Jane Fonda at a Greenpeace Premiere in the US, the OILympics in Milan, and protests against Shell and ICE, here is some of Greenpeace’s work from around the world this week.

United States – Activist and Actor Jane Fonda addresses the audience after viewing the world premiere of Gaslit.

GASLIT, Greenpeace USA’s first feature film featuring Academy Award-winning actor and activist Jane Fonda, premieres at the 41st Santa Barbara International Film Festival on 5 February 2026. Directed by Katie Camosy, GASLIT is both a call to action and a reflection on the decades-long struggle between fossil fuel profiteering and the survival of frontline communities.

Camosy and Fonda were joined at the premiere by film participants and Texas/Gulf Coast community advocates Jenny Espino and Diane Wilson, as well as award-winning actor Connie Britton.

Italy- Hard-hitting video highlighting the absurdity of Italian oil and gas giant Eni’s sponsorship of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games, as one of the corporations stealing our winters through its planet-heating pollution.

This satirical video, created by Studio Birthplace, shows speed skaters, skiers and bobsledders racing along, with Eni logos prominent. Suddenly a trickle of oil turns into a tsunami, sweeping the athletes off their feet, causing them to slip and crash as a sea of oil washes over them.

One year of Eni’s emissions could melt enough glacier ice to fill 2.5 million Olympic swimming pools, demonstrating the corporation’s central role in the climate crisis that threatens the future viability of the Games and winter sports.

Canada – Greenpeace activists unveiled a banner saying “No Canadian Arms for ICE” at the Brampton headquarters of the Canadian company that is building armoured vehicles for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as they called on all federal Members of Parliament to support the legislation before Parliament that would tighten restrictions on arms exports.

Italy – Greenpeace Italy activists took action in front of Milan’s Duomo to protest ENI, a major partner of the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games. Its uncontrolled emissions are fueling the climate crisis, threatening the survival of glaciers and snowpack, and thus the Winter Olympics themselves. Activists placed an artifact depicting the Olympic rings soaked in oil, illustrating how polluting companies are also polluting the Olympic Games with their greenwashing.

United Kingdom – Greenpeace UK activists stage a protest outside Shell’s London HQ, holding giant figures comparing Shell’s annual profit with the UK’s 2025 bill for damages caused by extreme weather following the oil giant’s profit announcement.

United Kingdom – Greenpeace activists take over a billboard in London in solidarity with American citizens impacted by ICE, drawing the parallel to the climate crisis; as the climate breakdown is already the leading driver of migration worldwide.

Greenpeace has been a pioneer of photo activism for more than 50 years, and remains committed to bearing witness and exposing environmental injustice through the images we capture.

To see more Greenpeace photos and videos, visit our Media Library.

If you’ve been following global climate and finance politics lately, you’ll have noticed a strange contradiction.

On the one hand, governments keep telling us we need more climate finance, fairer taxation, and new public resources to deal with climate breakdown, inequality and crumbling public services. On the other hand, when it comes to the one global forum designed to actually fix international tax rules – the UN Tax Convention – that bold ambition doesn’t translate.

These negotiations, currently underway in New York, present a unique chance to hold corporate tax avoiders and polluters accountable, unlocking trillions in public funds for climate action, nature protection, and vital public services. Instead of rising to that moment, however, the process risks failing to deliver the transformative change many countries are calling for.

Same governments. Same problems. Very different energy. So what’s going on?

Principles everywhere, commitments nowhere

The latest draft of the UN Tax Convention includes articles on sustainable development and taxing high-net-worth individuals (HNWI). That’s good news. A few years ago, neither would even have made it into the room.

But here’s the catch: they’re still written mostly as ‘principles’, not commitments.

The sustainable development article remains declaratory. It acknowledges that tax cooperation should support social, economic and environmental goals, without spelling out how, or what kinds of mechanisms would be needed to deliver them. No change to this article since the Terms of Reference were set out.

The article on high-net-worth individuals has improved on paper (it uses ‘shall’ instead of ‘agree’ now), but still stops short of what’s actually needed to tax extreme wealth effectively and fairly.

In short: governments agree that something should happen, but appear reluctant when it comes to the details of how to actually make it happen. That’s like agreeing to catch smugglers, but banning customs from opening the luggage.

