending on them. This is especially true for Indigenous peoples, and land and environmental defenders who continue to be attacked despite their vital work for protecting the environment and fighting climate change.
Indigenous leaders spearheaded a march during biodiversity talks in Canada in 2022. (Photo: Toma Iczkovits/Greenpeace)
Global government spending on activities leading to biodiversity conservation is estimated at $154 billion per year only, while estimates of the total amount of subsidies and other perverse incentives are much higher as mentioned above. The redirection of these financial flows could generate major funding for the very actions the GBF recognises are at the heart of biodiversity conservation. It could also ensure a just transition in sectors like industrial agriculture and forestry that continue to harm not just biodiversity, but also the communities that depend on these sectors for their livelihoods.
As governments are preparing their plans on how to implement the commitments they have made in the historic Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, we urge them to adopt regulations of the finance sector, control financial flows, and stop and reverse the destruction of natural ecosystems.
The people’s movement against the governments and institutions that are destroying nature is growing stronger every day
For centuries, Indigenous peoples and local communities have opposed the injustice and destruction of nature. Over the last few decades, an international people’s movement to defend natural ecosystems has developed, bringing together millions of people and growing stronger every day.
In October, hundreds of environmental activists blockaded the offices of Rabobank in the Netherlands and demanded that the bank stop financing industrial agriculture, which is destroying biodiversity, and pay for the damage caused.
Activists blocked the entrances to Rabobank headquarters in the Netherlands in 2023. (Photo: Marten van Dijl/Greenpeace)
Rabobank, a Dutch bank, is a case in point. The bank has made billions by financing companies that destroy nature over many years, both in its home country, the Netherlands, and elsewhere, for example in our two home countries, Brazil and Indonesia.
In recent years, many other banks and financial institutions that are bankrolling extinction have been the target of damning reports and powerful actions in many countries around the world, including JP Morgan, Barclays, Standard Chartered, and Deutsche Bank.
It is impossible to protect and restore natural ecosystems without tackling the international finance that allows so many industries to pollute and destroy with impunity. Governments must come up with serious and time bound plans to reform the financial system. Only a powerful people’s movement, fully involving Indigenous Peoples and local communities, can force them to do so.
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‘The World Is Failing Forests’: Report Finds Leaders Way Off Track From Halting Deforestation by 2030
"We are investing in activities that are harmful for forests at far higher rates than we are investing in activities that are beneficial for forests," the assessment coordinator said.
Oct 24, 2023
Despite promising to halt global deforestation by 2030, world leaders have not done enough to protect forests, a new report has found.
The 2023 Forest Declaration Assessment, released late Monday, calculated that human activities destroyed 6.6 million hectares of forest in 2022, which means the world is 21% off track from meeting the 2030 deadline. In addition, 4.1 million hectares of especially vital primary tropical forests were cleared, 33% off where they need to be to stay on schedule.
"The world is failing forests with devastating consequences on a global scale," WWF Global Forests Lead Fran Price said in a statement. "It is impossible to reverse nature loss, address the climate crisis, and develop sustainable economies without forests."
The Forest Declaration Assessment has been published by a group of civil society organizations every year since 2015. Beginning last year, it started tracking the progress of governments towards the 2021 Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on Forests and Land Use, under which more than 100 nations attending the COP26 U.N. climate conference promised to "halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030."
"That 2030 goal is not just nice to have; it's essential for maintaining a livable climate for humanity," Erin Matson, senior consultant at Climate Focus and coordinator for the Forest Declaration Assessment, said during a press briefing ahead of the report's release.
Last year's report showed that deforestation had actually decreased by 6% compared to the baseline, which "was not enough, but it was progress," Matson said. "And it gave us hope that we could see continued progress in 2022."
"We really need to remember that every hectare of forest we lose pushes us further away from being able to keep global temperature rise to within 1.5°C, avoid irreversible tipping points, and restore nature."
Why wasn't that hope realized? The answer, Matson said, came down to money.
"We are investing in activities that are harmful for forests at far higher rates than we are investing in activities that are beneficial for forests," Matson explained.
