What do you get when you cross kids with paintbrushes and a passion for environmental change? You get ‘artivism’ – a powerful blend of art and activism that can transform hearts and minds.
At Greenpeace, we are always inspired by the power of art to drive change and make a difference. We are thrilled to showcase the incredible ‘artivism’ from the students of Living School Lismore. These young artists have not only embraced the challenge of advocating for nature but have done so with creativity and passion that truly embodies the spirit of environmental stewardship.
Living School strives to offer educational opportunities that fosters and nourishes responsible citizens who make positive contributions to our world. The Middle School students engaged in Project Based Learning Units, exploring Sustainable Development Goals, real world application and a focus on halving our impact across six terms. After the second term, where all students in the school have an in-depth focus on ‘Nature’, they hosed a Nature Symposium – this year marks the second year of Middle School and their second symposium.
Last year, students developed innovations to halve environmental crimes occurring in schools. This year, they worked through the Catalyst Design Thinking Framework to respond to the evocation, ‘How can we advocate for nature through art-ivism?’. These artworks and artist statements were created over just two days, in a hack-a-thon style event, supported by a local artist, staff and cross stage groupings.
Inspiring Artworks by Students from Living School Lismore
“The students’ energy throughout the event was palpable, they are so confident in their determination to call out unsustainable practices which translated powerfully to the variety of artworks created.”
Emma Wilson – Year 8 Guardian Teacher, Living School Lismore
Evermore
Indigo and Jordy
This art piece is about SDG14: Life Below Water. It is about the environment and the future that is deserved. Not for humans, but for the nature and animals surrounding us. In this painting, you will see the animals clawing at the globe of a future that they not only want, but deserve. The globe is cracking and breaking to show that it could be close. And that the animals really need this. We are hoping this sends a message to the viewers, that society’s consumption is a big role in the prevention of the future for nature that has been tainted to something humans want.
We Choose
Stella and Marli
Pollution is slowly consuming our oceans and after a while, we will have nothing left. When we disrespect, we get left with less than we had before. ‘We Choose’ is our art piece that represents pollution and beauty. We see the ocean and think of it as an amazing place. But will it be in the future? This is what is happening to our world. We used brown to represent dirty liquid in the water, we used green to represent toxic fluids and pink because it represents the blood that will be on our hands if this continues.
We also used dots to represent the lives that will be lost. If this continues, this will be the path to humanity’s extinction. But if this stops, we will see the true beauty of this world. For the beauty, we used the sea creatures to represent how much marine life will be saved. We used the seaweed to show how much the plants under water will thrive. Be caring, love the planet.
Oil Spill
Strummer
This artwork, titled ‘Oil Spill’, addresses Sustainable Development Goal 14 and 15 which focuses on land and water. The artists chose to advocate for halving our impact to stop pollution.
This artwork highlights the critical role of art in raising awareness about environmental decline, resulting in the loss of animal, earth and plant life.
Through the use of various elements of art, the artist conveys the message of environmental awareness and stewardship. Contrasting colours are used to highlight the beauty of nature and its rapid demise.
Plastic Ocean
Kai
This artwork, titled ‘Plastic Ocean’, addresses Sustainable Development Goal 15 which focuses on marine life. The artist chose to advocate for halving our impact on the pollution of the environment. This highlights the critical role of art in raising awareness about environmental decline resulting in the loss of animal homes and lives. Contrasting colours are used to highlight the beauty of nature and draw the audience’s eye.
Eye to Eye
Marlon
This artwork, titled ‘Eye to Eye’, addresses Sustainable Development Goal 14 which focuses on cleaning plastics from the ocean and making the coral not bleached anymore. The artist chose to advocate for halving pollution. ‘Eye to Eye’ highlights the critical role of art in showing people the effects of pollution on our ocean and what we can do about it. By drawing the audience’s eye to the fish, the artist invites them to consider the importance of marine life. By positioning the contrasting elements of life and death around the outside of the eye, the audience is invited to consider our impact.
Wild Sea Turtles Consuming Jellyfish
Koco
My artwork depicts wild sea turtles consuming jellyfish but sadly, due to human impact, they end up ingesting plastic bags. The scene serves as a powerful reminder of humanity’s effects of pollution on marine life. It highlights the urgent need for sustainable practices to protect our oceans and the creators that inhabit them. By raising awareness through art, we can inspire others to take action and make a positive impact on SDG 14.
I Want In My World
Destin
The painting, ‘I Want In My World’ was created by a Living School student in Year 7 named Destin Pacanowski. The artwork addresses Sustainable Development Goal 14, which focuses on healthy creeks, lakes, oceans and rivers. Not only focusing on them being healthy but being full of life as well. The artist identifies halving pollution as a crucial step to mitigating the impact on ocean pollution.
This artwork underscores the critical role of art and raising awareness about climate change. Art-ivism has a unique ability to evoke emotions and provoke through in ways that words alone cannot. By visually depicting the effects of pollution and the major importance of sustainable practices, artists can engage viewers on a much deeper level, fostering empathy and understanding.
Through the use of various elements of arts, the artist conveys a message of environmental stewardship. Light and dark colours are embraced to show both sides of the situation in this artwork. The depth is used to show a dark night sky.
By promoting the message of reducing pollution, the artwork strives to inspire viewers to take immediate actions towards sustainability. Overall, this artwork shows a visual call to action. Embracing individuals to make continuous choices that will positively impact the environment and support those most affected by pollution all around the world.
Evacuations
Annika
This piece of artwork is called, ‘Evacuation’. It is named after what is bound to happen if we don’t change our ways. ‘Evacuation’ was carefully crafted by a proud Year 8 student of Living School. It was painted to represent the pollution Halve It goal and to evoke the 13th SDG, Climate Action.