The paradox no one wants to name

This is where things get awkward.

In other international forums (COP30, G20, FfD4 to name a few examples), many of the same governments are already making much bolder statements. For example:

• Calling for progressive environmental taxation,
• Demanding new climate finance sources,
• Warning about the social and political risks of inequality,
• and even (occasionally) saying the words ‘tax extreme wealth’ out loud.

In 2025, at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Seville, Spain, governments committed to improving tax cooperation and transparency, explicitly referencing progressive taxation to fund social protection and integrate undeclared wealth, and in written submissions, countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Germany, France, Spain and Sierra Leone have explicitly supported stronger cooperation on HNWI taxation in the UN process. Many African countries, including Zambia and Nigeria, have repeatedly highlighted in their plenary interventions how our broken global tax system undermines development and climate action. 

Since the UN Tax Convention negotiations began in 2025, at least 17 countries have made supportive statements for more detail to be added on the issue of sustainable development,  several of whom have explicitly endorsed inclusion of environmental taxation and the polluter pays principle.

And yet, when negotiations move from statements to drafting, ambition narrows. Not all elements raised in countries’ submissions find their way into the Chair’s text, and several governments continue to defer to high-level, non-committal language. Political choices are reframed as technical questions by some countries, while the potential of the Convention to support climate action and sustainable development through tax policy remains underexplored. Issues with clear distributional complexities are quietly treated as beyond the Convention’s scope.

Sovereignty: the most misused word in the room

Whenever ambition stalls, one word inevitably appears: sovereignty.

We’re told that taxing the super-rich is a domestic issue. That coordinated standards on taxing polluters would infringe national autonomy. That global rules somehow threaten democratic choice.

But here’s the inconvenient truth: there is nothing sovereign about a tax system you can’t enforce.

Here’s the problem: in today’s world, money, profits, and assets move faster than national laws, often through loopholes and tax havens, and across borders, while information about these assets does not. Countries trying to take action alone end up competing with each other, lowering standards, and losing billions in the process. These are funds that could have supported climate finance and sustainable development.

Real sovereignty isn’t the right to say “no” alone. It’s the ability to withstand pressure together to enforce rules that protect public resources and the planet. This is why we need global tax reform.

Why the UN Tax Convention matters more than ever

We’re living through a rupture, not a transition.

The old era of club-based tax governance (dominated by a handful of rich OECD countries) is cracking under its own contradictions. At the same time, multilateralism itself is under attack, with institutional deadlock and unilateral action increasingly replacing cooperation, from the UN Security Council to climate negotiations.

That’s precisely why the UN Tax Convention matters. It’s the only forum in international tax governance where every country has a seat, decisions aren’t hostage to unanimity, and tax cooperation can be anchored in sustainable development, not just capital mobility.

In short: it’s the one place where we can move from fair taxation by permission to fair taxation by right.

Hey reader, if you’ve reached this point it means this is a topic you’re really interested in, and we would like to know who you are, so please leave a comment below and share your thoughts!

What needs to change

If the Convention is to live up to its mandate, four things need to happen:

1. Moving beyond “exploring” coordination. On taxing extreme wealth, governments need to commit to developing coordinated approaches including minimum standards, progressive elements and redistributive options, not just endlessly discussing them.

2. Naming the preconditions. You can’t tax what you can’t see. That means committing to transparency tools like beneficial ownership information, asset registries and effective exchange of information, especially for high-net-worth individuals. It means fair taxing rights based on economic activity. It means true sovereignty.

3. Agreeing new rules to tax polluters. That starts with a new global agreement that countries will deliver – nationally and internationally – progressive environmental taxation in line with the polluter pays principle and the principle of equity (common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities). From there, new mechanisms can be established, like a global tax on the profits of fossil fuel companies to boost international climate finance.

4. Embedding the articles in the bigger goal. Taxing the super-rich and corporate polluters aren’t side issues. They are central to funding climate action, protecting nature and rebuilding trust in public institutions. The Convention should say so, clearly.

The moment we stop pretending

The tools exist. The political arguments are already being made elsewhere. And the costs of inaction are painfully visible.

What’s missing isn’t expertise – it’s alignment.

