Global Witness

Global climate leaders including Ban Ki-moon, Christiana Figueres and Mary Robinson, among many others, have joined our calls to overhaul the UN climate process in an urgent letter to Member States of the UN and Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, the body in charge of climate negotiations. This is big. We, along with the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition, have campaigned for years to remove big polluters from UN climate negotiations. Now, this powerful letter adds momentum to our campaign. The letter follows our undercover investigation where we revealed how Azerbaijan used its position as host of COP29 to facilitate discussion of new fossil fuel deals at the annual climate conference. And today we revealed that 1773 fossil fuel lobbyists have been granted access to COP Azerbaijan. The letter’s signatories propose seven key reforms to ensure a COP that can deliver on agreed climate commitments and ensure the urgent energy transition and phase-out of fossil fuels, including strict eligibility criteria to exclude countries who do not support the transition away from fossil energy. It is critical that this call for reform is heard because we're running out of time. https://lnkd.in/eJZ9czsD

🚨 #COP29: Big Polluters are taking over 🚨 As part of the #KickPollutersOut coalition, our team spent three days combing through the provisional list of participants for COP29 line-by-line, and what we found is alarming. 🌍💔 💥 At least 1773 fossil fuel lobbyists have been granted access to the COP29 summit in Baku. 💥 The number of fossil fuel lobbyists at COP29 outnumbers the delegates from the 10 most climate-vulnerable nations combined. 💥 Some countries brought big polluters like Eni and Enel as part of their delegation. These findings show just how much the fossil fuel industry is drowning out the voices of those who should be at the table—the frontline communities who are suffering the worst impacts of the climate crisis. Instead, many polluters have turned COP into somewhere they try to do oil deals, while millions suffer from climate breakdown. 💸 It's clear that those who caused the crisis cannot be trusted to fix it. 🚫 It’s time to Kick Big Polluters Out and demand that the UN ban corporate sponsorship at COP. 🛑 #COP29 #ClimateJustice #FossilFuels #COP #ClimateAction #UNClimateTalks #BigPolluters #ClimateCrisis

⚠️ The EU’s landmark anti-deforestation law has taken another hit The #EUDR would prevent products grown on deforested land from being imported and exported in the EU. 🇪🇺 But instead of coming into effect next month, it now won’t be until the end of 2025. Every day this vital forest protection law is delayed is a day we can’t afford. 🔥 The world is losing forests at a frightening rate, as climate-linked extreme weather becomes ever deadlier and more destructive. A 12-month delay could drive at least 150,385 hectares of deforestation, an area more than fourteen times the size of Paris, according to our analysis. 🌳 But that’s not the only threat posed by the delay. 🪚 MEPs also proposed a new loophole which would severely undermine the law’s ability to protect forests. An amendment led by the European People’s Party would effectively allow products grown on deforested land to still enter the EU without any checks. ❌ Thankfully, the new loophole is not guaranteed to be part of the new law, as it will need to be negotiated with the European Commission and Council. ✊ That means now is the time for action. The law may be delayed, but now we must fight to make sure it doesn’t get watered down. https://lnkd.in/euNi6v55

Feeling disheartened by #COP29? Want to help change things? 🚨We're looking for someone to lead our team of investigators to deliver impactful and credible investigations which help expose the power of the fossil fuel industry. You will be responsible for building strategic, innovative and focused investigations, followed by strategic storytelling and collaborative advocacy to ensure they create the change we need at this critical time. 👉 Find out more: https://lnkd.in/env4X7yQ