This piece shows what we will do to nature, our home planet, it we continue down this path. The earth cannot combat our advanced machinery and corrupt wats, Nature has no weapon to fight. We pillage and plunder the very thing that gives us life. This picture is showing our fate. There is NO Planet B!
Through this art, with all its many dark shades, I wish to evoke something within the viewer, whether it is anger, sadness, pain or power, something to push them. Push them to speak for the speechless, stand for the sat, empower the powerless, because now is when our earth needs us most. If we don’t answer her call, all our fates will be sealed.
Mining Monsters
(Year 5 Student), (Year 6 Student), Lucy
This wonderful painting was created by three of the Living School’s amazing artists, (Year 5 Student), (Year 6 Student) and Lucy. Our SDG goal is number 14 – Life Below Water. Out artwork was inspired by the wonderful work that Greenpeace has done in relation to preventing deep sea mining.
The artwork explores the problem of deep sea mining where humans are wanting to extract the valuable natural resources that are found on the deep sea floor, which would destroy ecosystems that we don’t know much about yet. We are unsure of the impact this will have but prediction from the past example would suggest that this would have a negative effect.
We have used the element of shape to show that the machine is a monster to be feared of destroying sealife’s home. The element of colour has been used to show the bright life of the deep sea, even though you imagine it to be dark and frightening.
We hope our art-ivism helps the ecosystem of the deep sea to continue to thrive.
Burning Sunset
Year 5 Students
SDG 13: Climate Change/Stop burning fossil fuels
Halve It: Environment
This artwork show trees being burnt down. It shows birds dying and falling from smoke. It shows the forest turning into a desert under the setting sun.
The artist used red, orange and pink to show dryness and heat. Purple and green to show life that cannot be replaced. Black to show sadness.
The message of the artists: ‘This life can’t be replaced.’
One Day
(Year 8 Student), Allie
This work of art is called, ‘One Day’. It was made by a group of talented Australian students who attend Living School in Lismore, NSW. This art is based on SDG 12, Responsible Consumption and Production.
This art piece is about the pollution that could happen in the future and global warming. The rough state of the paint encapsulates this art piece, this distinct style showing how this matter is real. Using palette knives and plastic with acrylic paint is a match that many ised ut it hard to get right.
The elements of this art is the hape language and the depth of the deep ocean and the ice using shapes and depth, this art piece truly comes to life.
This art piece was made in protest of pollution that happens in the arctic, with grand glaciers and icebergs alike starting to melt, many may write about the diverse wildlife or the arctic circles. We hope that people realise how greedy and horrible some companies are.
The Weeping Orca
Eve, Pearl, Ashley
Three intelligent students from Living School, Eve, Pearl and Ashley, currently in Year 5 and 6, are the creators of this awesome art work. We chose SDG 14, Life Below Water. Our artwork is inspired by the National Wildlife Federation. Our Halve It focus relates to the environment.
Our artwork is intended to help the healthy orcas in captivity. Orcas are being removed from the natural environments and placed in captivity for the purpose of human entertainment. This is extremely distressing for the animals and it also affects the vital food chain. Humans need to stop taking healthy orcas out of nature and into captive homes.
We have experienced with dark contrast colours, different strategy of shade, intense levels of depth, layering different types of textures and elements that draws in the viewer and uts the viewer in the experience of the orcas in need. This is intended to make them sad.
We hope our art-ivism will make people step into action and stop people from captivating safe and healthy orcas from their natural habitats.
If we help the orcas, we save the orcas. Start acting now.
Beauty and the Barrel
Ari and Theo
This artwork, ‘Beauty and the Barrel’, was created by Ari and Theo at Living School who are in Year 5 and 8. The artwork addresses Sustainable Development Goal 14, which focuses on Life Below Water. The artist chose to advocate for halving water, which is a critical step towards minimising human impacts on water ecosystems. Oil spills and dumping oil can kill beautiful creatures in our sea, We are trying to look after our environment. We have strong feelings and are passionate for the ocean’s future.
We like fishing and snorkelling and observe amazing sea creatures. Now we see less fish, we are disappointed. Through the use of various elements of art, the artists convey a message of environmental compassion. Ocean colours make us feel calm and emphasis the beauty of the sea, the need to look after sea creatures in our hearts. Textures and a variety of colours emphasise the complexity of the ocean and its ecosystem. We have promoted awareness of keeping the ocean clean and pristine. Overall, this artwork serves as a visual recall for the urgency of rewilding and cleaning up the oceans and our planet.
Choose Your Fate
Teo, Stella and Siân
This artwork, ‘Choose Your Fate’ is by Teo, Stella and Siân of Living School Year 8 and Year 7. The artwork addresses Sustainable Development Goal 15 which is about Life on Land and Halve It Goal of environment. The artists chose to bring attention to deforestation and protecting animals.
This artwork conveys the importance of raising awareness about climate change through art. Art has a way to provoke thoughts that words alone can not do. By depicting the effects of climate change visually, you can give viewers a deeper level of understanding and empathy.
The amazing artists used line, shape, colours, texture and space to bring their painting to life. The artists focus on animal protection is shown through two extremely contrasting perspectives of a positive and negative environment.
The artwork hopes to inspire viewers to take action and protect life on our planet and minimise climate change. Due to the extreme and confronting views of the environment, the artists believe that this artwork can make a change.
Overall, this artwork encourages individuals to take action and make a positive impact on the environment to help save our home.
Our Touch
Jali and (Year 5 Student)
Do we choose rising oceans or rising actions?