If governments are serious about climate justice, social cohesion and sustainable development, the UN Tax Convention is not the place to be cautious. It’s the place to be honest.

Because in a world where crises are global and wealth is mobile, collective action isn’t a loss of sovereignty –  it’s the only way to reclaim it.

And yes, taxing the super-rich and corporate polluters is part of that story.

Tax the super-rich

Together, let’s urge governments to tax the super-rich and fund a green and fair future.

Add your name

Clara Thompson is the Global Tax Justice Lead at Greenpeace International. She is currently in New York City for the 4th round of negotiations of the United Nations Treaty on International Tax Cooperation (also known as the UN Tax Convention).

Milan, Italy – This morning, Greenpeace Italy activists placed a large installation depicting the Olympic Rings dripping oil and the words “Sponsored by Eni” in Piazza Duomo in Milan, where the Olympic flame is expected to arrive today. 

Activists displayed banners reading “Kick polluters out of the Games”, in a protest against one of the Games’ major sponsors, Italian oil and gas giant Eni, whose greenhouse gas emissions threaten winters as they are currently known and the Winter Olympics and Paralympics themselves.

Photos and videos of the Greenpeace Italy protest can be downloaded via the Greenpeace Media Library

Greenpeace Italy climate campaigner Federico Spadini said, “It’s absurd that the Olympics and Paralympics are partnering with corporations whose emissions threaten the ice and snow that winter sports depend on. Oil and gas companies like Eni are driving the climate crisis, and it is unacceptable that its greenwashing operations have been allowed to tarnish the Olympic values of respect for people and the environment. That’s why Greenpeace is calling for the International Olympic Committee to drop oil and gas sponsorship from the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games and commit to ending fossil fuel sponsorship across all Olympic Games.”

According to recent analysis based on scientific modelling, Eni’s annual emissions could melt enough glacier ice to fill 2.5 million Olympic swimming pools.[1] 

In recent days, Greenpeace Italy and Greenpeace International sent an open letter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) asking it to ban fossil fuel sponsorships, building on its legacy of banning tobacco advertising in 1988.[2]

Greenpeace Italy has also released a video denouncing Eni’s impact on the Winter Games, featuring the same image of the Olympic Rings dripping oil, as that used in the Milan installation.

ENDS

Photos and videos of the Olympics Rings installation in Milan can be downloaded via the Greenpeace Media Library

Notes:

[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0093-1

[2] The open letter to the International Olympic Committee

Watch Greenpeace Italy’s Oilympics video here

Contacts:

Gaia Maione, Press Office Greenpeace Italy, +39 340 571 8019, gmaione@greenpeace.org

Martin Zavan, Communications Specialist, Greenpeace International, +61 424 295 422, mzavan@greenpeace.org 

Greenpeace International Press Desk: +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org

We all want a world where winters remain a source of joy. A world where professional athletes and amateurs alike can count on snow and ice to pursue their passions, where children can play in the snow, and where iconic, international sporting events, like the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, continue to take place and inspire people. 

But the snowy scenes that provided a backdrop to so many of cherished childhood memories in Italy are under threat. The Games require the right set of conditions for competition to be safe and fair, and those very conditions are under threat from fossil fuel corporations, such as Italian oil and gas giant Eni, and their planet-heating operations. 

Now, in the days leading up to the 2026 Winter Olympics Milano Cortina, Greenpeace Italy has released a hard-hitting video that aims to cut through the noise and expose the threat that fossil fuels and the Games major sponsor, Eni, in particular, pose to the future of the Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

Oilympics: calling out Eni’s greenwashing 

The ‘Oilympics’ film shines a spotlight on Eni’s role in fuelling the climate crisis while highlighting our demand that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ban all fossil fuel advertising and sponsorship, in order to protect the future of winter sports, and stop polluters from hijacking the Olympic spirit.

Oilympics: The Games on Thin Ice

Fossil fuel companies are greenwashing their image by sponsoring big sporting events to hide their destruction. Don’t let them get away with it.

Add your name

The short film exposes the irony of a company that is melting winter, sponsoring the Winter Games. 

