View full report here. For interviews contact media@civicus>.org.
JOHANNESBURG – Governments and big polluters have shifted their tactics from denying climate science to repressing climate activism, with industrialised global north countries escalating clampdowns on climate protesters in 2023, the global civil society alliance CIVICUS announced in a new report Thursday.
In its 13th annual State of Civil Society Report, CIVICUS shows that the targeting of climate activism was a global phenomenon in 2023, from a Europe-wide crackdown on climate activists to Emirati authorities restricting civil society during COP28 to Uganda’s arrests of protesters against the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline.
“Our research over the last year shows that when it comes to climate, repression is the new denial,” said Andrew Firmin, who co-authored the report and leads CIVICUS research into climate activism. “With time running out to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, governments and big polluters should work with climate activists rather than trying to silence them.”
The State of Civil Society Report assesses activism around the world in 2023 and analyses the year’s events from a civil society perspective. The report is based on over 250 interviews and articles published by CIVICUS covering over 100 countries and territories.
Besides its findings on climate activism, the report details civil society’s role in responding to conflict, reforming the global governance system, protecting democracy and expanding gender rights.
“Throughout 2023, civil society offered workable, people-centered solutions to the world’s most pressing problems,” said Mandeep Tiwana, CIVICUS Chief Officer of Evidence and Engagement. “But time and again, global institutions and leaders preferred to sideline activists rather than work with them to achieve positive change. If humanity is to overcome today’s multiple overlapping crises, civil society must have a seat at the table.”
Regarding climate, one of the most alarming trends in the report is the growing repression of climate activists in global north countries that are home to vibrant protest movements.
In the USA, police in Atlanta shot and killed activist “Tortuguita” who was resisting the planned destruction of a vital forest to make way for a police-training facility.
In Europe, German authorities used anti-organised crime laws to target the Last Generation direct action movement, including surveilling communications, raiding homes, seizing laptops and freezing bank accounts. Police also violently evicted protesters against a coalmine expansion.
In the Netherlands, police fired water cannon and detained around 2,400 people during a protest against fossil fuel subsidies. Italian activists complained about increasing pressure from the new far-right government, which introduced legislation targeting civil disobedience climate protests.
Meanwhile, UK police used new laws restricting protest rights to jail demonstrators demanding an end to fossil fuel use. Numerous Australian states also passed anti-protest laws to target and jail peaceful climate activists.
“The crackdown on climate movements in industrialised countries must stop,” said Firmin. “It is a dangerous obstacle to addressing the climate crisis. It also threatens long-cherished rights of expression, assembly and association.”
Despite the repression, climate activists scored numerous wins in 2023 thanks to persistent and creative action from blocking roads to disrupting high-profile events. At COP28, intense civil society pressure throughout the year resulted in states acknowledging the need to cut fossil fuel emissions.
Legal action also emerged in 2023 as a successful front for climate action, with court victories in Belgium, Germany, and the US state of Montana, where young activists won a suit alleging government support of fossil fuels violated their right to a healthy environment.
“Repression is intensifying, but civil society isn't giving up, and without it, the climate situation would be a lot worse,” said Firmin. “Activists must keep growing their movements and pushing leaders to act now given the scale of the climate crisis.”