Agriculture, including cattle ranching and the production of commodities like soy and palm oil, remains the leading cause of tropical deforestation. Yet Global Canopy found that, in 2022, 150 private financial institutions continued to channel $6.1 trillion to companies whose activities were likely to contribute to deforestation through commodity production, and two-thirds of the institutions did not have any policies in place to avoid investing in forest clearing. When it comes to public finance, between 2013 and 2018 governments invested $378 to $635 per year in "gray" finance—funding activities that could hurt forests—and only $26.5 billion total in "green" finance programs to protect them. That means that green finance flows were just $2.2 billion a year, or less than 1% of gray finance flows. Existing green finance also falls far short of the $460 billion a year that is needed to meet forest goals.
"We're financing deforestation through the products we buy and the activities that governments and businesses support through subsidies and investments," Mary Gagen, chief advisor on forests at WWF-UK, said during the briefing. "We really need to remember that every hectare of forest we lose pushes us further away from being able to keep global temperature rise to within 1.5°C, avoid irreversible tipping points, and restore nature."
There was some good news in the report. More than 50 countries are making enough progress to halt deforestation internally by the end of the decade, including Indonesia and Malaysia. Their success offers a potential road map for others.
"Much of their success is attributable to strong laws and enforcement, collaboration with the private sector and civil society, and strong support for and recognition for the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities, as well as just sheer political will," Matson said.
The report also does not include data that reflects Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's success at reducing Amazon deforestation in 2023 by enforcing environmental laws and respecting Indigenous rights after former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro worked to erode them.
The report offered several recommendations for governments, private institutions, and civil society, including protecting and securing Indigenous land rights, boosting finance, and channeling subsidies away from industries and activities that harm forests and towards those that help. Overall, the report authors argued that the definition of "business as usual" had to change.
"Global economic models must be re-structured to value forests for the benefits that they provide over the long term, rather than for the superficial and short-term gain that comes with clearing them," the report authors wrote.
Alongside the assessment report, WWF released its Forest Pathways report, "the first ever comprehensive global blueprint on how to stop failing our forests," as Gagen put it.
The report outlines four pathways to protecting forests:
- Accelerating the recognition of Indigenous land rights;
- Mobilizing finance;
- Reforming global trade so that supply chains don't rely on commodities tied to deforestation; and
- Shifting the economy to value nature.
The conservation group also debuted a graphic of "forest stripes." Based on the famous "climate stripes" visualizing the warming of average temperatures, it shows in green to red the 79% decline of forest-dependent species from 1970 to 2018.
"We're at a critical juncture," Price said during the briefing. "We don't need new forest goals. We need uncompromising ambition, speed, and accountability by both governments and businesses to fulfill their existing goals."
Yet governments and corporations may not act on their own, especially as Matson does not expect forests to be a priority at the upcoming COP28 climate talks in United Arab Emirates this November and December.
"It's so much more important that citizens and the media and civil society keep our attention and pressure on world leaders to meet their shared responsibility on forests," Matson said. "Every country has to get on track or else we have little hope of meeting the 2030 goal."
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Tropical Forest Loss Generated 2.7 Gigatonnes of Carbon Pollution in 2022
That's one figure from a new report finding tropical deforestation increased in 2022 despite global pledges.
Jun 27, 2023
Despite world leaders' pledge to halt and reverse global deforestation by 2030, the tropics lost 10% more primary forest in 2022 than in 2021.
That's the latest update from the World Resources Institute's (WRI) Global Forest Watch, released Tuesday, which found that tropical forests had lost 4.1 million hectares, generating as much carbon dioxide as India emits from fossil fuels in a year at 2.7 gigatonnes.
"One thing is clear: What happens in the forest, doesn't stay in the forest," Frances Seymour, a distinguished senior fellow in WRI's forests program, said, as Mongabay reported.
Seymour said that the data, gathered by the University of Maryland, was "particularly disheartening" because of its timing.
At the COP26 U.N. climate conference in Glasgow in 2021, 145 nations signed the "Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on Forests and Land Use" that included a promise to work "collectively to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030 while delivering sustainable development and promoting an inclusive rural transformation."
"We had hoped by now to see signals in the data that we were turning the corner on forest loss," Seymour said, as Mongabay reported. "We don't see that signal yet, and in fact, we're heading in the wrong direction."