Oil and gas corporations are driving the climate crisis, and at this rate by the 2080s over half of suitable locations will be unable to host the Winter Olympics. And Eni’s planet-heating pollution has a central role in this dour forecast. One year of Eni’s fossil fuel emissions could melt enough glacier ice to fill 2.5 million Olympic swimming pools. 

But the impacts go much further. Eni is currently suing Greenpeace Italy because it stated Eni harms people, after Greenpeace Netherlands calculated that Eni’s self-reported 2022 emissions could cause 27,000 excess deaths due to increased temperature alone before the end of the century. This was published in a 2023 study by Greenpeace Netherlands based on a peer-reviewed methodology.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Greenpeace Italia (@greenpeace_ita)

Who really pays for Eni’s greenwashing?

Given all of that, it’s no surprise that Eni actively seeks to hide these truths from the public, reportedly spending tens of millions of dollars on sporting sponsorships to soften its image. Buying an artificial association with the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina is part of that deceptive and cynical greenwashing strategy.

Fossil fuel corporations, like Eni, should pay for the damage they cause, not buy reputational cover by associating themselves with Olympic values of excellence, respect, and friendship. 

Greenpeace supporters, nature lovers and the winter sports community are united in our desire to protect the Winter Olympics and Paralympics for present and future generations. The Olympic values of respect for people and the environment matter. Allowing Eni to use the Games as a billboard for greenwashing undermines those values and threatens the future of the event the IOC claims to support. 

Eni and the fossil fuel industry are driving climate change, which is jeopardising mountain communities already struggling with a rapidly changing climate, the livelihoods of many people who rely on cold winters, and the 60 million Europeans who ski every year.

How do we stop oil corporations like Eni?

A better future is still within reach. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) can help lead the shift away from fossil fuels by refusing to be complicit in the deceptive practices of corporations like Eni who are stealing the winters that form the backdrop to so many precious childhood memories. This has happened before with tobacco advertising. Once the scientific consensus on the harms of smoking became too strong to ignore, the IOC banned tobacco advertising ahead of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. It played a key role in denormalising cigarette advertisements and set a strong precedent that was followed by sporting bodies and other event organisers around the world. It serves as a powerful testament to the power of the IOC to help shape policy at a global level and it shows that the same can be done with fossil fuel sponsorship and advertising.

When iconic and influential sporting and cultural organisations like the Olympics choose integrity over greenwashing, they revoke polluters’ license to mislead and force them to face the harms they cause. That’s why Greenpeace is taking on fossil fuel corporations like Eni that are stealing our winters by shrinking snow seasons, collapsing glaciers and threatening the sports and traditions that millions of people cherish.

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A post shared by Greenpeace International (@greenpeace)

Greenpeace is calling for the IOC to drop oil and gas sponsorship from the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, and commit to ending fossil fuel sponsorship across all Olympic Games. It benefits no one but oil and gas corporations; it distracts everyone from the environmental destruction they cause and the communities they harm and helps them avoid accountability. 

Oilympics: The Games on Thin Ice

Fossil fuel companies are greenwashing their image by sponsoring big sporting events to hide their destruction. Don’t let them get away with it.

Add your name

Eni should be paying for the damage they have caused, not using sponsorships to polish their image while driving the climate crisis that threatens the future of winter sport.

A future of icy cold winters with dependable snow is still possible, but like a glacier in the climate crisis, it’s melting before our eyes. Protecting the climate requires us to take on the forces that are destroying our winters and everything we love about them. That future is still possible if we change course now.

Federico Spadini is a Greenpeace Italy Campaigner based in Milan, Italy.

More than half of the potential host cities Winter Games will be “climate-unreliable” by the 2080s! That’s the verdict of a rigorous 2024 scientific study funded by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) itself, confirming the importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Experts Robert Steiger and Daniel Scott examined three different emissions scenarios and analysed the impacts on the weather in cities that could potentially host the Winter Olympics. They looked at the temperature and depth of snow. The results serve as a stark warning. 

Under the mid-range emission scenario (which is considered the most likely scenario), only 46 out of the 93 locations they looked into will be “climate reliable”. This means that there are far fewer places in the future where athletes could compete safely and fairly. 