‘Our Touch’ was created by two students at the Living School in Year 5 and Year 8. With the challenges of climate change becoming more apparent and the number of climate refugees increasing, this artwork advocates for Sustainable Development Goal 13, Climate Action. This artwork highlights the effects of rising sea levels caused by pollution, halving pollution is a vital step towards minimising climate change impacts.
The most visible meaning in this artwork is to raise awareness around rising sea levels. However, the underlying goal is to show people that one person can make big differences, especially in a time of crisis. The artists hope that ‘Our Touch’ brings the viewers emotions of empowerment through the uniqueness of art.
Elements of art are regularly used in this artwork. The vivid colour of the nail art draws attention to the disaster depicted. The dark sharp lines of the skyline give perspective and contrast against the vibrant but fading sun.
Promoting the message of halving pollution to reduce global warming and rising sea levels, this artwork is a form of art-ivism. With the hand decorated as the earth, the artwork hopes to show that climate change doesn’t just hurt one person, it hurts the whole world, and inspires everyone to take action.
In all, ‘Our Touch’, provides a visual call to action and empowerment. As the world continues on this negative downward spiral, we must come together to create an impact.
Earth Away
(Year 5 Student) and Sage
This artwork, ‘Earth Away’, was created by two students at Living School in Year 5 and Year 8. They address Sustainable Development Goal 13 which focuses on Climate Action. The artist chose to advocate for halving pollution which is a crucial step towards sustainability and a healthy environment.
The artwork, ‘Earth Away’, aims to promote awareness around climate action. Art has the unique ability to evoke emotions and inspire other artists. Through the use of various elements of art, blending lines, colour and texture, we promote the message of climate action. We tried to use the same colours as how they look in real life. We feel passionate about the future of our earth.
Overall, this artwork serves as a visual call to action, urging individuals to make conscious choices that will eventually help the earth if we all start now. We want to have a positive impact on our future.
Not a Perfect World
Rose, Lui, Vaan, Scarlet, Banksia
This artwork, ‘Not a Perfect World’, was created by five students at Living School in Year 5, Year 6 and Year 7. The artwork addresses Sustainable Development Goal 14, which focuses on Life Below Water. The artists chose to advocate for halving pollution, which is a crucial step towards the earth.
This artwork underscores the critical role of art raising awareness about climate change. Art has a unique ability to evoke emotions and make viewers feel passion about the painting. Through the use of various elements of art, blending the paint together and adding texture to our painting.
By promoting the message of the knowledge that there is too much pollution in the water and turtles are dying. Overall, this artwork serves as a visual call to action, uring individuals to make conscious choices that will help the environment to build a sustainable life.
Don’t Blame, Make Change
Archie and Max
The artwork, ‘Don’t Blame, Make Change’, was created by two students at Living School in Year 6. The artwork addresses Sustainable Development Goal 13, which focuses on Climate Action. The artists chose to advocate for halving pollution and waste which is a crucial step towards a healthy and sustainable ecosystems here on earth.
This artwork aims to provide awareness around critical concepts surrounding climate change and the health of our environment. Evoking emotion can be a difficult take to achieve but art can empower emotions.
Through the use of various elements of art, such as line, colour, shape and collage, we promoted the message of climate action and to stop pollution which will lead to a healthy and sustainable earth.
Overall, this artwork serves as a visual call to action, urging individuals to make conscious choices that will save the world.
Stop Being A Tosser
Linny
I created ‘Stop Being A Tosser’ with my own hand power alone. The artwork addresses SDG 6 which focuses on Clean Water and SDG 14, Life Below Water.
I chose water as my Halve It focus because I love the ocean and fishing. We will destroy the environment if we do not care for our oceans.
I have used colour to show depth and to draw attention to the issue of water pollution.
I aim to inspire viewers to save the waterways and stop being a tosser.
Wasted
Floyd and Sally
This artwork, ‘Wasted’, was created by Floyd and Sally, Year 7 and Year 8 students from Living School. We chose the SDGs 11, 13, 14 and 15 – Sustainable Cities and Communities, Climate Action, Life Below Water and Life on land. We chose to focus on pollution and environment in regards to Halve It.
We tried to evoke emotion through overwhelming the viewer with as many climate problems as we could.
Our clouds, oil and leaves are full of texture and the strong lines of the boat and buildings were designed to stand out.
Our aim was to inspire viewers to start being aware of themselves and to stop polluting and destroying the planet.
Fish Plastic Cycle
Toto and Theo
This artwork, ‘Fish Plastic Cycle’, was created by Theo and Toto, two smart Year 5 students from Living School.
The artwork focuses on SDG 13 and 14, which are Climate Action and Life Below Water. The Halve It focus is pollution and water.
We painted the cycle of throwing plastic in the water, the fish eat it, then we eat the fish.
We used elements of art to make the viewers feel emotions. We used bright colours for the plastic so it stands out. We also used big, simple shapes to create attention.
Through our artwork, we hope to inspire people to buy reusable products and not throw rubbish in the ocean.
Overall, this artwork aims to bring awareness to plastic pollution and how our actions always impact us.
More Rubbish, Less Life
Alexa and Kotomi
This artwork, ‘More Rubbish, Less Life’, was created by Alexa and Kotomi, two Year 5 students from Living School. The work addresses SDG 14 – Life Below Water and we chose to focus on Halve It – Environment.
We chose to paint a turtle half happy, half sad and what the ocean could be and what it is now.
We used colour, shade and hue to show the bright side and the dark side of this story.
Through our artwork, we hope viewers will know what the world could be if we actually tried.