"Globally, we are far off track and trending in the wrong direction."
The analysis focuses on tropical forests because more than 96% of human-caused deforestation takes place there and because primary tropical rainforests are especially important for protecting biodiversity and regulating both the global climate and local temperature and weather patterns—temperatures near newly deforested areas can increase by twice the amount forced upward by the climate crisis alone.
The update found that the world lost an area of these essential forests the size of Switzerland at a rate of 11 soccer fields per minute. That's over 1 million hectares more than it should have to meet the global goal of halting deforestation by 2030, the WRI's Rod Taylor said, as BBC News reported.
"Globally, we are far off track and trending in the wrong direction," Taylor said.
This could have serious consequences for both forest communities and efforts to limit global heating to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels. Already, the world would be around 0.5°C warmer without forests, Mongabay pointed out.
"Since the turn of the century, we have seen a haemorrhaging of some of the world's most important forest ecosystems despite years of efforts to turn that trend around," Global Forest Watch director Mikaela Weisse said at a press briefing reported by AFP. "We are rapidly losing one of our most effective tools for combating climate change, protecting biodiversity, and supporting the health and livelihoods of millions of people."
In some instances, it is possible that policy shifts have not had the time to take root and sprout in the data. Brazil, for example, led the world for deforestation at 43% of the world total. It saw 15% more forest loss in 2022 than 2021 and the highest level of non-fire-caused tree loss since 2005.
However, the 2022 data reflects the last year of the administration of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, whose policies encouraged deforestation by decreasing protections for the environment and Indigenous rights, the report authors noted.
Bolsonaro lost the 2022 election to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who succeeded in significantly curbing deforestation during his previous term. Lula, who was sworn in in early 2023, has now promised to end deforestation by 2030.
"This will not be an easy task, with some officials cautioning that there may not be visible progress until 2024 at the earliest as enforcement agencies are re-equipped and re-staffed and illegal activities investigated," the report authors observed.
"As a consumer of the products that we export, the international community needs to not be buying products that come from deforested lands."
Catarina Jakovac, a biologist at Brazil's Federal University of Santa Catarina, told DW that Lula—and Brazil—needed support to protect the Amazon.
"As a consumer of the products that we export, the international community needs to not be buying products that come from deforested lands," she said.
Seymour also added that, while it may take policies around the world some time to kick in, finance from wealthier countries for anti-deforestation measures is not where it needs to be.
"Collectively we don't seem to be addressing the problem as the planetary emergency that it truly represents," Seymour said, according to Mongabay.
Other countries that saw noticeable deforestation in 2022 were DRC and Bolivia, which lost the second and third most after Brazil respectively. In DRC, forest loss is complicated and often driven by poverty as people clear forest for charcoal and subsistence farming.
"Investments to lift people out of poverty and reduce reliance on a resource-based economy are urgently needed," the report authors wrote.
In Bolivia, meanwhile, government policy that favors commodity agriculture—especially soy—encourages tree cutting. The government offers land titles to farmers who clear their own plot.
"The standing forest isn't seen as fulfilling any social or economic function," Marlene Quintanilla, a research director at nonprofit the Fundación Amigos de la Naturaleza, told The New York Times.
Ghana broke records with its deforestation rates, with forest loss increasing in the country by 71%, the highest increase of any nation. The losses were mostly in protected areas and linked to cocoa farming, gold mining, and fires.
One positive data point came from southeast Asia, where government and corporate policy seems to be successfully curbing deforestation. In Indonesia, which led the way for reducing forest loss, the government has promised that its land use will generate a net carbon sink by 2030 and banned new logging in palm oil plantations in 2019, according to the report and BBC News. In Malaysia, rates of forest loss have also stayed low in recent years, with a majority of the palm oil industry signing on to No Deforestation, No Peat, and No Exploitation (NDPE) commitments.
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Biden Accused of Breaking Key Climate Pledge After Ex-Im Bank Backs Indonesia Oil Refinery
"This dirty refinery would threaten the air, land, and water of communities in Indonesia, making a mockery of Biden's purported commitment to environmental justice," said one climate campaigner.
