Published

10 months ago

May 1, 2025

Alice Rush

Anabella Rosemberg is senior advisor on Just Transition at Climate Action Network International (CAN-I).

This May Day, the battle lines are clear: workers’ rights and climate justice must stand together – or we will all fall together.

Jobs or the environment? For too long, politicians and corporations have framed the conversation as a false choice. Too often, environmentalists were lured into that same trap – crafting climate strategies aimed at convincing the privileged, while working people, especially those in polluting industries, were sidelined. Solidarity existed in moments, but the struggles for climate justice and labour rights ran on parallel tracks.

Then came an idea that reshaped our movements: Just Transition.

This Australian coal community is co-designing its own green future

Born in the US labour movement in the 1970s, Just Transition began as a simple, urgent demand: no worker should have to choose between a pay cheque and their health. Since then, it has grown into a global framework recognised by the International Labour Organization and the Paris Agreement, linking climate ambition to dignity, rights and economic justice. But on the ground, the promises remain far from reality.

This week, a new call for help reached us.

Court backs Colombian coal workers

The Colombian unions SINTRAMINERGETICA and SINTRACARBÓN have raised the alarm over Glencore’s conduct in Cesar and Magdalena, where the mining multinational is shutting down coal operations through its subsidiary Prodeco. More than 1,200 direct workers and 5,000 contractors have already been dismissed since 2020, as the company handed back its mining licenses in the country’s first “Just Transition” pilot zone.

Despite posting $10.6 billion in profits last year, Glencore has been accused of conducting only a single, superficial community meeting before walking away – prompting Colombia’s Constitutional Court to rule that it violated due process and failed to properly consult affected communities. The court has now ordered the company to reopen talks with more than 20,000 impacted people across four municipalities.

Critics argue the company is rushing the coal closure to cut costs, sidestepping the comprehensive social, environmental and labour measures a true just transition would require. Without proper investment, it is Colombian workers and communities – not Glencore – who will be left to bear the long-term costs.

This injustice is not isolated.

Spain shows the way

From Mpumalanga in South Africa to East Kalimantan in Indonesia, from Katowice in Poland to Cesar in Colombia, corporations are abandoning the very communities that built their wealth – sometimes even daring to call it climate leadership.

Transitions are happening without justice – without workers, without communities, without dignity. But none of this is inevitable. Deciding who designs and who pays the cost of the transition is a political choice.

But many countries, especially in the Global South, do not have such resources, nor the chance to diversify their economies. Without international support, they will be left behind.

Coal-reliant South African provinces falling behind on just transition

Examples of a different path are already out there. When a coal phase-out was decided, the Spanish government forced negotiations with trade unions, delivered sweeping support plans, and mobilised EU resources through the Just Transition Mechanism.

We will stand with our brothers and sisters in Colombia and all those on the frontlines of the transition. However, playing whack-a-mole with each crisis, site by site, is no strategy. We need something bigger. We need a global plan for Just Transition.

Time for a Global Just Transition Mechanism

Two years ago, at the UN climate talks, governments created the Just Transition Work Programme – a breakthrough for embedding social justice into climate action. Despite setbacks – especially at COP29 in Baku – the Work Programme still holds transformative potential.

Now, as we look toward COP30 in Brazil, the stakes could not be clearer.

At COP30, governments must act. They must agree that Just Transition policies – social protection for those losing their jobs and income, re-skilling, community investment, cleaning up polluted areas – are not optional extras, but fundamental to real climate ambition and justice.

After Baku setback, activists call for ‘just transition’ to be front and centre at COP30

They must launch a Global Just Transition Mechanism: to coordinate efforts internationally; to channel support to countries without the means to act alone; and to ensure true accountability and community participation. They must commit to the inclusion of workers, unions, civil society and impacted communities, to diversify economies and to produce real sectoral transition plans.

Ideas can be powerful drivers of change. And Just Transition is one of those ideas. But we must protect it from being hijacked by those who seek to delay climate action under its name, and from corporations that try to greenwash exploitation.

Movement rising for COP30

The enemies of Just Transition wear two masks: one, the face of denial and delay, bankrolled by fossil fuel interests; the other, the smiling face of companies across all sectors who talk about “green growth” while sacrificing workers on the altar of market logic. Both serve the few – and betray the many.

The only path forward lies with the majority: the workers, the communities, the people who today commemorate the Martyrs of Chicago (who were wrongly convicted of murder when they opposed their city’s elite businessmen) and the long, unfinished struggle for dignity and rights. It is only with these working people that we will build a just, livable future. Now is the time to put people and planet before private profit.

The mainstream media may not fully capture it yet. But a movement for Just Transition is rising. Trade unions, social movements, environmentalists, working people – we are converging. And our next fight will be at COP30 in Brazil: a fight for workers and communities.

This May Day, the call is clear: green must be just – or it will not be green at all. COP30 will find us united, fighting for dignity for all on a living planet.

The post On May Day, workers are calling – and climate activists must answer appeared first on Climate Home News.

On May Day, workers are calling – and climate activists must answer

Climate Change

A Tiny Caribbean Island Sued the Netherlands Over Climate Change, and Won

Published

7 hours ago

February 28, 2026

Alice Rush

The case shows that climate change is a fundamental human rights violation—and the victory of Bonaire, a Dutch territory, could open the door for similar lawsuits globally.

Interview by Paloma Beltran, Living on Earth

From our collaborating partner Living on Earth, public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by Paloma Beltran with Greenpeace Netherlands campaigner Eefje de Kroon.