I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Action!
Minnie and (Year 6 Student)
This artwork was created by Minnie and (Year 6 Student), a Year 8 and Year 6 students. We chose two Sustainable Development Goals, 13 – Climate Action and 4 – Quality Education. 13 was chosen to represent the melting ice caps killing polar bears. This is why we added the melting ice-cream, making a reflection for the earth and polar bear. 4 was chosen because it is crucial to teach everyone, especially our future generations, what is really happening to the world so that we can SCREAM for action. For Halve It, we chose environment because of our heating planet and melting ice cape.
The elements of art that we used were texture for the polar bear’s fur and rippling water. Colour to show shade and hues. All of this makes you stop and stare, inspiring the viewers to try and do something. Overall, this artwork aims to make you feel wonder and urgency to do something about our melting planet.
The Last Penguins
Loretta, (Year 8 Student) and Indi
The people involved in this creation are, Loretta, Lorien and Indi. We are addressing SDG 14, Life Below Water in this painting. Our Halve It focus is a cross between pollution and environment.
We have tried to evoke emotions in this painting by showing that the ocean is getting filled with things like oil spills, which in turn, is killing the penguins and sea life.
In the sky and the top of the wave, we have used texture, tone and colour to blend it and make it seem more real. We used very well defined shapes for penguins.
We aim to inspire viewers to donate to foundations like Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace and also to reflect on their own impact on the ocean ecosystem, which they don’t usually see in everyday life.
All in all, we aim to raise awareness of the oceans fate with this painting.
Deadfish Dominoes
Piper, Miles, Kasper, Wolfie
This piece of art titled, ‘Deadfish Dominoes’, was created by four Year 7 students, Piper, Miles, Kasper and Wolfie. This artwork was created to highlight the importance of SDGs 6 and 14. These foals focus on the health of water. 6 being Clean Water and Sanitation and 14 being Life Below Water.
This artwork showcases the disaster that took place in the Murray-Darling river, where thousands of Murray Cod floated up to the surface, dead due to the lack of oxygen. This piece also shows the steps that have been taken to get to this point. And the steps that may well be taken if we don’t change our course. Black water events, such as these, cause detrimental effects to the river, causing many plant and animal life populations to rapidly deplete, causing negative effects to the environment and sanitation of the water system.
Unstable Reality
(Year 8 Student)
This piece, ‘Unstable Reality’, was designed by a Year 8 students of Gudji. It is focused on SDG 13 Climate Action.
It shows how the world is majority industries and factories, even though we are working towards sustainability and renewables, it shows how the industry need to set fire to fossil fuels and eliminate greenhouse gasses for a greener, better world.
The Plale
(Year 8 Student)
This wonder of art was designed by a Year 8 students of Gudji at Living School. This follows a work of art-ivism of Sustainable Development Goal 14. Goal 14 is a goal dedicated to protecting and conserving our wildlife in the ocean. Many companies dedicated to work and volunteer to help them.
This texture of this artwork features a bumpy, raised body, showing that the body of the whale is made out of plastic. The background shows the polluted water because of our litter and machines. Leaving rubbish on our floor drains into our oceans and hurts our wildlife underwater.
This artwork has been through decent layers to create a shaping effect of the crumbling plastics qualities.
Ocean In A Bottle
(Year 8 Student)
This design was created by a Year 8 member of Gidji from Living School. This work of art is a work of art-ivism of SDG 14. Sustainable Development Goal 14 focuses on Life Below Water. Helping save animals and protect them from rubbish and our pollution.
This design shows our animals being trapped within our bad creations and fast fashion. Plastics like the plastic bottle the whale and jellyfish are stuck in is rubbish that has blown into our drains and washed into our oceans.
This shows materials from on land and the sea. To design this masterpiece, there were uses of paint brush strokes intricately placed to change the colours and placement of shape.
Gudji Fruit Farms
Flo
This artworks focuses on bees being killed by pesticides which is a huge problem. Bees are a huge part of life. They pollinate flowers which can bloom into fruit and vegetables. 1 in every 3 bites we get from bees. When people use pesticides and a bee lands on the flower, the pesticide infects the bee.
When the bee goes back to the hive, the entire hive can become infected, causing the bee keeper to burn the hive and all the bees inside to stop infection from spreading to other hives. Every bee who lands on a flower infected with pesticide is another life lost. You may think, so what if bees are dying? Well, as hive after hive dies, we, along with bees, creep closer to extinction.
Koala
Willow, Marley, Ryder, Banjo
We have made this artwork to show the impacts of climate change on species like koalas, mainly in southern and eastern Australia. Global warming can make bushfires that burn down koala habitats and more.
We are chopping too many trees.
Feral cats and dogs can kill native wildlife. There are unsustainable practices of forestry all around Australia.
If koala’s homes are burned or chopped down, it will force it to move to another home but what if there isn’t another home to go to and trying to get to another home means crossing roads so it could get run over?
Forestry corp has a history of doing some illegal forestry. They used to cut down habitats and trees! Why do these companies do this? We can have a house but by giving us a house you give native animals from Australia no house.
Split Rivers
Javier, Araluen, (Year 6 Student), (Year 5 Student)
This diptych artwork was made by four students from Living School in Years 5 and 6. We had two students working on each painting. We decided to split the image across two canvases to show the polarity between how the earth could be, and the way we are currently going.
Our art addresses both sustainable development goal 14 and 15, Life Below Water and Life on Land. They are linked because the health of the land impacts the water and the health of the water impacts the land. We wanted our audience to realise that our beautiful country can become a wasteland if we don’t take charge.