This week is the #COP29 climate talks. But people visiting cop29.com may be in for a shock. 🤯 That’s because we have taken over cop29.com to demand that fossil fuel companies pay up for their role in the climate crisis. Backed by celebrities, activists and campaign groups including Aisling Bea, Mary Robinson and Mikaela Loach, we’re calling for Big Oil to pay up for the destruction they have helped cause and profited from. 🌍 It’s been a brutal year for climate impacts – from catastrophic floods in Brazil; to a series of deadly mega storms on the Atlantic coast; to record-breaking heat that killed thousands of people. But who deserves most of the blame for our increasingly chaotic climate? That’s easy: the fossil fuel industry. 🛢️ 🔥 Oil, gas, and coal account for nearly 90% of C02 emissions, which are cooking the planet and supercharging extreme weather events. 🔥 Some fossil fuel majors were told this would happen decades ago, by their own scientists. But they ignored these warnings, funded campaigns of climate denial and lobbied governments to delay climate action and keep their profits flowing. Luana, an Indigenous climate activist from Brazil whose community was hit hard by the recent devastating floods, shared her thoughts with us: 🗣 “Everyone is afraid of the rain now,” she told us, “It’s the big companies who are responsible. They are largely to blame for global warming and climate change, so they should pay more.” It’s time to make fossil fuel companies pay up for some of the damage they’ve done. In 2022 alone the oil and gas industry made 4 trillion dollars in pre-tax profits. Imagine if instead of into their pockets, this money went to the Loss and Damage Fund, designed to help poorer nations hit hardest by climate disasters. The fund currently contains less than 0.2% of the annual cost of climate damages in developing countries. 🌐 Stand with us, visit cop29.com, and demand that Big Oil pays up. After all – they broke it, they should pay for it. Right?

We’ve all had to tell a friend or someone we love that a person influencing them doesn’t have their best interests at heart.💔 This is where we are at with #COP – ditch your toxic friends and let’s get serious about climate action, before it's too late.🌎 Over four years we have, as part of the #KickBigPollutersOut Coalition, been telling the story of how COP is awash with the toxic interests of the #FossilFuel industry. Despite this, every year our colleagues travel to the talks, engage with those attending and wait with bated breath for the outcomes. How can we have such faith and hope in a process we accuse of being influenced by the interests of an industry overwhelmingly responsible for the #ClimateCrisis?🤔 It’s because we believe in COP that we want it to be better. In terms of multilateral efforts to tackle the climate crisis it really is the only horse in town. Every year millions of people around the world look to COP in the hope that it might deliver what’s needed to get the world on a path away from climate breakdown. And it has pedigree. The agreement made at COP21 in Paris to limit global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, is still the gold standard. And whilst implementation has been a challenge, the ambition is a COP success story. So, we know what COP can do. But we also know it’s been notoriously weak on fossil fuels, a large part down to the influence this industry has wielded for decades. In the early days it may have been more obvious as these companies tried to dispute the unequivocal relationship between fossil fuels and the climate crisis. Now the tactics have shifted from outright climate denial to sponsorship and pitching to be “part of the solution”. So prevalent is this influence that it has somehow deemed appropriate to host the current and previous COPs in petrostates, where the line between politics and polluters is not so much blurred, as it is non-existent. This isn’t even to mention that last years COP President was also the Head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, a company that sought $100 billion worth of fossil fuel deals, whilst Al Jaber was fulfilling his COP duties. We do not believe that serious climate solutions can be created whilst the very room in which these decisions are being made is full to the brim of those who stand to lose out most from climate action. The world urgently needs to get off fossil fuels – the science on this is unequivocal. Yet fossil fuel companies want to carry on extracting and burning.🔥 The two are mutually exclusive, so it should be a no-brainer that a conference about climate change cannot be overrun with fossil fuel companies. And this is the message we are once again delivering to COP and the UNFCCC – the UN process that COP sits within: ➡️Be bold, be inspiring and be prepared to shut out the voices that want to keep humanity in peril. Be something we can all believe in and get behind without cynicism.

🌍 As global leaders convene at #COP29 and the #ParisPeaceForum, our new analysis has uncovered an alarming impact of the renewable energy transition. Mining for the metals needed for renewable technology is causing social unrest and violence on a global scale: 🔹 There were 334 incidents of violence or protest between 2021-2023, averaging 111 per year. 🔹 Nearly 90% of these incidents occurred in emerging and developing economies. 🔹 71-81% of mining production is controlled by companies from wealthier nations or major consumer countries. 🔹 Demand is projected to skyrocket. Between 2021 - 2028, mining for copper is estimated to increase by 25%, nickel over 75%, cobalt over 100%, lithium over 300%. Transition minerals are vital for renewable technologies, yet mining for them has sparked protests, displacement, and clashes in countries from Argentina to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Indonesia. And with the demand for these metals increasing as the transition to renewable energy gets faster, this is set to only worsen in future. The energy transition must prioritise responsibility and sustainability. Mining practices that disregard local communities and exacerbate global inequalities will ultimately undermine stability and justice. For a truly just transition, renewable energy must not come at the expense of those who are already most vulnerable to climate impacts. We need an energy future that protects both people and planet. https://lnkd.in/euQuU_cp #ClimateJustice #JustTransition #SustainableDevelopment