A Tiny Caribbean Island Sued the Netherlands Over Climate Change, and Won

Climate Change

Greenpeace organisations to appeal USD $345 million court judgment in Energy Transfer’s intimidation lawsuit

Published

12 hours ago

February 28, 2026

Alice Rush

SYDNEY, Saturday 28 February 2026 — Greenpeace International and Greenpeace organisations in the US announce they will seek a new trial and, if necessary, appeal the decision with the North Dakota Supreme Court following a North Dakota District Court judgment today awarding Energy Transfer (ET) USD $345 million.

ET’s SLAPP suit remains a blatant attempt to silence free speech, erase Indigenous leadership of the Standing Rock movement, and punish solidarity with peaceful resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline. Greenpeace International will also continue to seek damages for ET’s bullying lawsuits under EU anti-SLAPP legislation in the Netherlands.

Mads Christensen, Greenpeace International Executive Director said: “Energy Transfer’s attempts to silence us are failing. Greenpeace International will continue to resist intimidation tactics. We will not be silenced. We will only get louder, joining our voices to those of our allies all around the world against the corporate polluters and billionaire oligarchs who prioritise profits over people and the planet.

“With hard-won freedoms under threat and the climate crisis accelerating, the stakes of this legal fight couldn’t be higher. Through appeals in the US and Greenpeace International’s groundbreaking anti-SLAPP case in the Netherlands, we are exploring every option to hold Energy Transfer accountable for multiple abusive lawsuits and show all power-hungry bullies that their attacks will only result in a stronger people-powered movement.”

The Court’s final judgment today rejects some of the jury verdict delivered in March 2025, but still awards hundreds of millions of dollars to ET without a sound basis in law. The Greenpeace defendants will continue to press their arguments that the US Constitution does not allow liability here, that ET did not present evidence to support its claims, that the Court admitted inflammatory and irrelevant evidence at trial and excluded other evidence supporting the defense, and that the jury pool in Mandan could not be impartial.[1][2]

ET’s back-to-back lawsuits against Greenpeace International and the US organisations Greenpeace USA (Greenpeace Inc.) and Greenpeace Fund are clear-cut examples of SLAPPs — lawsuits attempting to bury nonprofits and activists in legal fees, push them towards bankruptcy and ultimately silence dissent.[3] Greenpeace International, which is based in the Netherlands, is pursuing justice in Europe, with a suit against ET under Dutch law and the European Union’s new anti-SLAPP directive, a landmark test of the new legislation which could help set a powerful precedent against corporate bullying.[4]

Kate Smolski, Program Director at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “This is part of a worrying trend globally: fossil fuel corporations are increasingly using litigation to attack and silence ordinary people and groups using the law to challenge their polluting operations — and we’re not immune to these tactics here in Australia.

“Rulings like this have a chilling effect on democracy and public interest litigation — we must unite against these silencing tactics as bad for Australians and bad for our democracy. Our movement is stronger than any corporate bully, and grows even stronger when under attack.”

Energy Transfer’s SLAPPs are part of a wave of abusive lawsuits filed by Big Oil companies like Shell, Total, and ENI against Greenpeace entities in recent years.[3] A couple of these cases have been successfully stopped in their tracks. This includes Greenpeace France successfully defeating TotalEnergies’ SLAPP on 28 March 2024, and Greenpeace UK and Greenpeace International forcing Shell to back down from its SLAPP on 10 December 2024.

-ENDS-

Images available in Greenpeace Media Library

Notes:

[1] The judgment entered by North Dakota District Court Judge Gion follows a jury verdict finding Greenpeace entities liable for more than US$660 million on March 19, 2025. Judge Gion subsequently threw out several items from the jury’s verdict, reducing the total damages to approximately US$345 million.

[2] Public statements from the independent Trial Monitoring Committee

[3] Energy Transfer’s first lawsuit was filed in federal court in 2017 under the RICO Act – the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a US federal statute designed to prosecute mob activity. The case was dismissed in 2019, with the judge stating the evidence fell “far short” of what was needed to establish a RICO enterprise. The federal court did not decide on Energy Transfer’s claims based on state law, so Energy Transfer promptly filed a new case in a North Dakota state court with these and other state law claims.

[4] Greenpeace International sent a Notice of Liability to Energy Transfer on 23 July 2024, informing the pipeline giant of Greenpeace International’s intention to bring an anti-SLAPP lawsuit against the company in a Dutch Court. After Energy Transfer declined to accept liability on multiple occasions (September 2024, December 2024), Greenpeace International initiated the first test of the European Union’s anti-SLAPP Directive on 11 February 2025 by filing a lawsuit in Dutch court against Energy Transfer. The case was officially registered in the docket of the Court of Amsterdam on 2 July, 2025. Greenpeace International seeks to recover all damages and costs it has suffered as a result of Energy Transfers’s back-to-back, abusive lawsuits demanding hundreds of millions of dollars from Greenpeace International and the Greenpeace organisations in the US. The next hearing in the Court of Amsterdam is scheduled for 16 April, 2026.

Media contact:

Kate O’Callaghan on 0406 231 892 or kate.ocallaghan@greenpeace.org

Greenpeace organisations to appeal USD $345 million court judgment in Energy Transfer’s intimidation lawsuit

Climate Change

Former EPA Staff Detail Expanding Pollution Risks Under Trump

Published

12 hours ago

February 28, 2026

Alice Rush

The Trump administration’s relentless rollback of public health and environmental protections has allowed widespread toxic exposures to flourish, warn experts who helped implement safeguards now under assault.

By Liza Gross

In a new report that outlines a dozen high-risk pollutants given new life thanks to weakened, delayed or rescinded regulations, the Environmental Protection Network, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group of hundreds of former Environmental Protection Agency staff, warns that the EPA under President Donald Trump has abandoned the agency’s core mission of protecting people and the environment from preventable toxic exposures.