Overproduction of oil, chemical and rubbish pollution, land clearing and other unsustainable practices are destroying the health of our rivers. We want our artwork to inspire people to consider the effect of their choices on the land. If we don’t, we will all face the consequences.
The Silver River
Cooper
‘The Silver River’, by Year 5 student Cooper, addresses issues around waterway protection.
This artwork highlights the importance of SDG 14, Life Below Water because there is pollution and goodness.
This artwork uses glitter to add texture but also represents the glittery nail polish that impacts our waterways. It shows the oil pollution that coats animals in toxic oil forever. It also bleaches things and kills trees.
It also places importance on the Halve It goal of water, which we need to protect.
The use of lines show the flow of water.
We MUST stop the use of oil and production of cars, unless they are hybrid.
STOP WATER POLLUTION NOW!!
Fish-dom
(Year 8 Student) and Zai
This artwork was illustrated by to young 13 and 12 year old boys at Living School. The painting named ‘Fish-dom’ outlines the tench Sustainable Development Goal which focuses on Life Below Water, as in fish, crustaceans and other species of water animals and plants.
(Year 8 Student) and Zai decided to end up on Life Below Water because of the overfishing problems in Australian rivers and oceans.
Through the various elements of art and details of the painting, the illustrators centered the focus on the differences of sides, which is sustainable and unsustainable.
You Are Here
Molly and Indie
This artwork was created by Molly M in Year 5 and Indie H in Year 6. We created this artwork of a statue in Lismore in the floods. We chose it because we are sick of our community going through the same terror every year and seeing people lose so much while the government does so little. The floods of 2022 left hundreds of people homeless and some people lost family members and pets.
We want our community to understand how much rubbish we are dumping in our river and how climate change will make natural disasters words. We are commenting on SDG 13, Climate Action. We want to Singapore our leaders to realise how important it is to make change and make sure we don’t leave anyone behind.
Enclosed
Mia, (Year 7 Student) and Eavie
This artwork was created by Mia in year 7, (Year 7 Student) and Eavie in Year 8 from Living School. We are addressing waterways health and Sustainable Development Goal 14: Life Below Water. We created this artwork to show that keeping animals captive is not ok.
Removing them from ecosystems has a real negative impact on the planet, The real question is, why DO we keep animals captive? The answer is simple, for our own entertainment and greed. How would you feel is someone took you from your home where you were free to roam and put you in a tiny little box?
You aren’t just stripping the animals of a good life, you are disrupting the environment they were in. This artwork was designed to spread awareness about how the animals must feel, and make a statement about the impact of humanity’s greed.
Carbon credit developers, corporate buyers and some leading conservation NGOs are challenging new proposed rules to stop UN carbon credits being wiped out by fire, drought or logging, in what critics have called a “coordinated lobbying campaign” to weaken the nascent market’s push for greater integrity.
According to documents seen by Climate Home News – including a briefing given to government officials – companies, NGOs and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) have contested the scientific basis for the move, arguing that stronger protection for carbon reductions could hike project costs and restrict the supply of credits to the market.
The climate benefit of credits that claim to reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions by storing carbon is undone if that carbon is released back into the atmosphere – something known as reversal risk. To protect against such losses and preserve the credibility of the credits’ carbon-offsetting claims, projects are generally required to set aside a reserve of credits that cannot be sold, as a form of insurance.
How these “buffer pools” are calculated has long been a source of contention, especially in forest conservation projects, which many experts say have historically underestimated the risk of carbon losses.
In July, the technical UN panel tasked with drafting rules for the Article 6.4 mechanism, which underpins the credits that countries and companies can use to meet their climate goals, proposed a new system. It would require project developers to size these insurance pools of credits based on local risk values derived from new research published by a group of independent scientists.
UK’s budget juggling trick with rainforest loan for bus-fare cap needs transparency
Its supporters have hailed it as a more rigorous approach than current practice in the voluntary carbon market, which largely relies on expert guesswork and, in some cases, gives significant leeway for project developers to come up with their own data.
“The decision on the reversal risk assessment tool will be crucial,” said Federica Dossi, an expert at Brussels-based advocacy group Carbon Market Watch. “It would bring a new paradigm for calculating the number of units forwarded to the buffer pool based on empirical data.”
The technical panel is due to discuss the reversal risk tool and its application to a specific set of projects at a five-day meeting in Bonn this week. It is then expected to forward new recommendations to the mechanism’s regulator, the Supervisory Body, for a decision on whether to approve them at a meeting in early October.
The rules are set to be applied initially only to clean cookstove projects, one of the market’s most popular and heavily criticised credit types. They could then be extended to other activities, including programmes to protect forests.
Copy and paste?
More than 30 organisations aired their views in lengthy public submissions to the Article 6.4 mechanism, responding to a call from the UN secretariat for external feedback.
A Climate Home News review of those submissions found that there was significant overlap in their messages and, in several cases, sections of the text, or even entire submissions, were copied and pasted by different organisations. This points to a coordinated effort to flag concerns regarding the new rules.
In one instance, tech giant Apple, a large buyer of nature-based carbon credits, warned against relying on one scientific model and called for rules that let project developers use a variety of risk mitigation tools, rather than surrendering buffer credits, to cover the risk of carbon losses.
Apple’s submission is a lightly-edited version of a separate input presented by the Beyond Alliance, a coalition of corporate buyers and NGOs that promote market-based climate investments. In an apparent oversight in one paragraph, the Beyond Alliance’s name appears in Apple’s submission instead of the tech giant’s.
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The Beyond Alliance told Climate Home News that, after receiving input from its members, it shared its final submission, leaving them to decide if and how they wanted to use it. The coalition rejected any characterisation that its submission advocates for a weaker tool and only reflects business concerns.