Fake snow and cancelations 

This does not come as a surprise – in an earlier study the same researchers found that among 21 previous host cities, only one is projected  to be reliable by the end of the century if global emissions remain on the trajectory of the past two decades. But this is not solely a problem for the future. In 2022, the Beijing Winter Olympics set a precedent as the first games to use 100% artificial snow. 

And the impacts of climate change on winter sports are not limited to the Olympics. The 2022/2023 Ski World Cup season started with warm weather and lack of snow, resulting in the International Ski Federation (FIS) cancelling or postponing seven out of first eight scheduled races. 

Safety 

These incidents, plus a lack of snow for practice sessions, more injuries and reduced climate reliability of host cities, led over 500 athletes to sign an open letter demanding the FIS take greater climate action, with Greenpeace International lending support. This led the FIS to implement a series of reforms on Winter Olympic viability, nonetheless, the impact of fossil fuels remains. 

In a participant perspective survey involving around 400 Winter Olympic athletes, over 95% stated that climate change is/will negatively impact their sport, and winter sport culture in general by reducing training opportunities for the next-generation.

The problem with “sportwashing”

Fossil fuel corporations use sports sponsorships to “polish” their image. They want us to see their logo next to world-class athletes to distract from how their business is driving the climate crisis that threatens those very sports.

One such corporation is the Italian oil and gas giant, Eni, which is sponsoring the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Milano and Cortina. That’s right, a company that is driving the climate crisis and putting winter sports at risk is using the Games to distract the public from its destructive impact.

And much like the climate, the battle is heating up. Eni is currently in a legal battle with Greenpeace Italy.

In 2023, Greenpeace Netherlands released a study applying the Mortality Cost of Carbon method, which projected that Eni’s self-reported emissions for 2022 alone could cause 27,000 temperature-related excess deaths by the end of the century. Instead of changing their business, Eni attempted to silence these legitimate criticisms by suing Greenpeace Italy. Lawyers call this a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) but in layman’s terms this is legal bullying and intimidation.

Doing the maths: Emissions and glaciers

To better understand the impact Eni’s emissions could have on ice, take a look at Eni’s own company reports. In 2024, Eni reported NET Greenhouse Gas lifecycle emissions of 395 million metric tonnes CO2e.

Attribution science is becoming more and more accurate at estimating likely future harms from today’s carbon emissions. The shrinking of glaciers, for example, is widely accepted as evidence of climate change. Glacier mass loss has been reported to be related to temperature increase, which is known to have a direct relationship with cumulative carbon emissions. Scientific modelling shows that for every 1 kg of CO2 we put into the air, we eventually lose about 15.8 kg (5.9–20.5 kg) of glacier ice.

When you apply that maths to the equivalent of Eni’s 2024 emissions, we are looking at a potential committed loss of 6.2 (2.3–8.1) billion tonnes of glacier ice over time.

Trying to visualise the damage

That’s a huge number, so let’s break it down into something we can see: Olympic-sized swimming pools.

• A standard Olympic pool holds 2,500 m3 of water.
• The glacier ice projected to be lost because of emissions equivalent to those reported by Eni for 2024 alone could fill almost 2.5 million pools (2,496,400 to be exact).

Imagine two and a half million swimming pools lined up – that’s the equivalent to the projected impact of one year of one company’s emissions.

How you can help to hold oil and gas corporations accountable

If these estimates shock you, you aren’t alone. We need to protect the future of winter sports by holding polluters accountable. Fossil fuel companies should be paying for the damage they cause through taxes and fines, not using our favorite sports to hide their impact.

That’s why Greenpeace is calling for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to drop oil and gas sponsorship from the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games – and commit to ending fossil fuel sponsorship across all Olympic Games. 

Oilympics: The Games on Thin Ice

Fossil fuel companies are greenwashing their image by sponsoring big sporting events to hide their destruction. Don’t let them get away with it.

Add your name

This has happened before with tobacco advertising. Once the scientific consensus on the harms of smoking became too strong to ignore, the IOC banned tobacco advertising ahead of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. It played a key role in denormalising cigarette advertisements and set a strong precedent that was followed by sporting bodies and other event organisers around the world. It serves as a powerful testament to the power of the IOC to help shape policy at a global level and it shows that the same can be done with fossil fuel sponsorship and advertising.