For many people all over the world, and of course in the US, a second Trump Presidency will be of great concern. It comes at a crucial moment in tackling the climate crisis, where the steps the world takes right now will have a critical impact on the future of the planet and its people. The election of a US President who has described climate change as a “hoax” suggests climate denialism will once again be heard in the White House. We have learned a lot from the first Trump Presidency, and we will work in coalition with civil society to continue our advocacy in the US under these more challenging circumstances.       There are many reasons to be worried, but this is why the work of organizations like Global Witness is more important than ever. We will not waver in ensuring the voices of those under immediate threat of climate change, those resisting, and everyone concerned by the biggest challenge of our times, are heard.   We stand in solidarity with everyone who is feeling anxious, concerned - or simply angry. Find hope in the fact that people still have power to change the world for the better. We will continue to expose the truth, tell the stories and change the system as we have for 30 years. There is a lot more work to do now, and we're going to need your help to face enormous challenges over the coming years. Thank you for standing with us.    Sam Dick and Dominic Kavakeb - Co-Directors of Campaigns  

📢 Join us at the Paris Peace Forum for an in-person & online event 🌍 Conflict at the Front Lines of Transition Minerals 📅 Date: November 12, 2024 ⏰ Time: 2:30 PM CET 📍 Location: OECD Conference Centre, Paris, Room CC2 As the demand for critical minerals like cobalt, lithium, copper, and nickel surges, so do the stakes for communities in mineral-rich regions. Join us and community voices from the frontlines for a discussion on the violence and social unrest linked to transition mineral mining. 🔗 Register Now: https://lnkd.in/eEEiKn6w We will share findings from our new report which reveals that nearly 90% of over 300 incidents in 19 countries of mining-related protests, violence, and deaths occurred in developing economies between 2021 and 2023, while wealthier nations reap the rewards of the energy transition. This conversation is critical to shaping a fair, just, and responsible global energy transition. Governments, businesses, and civil society must come together to protect human rights and prevent further injustices as we move towards decarbonisation.

We're just one week away from #COP29. As the world's largest climate conference looms, we see the effects of the climate crisis increasingly. Here's what we need from COP29: 1. No more petrostate-COPs ❌ First, the UAE used its Presidency of COP28 to boost its fossil fuel deals. Now it looks like COP29 hosts Azerbaijan might be borrowing from the same playbook. This is a worrying pattern. We must stop petrostates from hijacking COP for profit. 2. Kick polluters out of COP 🛢️ Trade deals aren’t just being made by the host country but by the hundreds of polluter lobbyists attending COP. Fossil fuel lobbyists shouldn’t be allowed at the COPs – they have a proven track record of slowing down climate action. Instead negotiators need to listen to those most severely affected by the climate crisis. 3. It’s #PaybackTime for polluters 💸 Right now, it’s everyday people who are paying the cost of climate breakdown. They’re paying for wildfires, droughts and storms with their money and with their lives. Fossil fuel companies – the ones fuelling climate chaos – should be the ones to pay. Oil, gas and coal account for nearly 90% of carbon dioxide emissions. We want governments to force Big Oil to pay up, to help rebuild, protect, and pay for some of the damage they’re causing. 4. Curb the spread of climate disinformation online 📱 If we are to tackle the climate crisis, we must address that big tech corporations are profiting from creating an online world that is divisive and filled with disinformation, including false information about climate breakdown. Big Tech needs to create online spaces that are conducive to finding a global consensus on climate action, rather than driving us apart. 5. A just energy transition for all 🍃 We need a transition to renewable energy, but this energy transition mustn't come at the expense of people - especially those already suffering the most from climate change. Mining for transition minerals must be done responsibly and sustainably and involve the communities