The Beyond Alliance added that its members received briefings by UNEP, which Climate Home News understands has played an important role in wider efforts to influence the development of the rules underpinning the UN carbon market.
Three experts and a European Union diplomat told Climate Home News that the interventions of the UN agency overwhelmingly supported the views of those with a financial interest in carbon markets.
UNEP’s head of mitigation Gabriel Labbate rejected this accusation. He told Climate Home News that the UN agency contributes technical inputs from a “politically-neutral, science-based perspective” and its positions are grounded in an assessment of environmental integrity and are not shaped by, or aligned with, the financial interests of any market participant.
UNEP, NGOs criticise scientific basis
In mid-July, representatives from UNEP, Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) briefed government officials from Canada, the UK, Germany, Costa Rica, Belgium, Nigeria and Peru, according to a webinar readout seen by Climate Home News.
The online event was organised by the Forest & Climate Leaders Partnership (FCLP), an initiative that brings together 41 countries plus the EU.
The speakers voiced strong criticism of the new proposed rules. A technical advisor to Conservation International, a US-based NGO that runs several large-scale carbon offsetting programmes, told participants the Article 6 panel’s approach was “based on bad science”. This, he said, is because it relies on a single model that he claimed is not appropriate to determine buffer pool contributions, according to a presentation seen by Climate Home News.
During a high-level discussion led by UNEP’s Labbate, speakers said the application of measures to manage reversal risk on cookstove projects could “impose disproportionate costs and undermine the financial viability of these activities”, according to the readout.
Cookstove programmes issue credits by calculating the greenhouse gas emissions prevented by burning less fuel – usually wood or charcoal – through the use of more efficient stoves. With the new reversal risk tool, these activities would be expected to guard against future carbon losses for the first time under the UN carbon market.
But UNEP, as well as leading NGOs and carbon credit firms, have pushed back against the requirement, arguing this type of credit represents a “flow” of avoided emissions rather than a “stock” of stored carbon that can be released. Scientists reject that distinction, noting that the wood left unburned is still standing in a forest exposed to the same risks as any other.
At the online briefing, speakers also raised concerns that the tighter approach would be replicated for nature-based carbon projects with a direct impact on the future of large-scale forest conservation credits. The Conservation International advisor called it a “bad precedent”.
Both Conservation International and TNC run carbon credit programmes that aim to protect trees from being cut down. Labbate leads the UN-REDD programme, which supports countries developing forest protection initiatives including through carbon credits, and is co-chair of the expert panel advising the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM).
After the webinar, the organisers shared by email a series of “key messages” and draft submissions produced by the three organisations, which participants were invited to consider and adapt in their own inputs to the Article 6.4 consultation process.
Getting the rules ‘right’
In a statement to Climate Home News, Ghana, Paraguay and the UK – which are FCLP co-leads for its work on forest carbon credits – said members of the coalition welcomed expert views from a range of partners to help them understand the potential impact of Article 6.4 rules on the eligibility of forest carbon credits in international markets.
They added that the FCLP does not have a common position on the rules and its members are free to choose whether to attend webinars and use any of the materials circulated.
In a statement to Climate Home News, Conservation International said “getting these rules right is important to the environmental integrity of the carbon market, while ensuring all sectors have a place in it”. It added that the NGO does not dispute the validity of the scientific research underlying the proposed buffer pool, but recommends a broader approach including multiple models and datasets.
A spokesperson for TNC said the organisation had helped clarify complex materials and their potential implications, while decisions on how to respond remained entirely with participating countries.
‘Inconvenient science’
The scientific basis for the disputed reversal risk tool rests on two pieces of research. A peer-reviewed study, published in Nature in May and led by scientists at several US universities, modelled forest carbon-loss risk across the United States and found existing buffer pools there are undersized by an average factor of six.
To extend that approach worldwide, the Article 6.4 panel also drew on a second, global analysis by the same research team, which has not yet completed peer review. That study used satellite images, weather records and computer modelling to estimate a 31-42% chance of forests worldwide losing stored carbon within 100 years, depending on the scenario.
The panel picked one of these scenarios and turned its estimates into fixed risk percentages for individual countries, and in some cases provinces, which projects in those locations would need to apply.
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Critics say the peer-reviewed portion of the research was calibrated on North American forests, and that applying the same approach to other regions relies on a global study that is still going through academic checks.
But, for William Anderegg, professor of biological sciences at the University of Utah and one of the authors of that research, it is the best science currently available. He described it as “light-years better” than assumptions underlying the voluntary carbon market, where risk numbers are not generally based on independent evidence and tend to be incredibly low.
Scientific research, including by Anderegg, has found that buffer pools in forestry projects in the voluntary carbon market are substantially smaller than they should be to adequately protect against future releases of carbon.
“There really seems to be a fairly coordinated campaign to try to weaken the strength of these [Article 6.4] tools and their scientific underpinning,” he told Climate Home News. “It’s a little dispiriting to see folks attack science that’s inconvenient.”
Regulators under pressure?
An EU diplomat told Climate Home News that experts and negotiators working on the Article 6.4 mechanism have faced intense pressure from big carbon credit developers and large parts of the nature-based solutions community.
“It is very clear that they are lobbying against strong rules, and they want to align the Paris Agreement mechanism with the standards of the voluntary carbon market,” the diplomat said. “They have influence, time and money, even more than some governments, so they can be very effective in their efforts.”
Last year, the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body, the new market’s regulator, approved rules on the permanence of credits aiming to remove carbon from the atmosphere which critics said were watered down compared to the technical panel’s recommendations. This followed feedback from carbon market firms and conservation NGOs, which submitted dozens of critical views.