Fossil fuel sponsorship benefits no one but oil and gas corporations; it distracts everyone from the environmental destruction they cause and the communities they harm. Fossil fuel corporations must be phased out as part of a just transition to renewable energy, not using sponsorships to polish their image while driving the climate crisis that threatens the future of winter sport.

Sophie Allain is a campaigner at Greenpeace International and is based in London, UK.

Note: This article was edited on 3 January at 18.45 CET to clarify two figures related to glacier ice loss.

Milan, Italy  – Greenpeace Italy has launched a hard-hitting video that highlights the absurdity of Italian oil and gas giant Eni’s sponsorships of the Milano Cortina Games, as one of the corporations stealing our winters through its planet-heating pollution.

One year of Eni’s emissions could melt enough glacier ice to fill 2.5 million Olympic swimming pools, demonstrating the corporation’s central role in the climate crisis that threatens the future viability of the Games and winter sports.[1]

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE

Greenpeace Italy climate campaigner Federico Spadini said:

“Fossil fuel driven climate change is putting the Winter Olympics and Paralympics at risk and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) cannot ignore this. The Olympic values of respect for people and the environment matter, that’s why Greenpeace is calling for the International Olympic Committee to drop oil and gas sponsorship from the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games and commit to ending fossil fuel sponsorship across all Olympic Games.” 

The satirical Greenpeace Italy video, created by Studio Birthplace, shows speed skaters, skiers and bobsledders racing along, with Eni logos prominent. Suddenly a trickle of oil turns into a tsunami, sweeping the athletes off their feet, causing them to slip and crash as a sea of oil washes over them. 

The video lays bare the real impact of oil and gas on winter sports, including the Olympics, and warns of the risk of losing them forever without a rapid transition from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy. More than half of the potential host cities Winter Games will be “climate-unreliable” by the 2080s, according to a rigorous 2024 scientific study funded by the IOC.[1] This is why Greenpeace is calling for the IOC to end fossil fuel sponsorship across the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games and all Olympic Games through an open letter published today.[2]

The IOC has previously used its unique position of global trust and influence to help combat industries that harm people, banning tobacco advertising ahead of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Now it can help lead the shift away from fossil fuels by refusing sponsorship from fossil fuel corporations like Eni who are threatening the winters we all love with their emissions.

To raise awareness of the call for the IOC to reject fossil fuel sponsorship of the Olympic Games, Greenpeace Italy will join a national march organised by civil society organisations in Milan on February 7th to protest the environmental, economic, and social impacts of the Games.

ENDS

Notes:

[1] The climate crisis and the future of the Winter Olympics

[2] Copy of the open letter

Eni is currently in a legal battle with Greenpeace Italy. In 2023, Greenpeace Netherlands released a study that applied the Mortality Cost of Carbon method, which projected that Eni’s self reported emissions for 2022 alone could cause 27,000 temperature-related excess deaths by the end of the century. Instead of changing their business, Eni attempted to silence these legitimate criticisms by suing Greenpeace Italy. 

Contacts:

Martin Zavan, Communications Specialist, Greenpeace International, +61 424 295 422, mzavan@greenpeace.org

Greenpeace International Press Desk: +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org

This story was originally posted by Greenpeace Australia Pacific.

In mid January 2026, Australians watched in disbelief as an extreme downpour and violent flash flood swept cars on Victoria’s Great Ocean Road into the sea. Just days earlier, the state was in the grip of catastrophic fire conditions and the most dangerous heatwave since the infamous Black Summer of 2019-20. Once again, Victoria is in the grip of an extreme heatwave, this one even more intense than the last.

These wild swings between weather extremes – between hot and dry to heavy rains and back again – have become all too familiar to Australians and to vulnerable communities around the world.

So what is driving this new world of violent weather extremes?

Sometimes climate science can seem fiendishly complex. But in essence things are very simple. By burning coal, oil, and gas we have thickened up the blanket of heat trapping gases in our atmosphere, meaning that today our atmosphere is not only hotter, but also wetter and packing more energy.

It means that heatwaves are hotter, longer and more frequent, rainfall is more intense, and fire seasons are longer and more dangerous. Moreover, with more energy to fuel powerful storms, and the ability of our warmer atmosphere to soak up more moisture, the swing from one extreme to another has become more rapid and intense.

