Hello readers,

Welcome to #ClimateJusticeThursday on CleanbuildVoices!

Climate change is dominating almost every online and offline conversation, and setting the tone on how individuals, corporates, governments, and civil society interact with their environment and one another.

In all of these conversations, climate activists have been at the front lines ensuring that mankind, especially indigenous communities, as well as the environment, get justice.

However, some of these climate activists are under increased pressure and attacks, not only from the side of the polluting companies who feel they are getting in the way of their damaging activities but also from individuals who are climate deniers as well as governments who set laws that criminalize their activities.

According to a report by Global Witness, a watchdog group, an average of four activists have been killed each week since the Paris Agreement on climate change was signed in 2015. The report further stated that not less than 212 environmental campaigners worldwide were murdered in 2019, making that year the deadliest on record for such activists.

Similarly, a report to the Human Rights Council by Mary Lawlor who is the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders discovered that one in every two human rights defenders who were killed in 2019 had been working with communities around a number of issues, one of which was related to the environment.

These attacks don’t just stop there. In fact, the internet, despite being important for a number of things in the climate cause like organizing climate activism and awareness, is being used to bully activists.

Climate activists, as well as women leaders who support climate action, are being bullied online with increasing regularity as was the case of Greta Thunberg and Txai Suruí.

According to a UN report that was published in 2021, some of the online disinformation campaigns targeted at climate activists can be traced back to fossil fuel companies, financial institutions, and in some cases, serving politicians.

What this means for climate activists especially in the global south where human rights protection is almost non-existent is that they risk being jailed or becoming exposed to violent attacks and even death.

While these online and offline harassments may not deter some of these environmental campaigners from championing the climate cause, there is no denying that they can and are having a toll on some of them personally and on their work.

It is time for the world to protect the protectors. Human rights laws must be upheld and governments must ensure that any malicious acts against them are prevented.

Protecting them is not just the right thing to do but crucial for a safe, functional, and resilient community and planet.