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Carbon Market Watch’s Dossi said decisions that strengthen environmental integrity are targeted in particular as they tend to reduce the number of credits that can be issued.
Then, as now, those who opposed tighter rules argued that overly strict safeguards would make some projects too expensive to carry out, with a negative impact on local communities and the climate.
But proponents argue that higher-integrity programmes will drive up market prices, ultimately benefiting everyone.
“If rules ensuring better-quality credits make them somewhat more expensive than they are today, that’s an acceptable consequence, not a reason to weaken the rules, especially since these credits will be used to offset continued emissions,” said Dossi.
Efforts to pull the rule-makers in different directions are expected to intensify in the coming weeks as a decision on the new credit protection system nears.
“I really don’t know how this will turn out in the end,” one veteran carbon market expert said. “What I am sure about is that it will be quite a battle.”
The post Industry and NGOs lobby to weaken UN carbon credit rules in “coordinated” push appeared first on Climate Home News.
Industry and NGOs lobby to weaken UN carbon credit rules in “coordinated” push
A relatively ambitious deal to reduce the shipping industry’s 3% of global emissions now looks more likely after four days of closed-door talks in London, observers say.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO), which oversees the negotiations, said there had been “constructive discussions” and “genuine willingness within the group to make concrete further progress”.
Em Fenton, senior director at the NGO Opportunity Green who attended the talks last week, said they “demonstrated a strong spirit of solidarity in the face of blatant attempts to undermine the credibility, ambition and equity of a hard-fought multilateral agreement”.
After several years of debate, governments provisionally agreed in April 2025 on a “Net-Zero Framework” (NZF) – a series of emissions reduction targets for shipowners aimed at incentivising them to use cleaner fuels, backed up with financial rewards for meeting the targets and fees for missing them.
But in October 2025, after a high-profile intervention by US President Donald Trump and threats of US sanctions and visa restrictions, the US convinced a majority of voting nations to postpone the adoption of the NZF for a year.
UCL analysis found that, of those who expressed a view at last week’s talks, 38 were in favour of an NZF-style solution while only 17 were against. Those opposed are “consistently composed of strongly fossil fuel-aligned governments”.
An observer of the talks, who did not want to be named, said the countries opposed include the US, Russia, India, Thailand, Argentina, Ecuador and Uruguay, as well as eight oil-rich Gulf nations and shipowner-reliant Liberia and Panama. Governments that support an NZF-style deal include China, Brazil, Mexico, Türkiye, Canada, Australia, Chile, nine African nations, most European countries and small islands.
A new framework to tackle shipping emissions could be adopted if two-thirds of countries that are present and signed up to a regulation called Marpol Annex VI – endorsed by just over 100 states – vote in favour of it, as they did in April 2025.
UCL’s analysis said it was “reassuring” that governments which had taken strong positions in the media against the NZF were being more compromising in the negotiations.
Tweaks are probable
While there is majority support for the NZF, UCL said adopting it would be difficult politically. “The process from here could therefore be as much about producing what appears to be a new package, but one that broadly ends up with similar outcomes in relation to objectives,” UCL argued.
But tweaking the NZF, which resulted from years of negotiations, comes with risks, it warned. For example, changes could reduce the new system’s planned support for low-income countries, turning them against it. Fenton said compromising should not mean “abandoning the principle of justice in the maritime transition”.
UCL said the speed at which shipowners must reduce their ships’ emissions or face fees is likely to be reduced in the short-term but raised in the long-term to meet a goal of net zero emissions by mid-century.
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This was a compromise put forward by NZF-supporter Brazil. However, an analysis by the the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST) has found that this change would lead to more overall emissions than the original NZF trajectory.
UCL has warned it could incentivise liquefied natural gas as a shipping fuel over greener options, which include hydrogen-based methanol and ammonia.
Analysis by UCL and the Rocky Mountain Institute suggests that, while a slower start to the NZF would reduce transport costs in the short term, it would increase them later due to the costs involved in switching the industry over from more polluting fuel to cleaner fuel.
NZF won’t meet emissions goals
IMarEst’s analysis finds that even in its current form – the most ambitious deal on the table – the NZF will not be sufficient for shipping to meet its emissions reduction goals.
It says that only a Pacific proposal to place a levy on ships’ total emissions – rather than just those above a certain level – would meet the industry’s targets to reduce emissions 20% between 2008 and 2030, 70% by 2040 and then reach net zero “by or around, i.e. close to 2050”. This is highly unlikely to be adopted.
Additional talks will be held from November 23-27 and from November 30-December 3 before a potentially final round of official negotiations begins on December 4.
The post London talks raise hopes for green shipping deal appeared first on Climate Home News.
Climate Change
At regional summit, Pacific islands ask for COP31 support for clean energy and finance
At a key leaders’ summit in Palau, Pacific island nations burdened by worsening climate change impacts and costly fossil fuel imports called for November’s COP31 climate summit to deliver finance to help the region transition to renewable energy and build more resilient communities.
Heads of government from the 18-member Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) – which includes COP31 co-president Australia – met in Palau’s capital Koror for a week-long summit, where they demanded access to climate finance, ocean action and a regional boost for renewables at COP31.
Palau’s president Surangel Whipps Jr. said during a plenary session that the Pacific must focus on delivering climate and ocean commitments. “It will require greater regional leadership, stronger regional coordination and, above all, unity of purpose,” he said.