The past is no longer a guide for the future

The change in the background conditions driving our weather means that past weather patterns are no longer a good guide for the present. We are seeing extreme events unfold in places and at times where they never have before, at least not in living memory, meaning communities are more likely to be caught off guard. Cyclones are tracking further south, large wildfires are happening way outside of the usual season, shifting rainfall patterns are wreaking havoc with food production.

From Melbourne to Mozambique

The term “climate whiplash” emerged during our 2023-24 summer, when an early and ferocious fire season, driven by an El Niño pattern, gave way unexpectedly to record breaking rains. A deadly Queensland blaze in October 2023 destroyed more homes in that state than the infamous Black Summer fires did. Just weeks later, nearby weather stations registered their highest November rainfall on record. Down south, early and highly destructive fires in Gippsland, Victoria were followed almost immediately by extreme rainfall and flash flooding.

For many, this has come to epitomise the lived experience of climate change. And not just in Australia. On the east coast of the US, 2025 saw many communities face multiple spells of dangerous heat and humidity. Today, many of those same communities are gripped by a deadly winter storm and extreme low temperatures.

On the west coast, in California, years of severe drought were followed by exceptionally wet winters in 2022-23 and 2023-24, leading to explosive growth of vegetation. When this record wet period was followed by California’s hottest summer on record and a record-dry start to 2025, the conditions were set for the horrific LA fires.

On the other side of the world, in Mozambique, a prolonged dry period in 2024 and 2025 saw the country face significant food insecurity due to crop failure. In January 2026, Mozambique is tragically facing a severe humanitarian situation due to extreme downpours and catastrophic flooding. Over a hundred people have died, and close to a million affected.

Adding fuel to the fire

Put simply, climate change, driven by the burning of coal, oil and gas, is catapulting vulnerable communities from one catastrophe to another. Hit by a succession of compounding disasters, with little or no time to recover, many are seeing their resilience pushed beyond its limits. The toll on our mental health has been profound.

The first duty of governments is to keep our communities safe. But right now, many are doing exactly the opposite. In Australia, our State and Federal Governments continue to enable the dangerous expansion of fossil fuel production. In December 2025, the Victorian Government, alongside Federal authorities, opened new areas for gas exploration in the Otway Basin, off the Victorian coast.

Every new fossil fuel project increases the future risks for communities in Australia, the Pacific and around the world.

Time for a fair, fast fossil fuel phase out

2026 will be a defining year for the world’s transition away from fossil fuels.

Pacific Island countries have been working for many years to spearhead a global phase-out of coal oil and gas. In a few short weeks, Vanuatu and Tuvalu will be among dozens of countries gathering in the coal port Santa Martha for the First International Conference on the Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuel, a powerful new initiative led by the Government of Colombia.

Meanwhile, as Australia prepares to take on the role of President of Negotiations for COP31, we have the responsibility to lead. Now more than ever.

The science is unequivocal: we must transition away from fossil fuels at emergency speed, while doing far more to support our communities with adapting to this new era of climate whiplash.

The future is ours to choose. Get involved.

Dr Simon Bradshaw is the Climate Advisor at Greenpeace Australia Pacific.

“Today, we are making history. Finally, The Hague can no longer ignore us. The court is drawing a line in the sand. Our lives, our culture, and our country are being taken seriously. The State can no longer look the other way.” – Onnie Emerenciana, plaintiff in the Bonaire Climate Case

On 28 January, residents of Bonaire won a historic victory, not just for themselves and their island, but for communities everywhere who are rising up for climate justice.

In a landmark ruling, the District Court of The Hague found that the Netherlands is violating Bonaire residents’ human rights by failing to protect them from the climate crisis. 

The judgment makes clear that the Dutch state cannot treat residents of Bonaire, a Caribbean island with 25,000 inhabitants, as second-class citizens and must effectively protect them from the impacts of climate change.

This case was led by eight courageous residents of Bonaire and supported by Greenpeace Netherlands. 

This victory belongs first and foremost to the people of Bonaire, who took their lived experiences of climate impacts from their island home to a courtroom thousands of kilometres away and demanded justice. The stories of these courageous community members motivate movements, their cultural interventions inspire our imagination and protect more than their heritage, their victory becomes a stepping stone for others. 