May 12, 2023
Climate groups accused President Joe Biden of violating his pledge to end public financing for international fossil fuel projects after the U.S. Export-Import Bank voted Thursday to approve a $99.7 million loan for an Indonesian oil refinery.
The Export-Import Bank's (EXIM) board of directors, chaired by Biden appointee Reta Jo Lewis, said the loan would "support facility expansion and fuel efficiency and safety upgrades" at a Balikpapan refinery run by Pertamina, Indonesia's state-owned oil company.
Lewis said the expansion project—which has drawn vocal opposition from U.S. and Indonesian civil society organizations—would also "support hundreds of U.S. jobs at dozens of manufacturers across the country, and allow Indonesia to substantially reduce its reliance on imported, refined transportation fuels."
But climate organizations aren't buying the bank's claims about the supposed benefits of funding the oil refinery expansion, a move that runs directly counter to Biden's 2021 vow to end new financing for overseas fossil fuel projects. The decision to approve the funding came less than a month after EXIM briefly backed off its plan to support the nearly $100 million loan in the face of outrage from environmentalists.
"Biden's claims to be a climate leader are increasingly laughable after EXIM's approval of this refinery," Adam McGibbon, public finance strategist at Oil Change International, said in a statement Friday. "Biden has broken the most significant climate promise the United States made at the 2021 Glasgow climate conference."
Kate DeAngelis, international finance program manager at Friends of the Earth U.S., said Thursday that EXIM's support for the refinery expansion "thumbs its nose at Biden's pronounced need for responsible climate action, and his commitment in Glasgow to end overseas fossil fuel finance."
"This project is disastrous enough and yet continues to be a high risk of fires and spills that will harm local communities and the environment," said DeAngelis. "While President Biden is putting forward policies to address climate change, he is financially backing climate disasters through the Export-Import Bank."
Bloomberg reported Thursday that EXIM's financing is "set to help bolster gasoline production by 101,000 barrels per day at the PT Kilang Pertamina Balikpapan Petroleum Refinery." The loan's approval marked "the first major EXIM bank decision on a fossil fuel project since Biden became president and promised to curb such public funding support," the outlet noted.
Facing backlash over EXIM's move, the Biden White House tried to distance itself from the vote.
"EXIM made an independent decision to approve the loan under its authorities and its decision does not reflect administration policy," said National Security Council spokesperson Adam Hodge, who insisted the White House "stands by its commitment to end new direct public support for the international unabated fossil fuel energy sector."
EXIM has long been criticized for funneling public money to the fossil fuel industry amid the worsening climate emergency.
Friends of the Earth and Oil Change International noted in a report last year that "fossil fuels dominate EXIM's energy portfolio," pointing to the bank's approval of "one of the largest transactions in its history for [liquefied natural gas] in Mozambique in 2019 (and then revised in 2020)."
"Since then," the report continued, "EXIM has continued to approve support for troubling projects, including Pemex, the Mexican oil and gas company with a terrible worker safety and environmental record that led to an ocean inferno and massive methane leak, and Freeport LNG, which involved a lender that quickly collapsed after the EXIM deal and a recent explosion created a 450-foot fireball."
In a letter to EXIM board members earlier this year, Friends of the Earth U.S. and Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia—both affiliates of Friends of the Earth International—warned against any U.S. support for the Balikpapan refinery, citing the "the high risk of fires and oil spills and the negative impacts on the local communities and climate."
"As the main purpose of the refinery is to produce gasoline and diesel," the letter added, "EXIM support for this project would be in violation of President Biden's climate executive orders and plans, as well as his commitment in Glasgow to end public support for the international fossil fuel projects."
EXIM's vote came as the Biden administration continued to face backlash for greenlighting the Willow project and other major drilling initiatives that will undercut lagging efforts to rein in planet-warming carbon emissions.
"Lending his support to devastating fossil fuel development like the Willow oil project, Alaska LNG, Gulf Coast exports, and the Mountain Valley Pipeline is bad enough," Collin Rees, Oil Change International's U.S. program manager, said Friday.
"But this [EXIM financing] approval shows the United States is committed to doing the fossil fuel industry's bidding in all corners of the world," Rees added. "This dirty refinery would threaten the air, land, and water of communities in Indonesia, making a mockery of Biden's purported commitment to environmental justice."
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