The meeting, which ended last Friday, was marked by the absence of some leaders – among them the heads of state of the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji, which will host a preparatory session for COP31 in October (referred to as the pre-COP31). There were also tensions over Taiwan’s participation, with China objecting to its presence as an observer.
The forum’s final declaration, published after it ended and signed by all its members, reaffirms that climate change is the “single greatest threat to the security, livelihoods and wellbeing of Pacific peoples”, and notes “the importance of a focused, high-level declaration” at the pre-COP31 to build “political momentum towards COP31”.
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Palestine: Israel’s bombing has left Gaza vulnerable to climate change
With homes, hospitals and water storage destroyed, Palestine’s government says that Gazans have little protection from climate impacts and sets conditional emissions targets -
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Renewable energy could help African food businesses boost productivity and competitiveness, but the upfront cost, fragmented markets and limited financing stand in the way -
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Australia and Pacific islands have invited world leaders to attend the pre-COP31 gathering, which will be held in Fiji and Tuvalu from October 5 to 8. While usually a technical meeting for negotiators, the island nations aim to issue a political declaration at the gathering calling for strong outcomes in Türkiye.
Chris Bowen, Australia’s climate minister and COP31 president of negotiations, said in a speech during the Pacific forum that his country is “determined to use COP31 to progress the agenda to make it easier for countries to access the climate finance they need”.
“We won’t miss the opportunity to ensure COP31 is a Pacific COP. Not just because of the location of pre-COP but because of the agenda we are shaping through the Action Agenda at COP31,” he said.
The Action Agenda is a large portfolio of climate initiatives and coalitions uniting governments, businesses and civil society outside of the formal negotiations on everything from health to methane emissions.
Renewable energy investment plan
Announced a year ago, the island nations launched a $14-billion investment plan for a “100% Renewable Blue Pacific” at the forum in Palau. The plan lists strategic projects that would reduce the region’s high dependence on fossil fuel imports, whose soaring costs have become a major burden since the Iran war.
The projects include a $52-million programme managed by Australia to develop off-grid renewables in remote communities across the Pacific, as well as a $100-million blended finance fund aimed at supporting private-sector investments in wind and solar, among others.
Currently, some countries in the Pacific are spending up to a quarter of their GDP importing diesel to power electricity generation, according to a new report by the University of New South Wales in Australia. The investment plan launched at the forum aims to reduce these costs by adding 2.2 gigawatts of renewable generation and around 9 gigawatt hours of electricity storage.
To channel funds into the region, the plan also highlights the role of the recently established Pacific Resilience Facility (PRF), a regional fund that seeks to swiftly disburse funds to climate-vulnerable communities at the local level. Bowen said he would promote the facility to world leaders attending COP31 and “ask for their support”.
Call to transition away from fossil fuels
Separately, the forum endorsed the Belau Declaration which emphasises the need to keep the 1.5C Paris Agreement temperature goal alive. A UN report last week showed that overshooting this limit is now inevitable, but deep emissions cuts could still bring global temperatures back down by the end of the century.
Pacific nations expect to rally support for this declaration at the pre-COP, with Fiji’s climate minister Lynda Tabuya saying in a statement: “Palau is where we build the political mandate. Pre-COP is where we take it to the world.”
The political declaration also says that countries must accelerate the global transition away from fossil fuels “towards a renewable energy future”, and calls for greater recognition of the importance of ocean health in addressing climate change.
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As part of the forum’s outcomes in Palau, countries also noted Tuvalu’s efforts to host the second global conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels, which will gather government representatives in April next year to follow up on this year’s inaugural conference in Santa Marta, Colombia.
Speaking to journalists at the forum, Vanuatu’s climate minister Ralph Regenvanu questioned Australia’s role in talks about phasing out fossil fuels at COP31, adding that “the very least a country like Australia should be doing is stopping future expansion, and it’s not doing that”. During the PIF, the country approved the extension of a major mine that digs and exports coal for steel-making, giving it permission to keep producing until 2055.
Rising seas trigger “development emergency”
As leaders met in one of the world’s regions most threatened by sea-level rise, UN Secretary-General António Guterres released a new report warning that rising seas are now “one of the most profound threats to populations around the world in developed and developing states alike”.
Presenting the report at UN headquarters in New York, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development Navid Hanif said rising sea levels are not a “future risk any more” but an accelerating “development emergency” that could hinder progress in vulnerable regions like the Pacific and least developed countries.
The report warns that seas are rising “faster than at any point in recorded history”, with 2024 setting a new record of 5.9 millimetres. This has been driven by human-induced climate change mainly through a process known as thermal expansion – where rising heat causes the ocean to expand – as well as the melting of ice sheets.
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The report notes that about 1.2 billion people around the world are exposed to coastal flooding, and says some low-lying islands in Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Fiji are already facing forced relocations. Globally, rising seas could cost more than $1 trillion every year by 2050, it adds.
“We cannot stop sea level rise this century but we can determine how much worse it becomes. About half a metre of sea level rise is already locked in in this century because of warming that has already occurred, but beyond that our choices matter enormously,” Hanif told journalists.
Bill Hare, CEO of think-tank Climate Analytics, said the report was a “wake-up call” to the leaders of high-emitting countries that their failure to cut carbon emissions is “creating major risks for the future alongside the impacts we can already observe around us”.
Guterres is set to host a high-level meeting on addressing the threat of sea level rise this month during the UN General Assembly, where countries are expected to adopt a declaration that calls for stronger action, expanded access to finance and “ongoing dialogue” to tackle the issue.
The post At regional summit, Pacific islands ask for COP31 support for clean energy and finance appeared first on Climate Home News.
At regional summit, Pacific islands ask for COP31 support for clean energy and finance
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