A breakthrough years in the making

Bonaire is already on the frontline of the climate crisis. Extreme heat, disappearing corals and rising sea levels are affecting daily life on the island. Yet while the Dutch government has been proactive about protecting people living in the Netherlands in Europe, it has failed to offer the same level of protection to the people of Bonaire.

That stark inequality is at the heart of this case.

In January 2024, Bonaire residents and Greenpeace went to court to challenge this injustice. They argued that the state’s climate policies fell short of its human rights obligations, and that people living on Bonaire were paying the price.

The court agreed.

In its ruling, the judges recognised what residents of Bonaire have long known: Climate change already poses a real and growing threat to their lives and livelihoods. The Court clearly said that “the State has a legal obligation to protect the right of Bonaire’s inhabitants to life, health, well-being and the enjoyment of their own culture against the negative effects of climate change”. 

Part of a growing global momentum

Around the world, communities are turning to the courts to demand climate justice, and they are winning.

From senior women to concerned youth challenging weak climate laws, to Indigenous communities defending their lands, culture and traditions, to island nations seeking accountability for climate damage, the message is growing louder: governments and corporations cannot ignore the climate crisis without legal consequences.

The Bonaire ruling builds on this momentum. It shows that courts are increasingly willing to listen to climate-vulnerable communities, to take science seriously, and to recognise that climate inaction is a violation of fundamental human rights.

Each case builds on the last, and strengthens the next. Each victory sends a signal that climate action is a human regard for people and the planet, and is a legal and moral obligation.

People power at the heart of change

What makes this win especially powerful is the leadership shown by Bonaireans themselves,they spoke up about their homes, their health, and their children’s futures.

Greenpeace Netherlands supported people from Bonaire by commissioning research that showed how climate risks in Bonaire will intensify under current policies, by amplifying residents’ voices, and by standing with them every step of the way. The legal teams from Kennedy van der Laan and Prakken d’Oliveira, Greenpeace International and strategic allies provided vital expertise, helping turn lived experience into legal force.

This is what can happen when people power harnesses the law. Across the world, those who are most impacted are rising and synchronising their struggles: from the streets to schoolyards, from courtrooms to cafés, from extraction sites to exhibitions, from homes to halls of power. Their resistance crosses borders, disciplines and generations. 

What happens next?

This ruling is a milestone, but it is not the end of the story.

The Dutch state must immediately comply fully with its obligations. That means stronger climate action, faster emissions cuts, and an adaptation plan that protects people in Bonaire from the worsening impacts of the climate crisis.

For supporters around the world, it shows that change is possible. It shows that when communities organise, when their stories and science are brought into the courtroom, and when people refuse to accept injustice, even powerful governments can be held to account and forced to change.

A victory for all

Today, we celebrate the people of Bonaire, their courage, their tenacity and their belief that justice is worth fighting for.

And we take this victory as a resounding endorsement of the path we are on. We’ll keep pushing, keep rising with climate-vulnerable communities, and keep demanding a world where climate action is fast, fair and grounded in human rights.

When people fight for their future, it changes what’s possible for everyone.

Eefje de Kroon is a campaigner at Greenpeace Netherlands, based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Martin Zavan is a freelance communications strategist at Greenpeace International, based in Sydney, Australia

Maria Alejandra Serra is Legal Counsel Climate Specialist at Greenpeace International, based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

A huge victory for climate justice for Bonaire, the Rainbow Warrior in Cape Town, and a call to end the tyranny of fossil fuels in Belgium. Here are a few of our favourite images from Greenpeace work around the world this week. Comment below which you like best!

The Netherlands – This week, in a major victory for climate justice, the District Court of The Hague ruled that the Dutch State’s climate policy violates the human rights of residents of Bonaire and treats them unequally compared to people in European Netherlands. With its current climate targets and measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the State is failing to comply with international agreements. As a result, the State is acting unlawfully toward the residents of Bonaire.

The court also found that The Netherlands has not taken sufficient measures to protect the residents of Bonaire in the climate crisis. The court orders the Dutch State to draw up an adaptation plan and implement it no later than 2030. In addition, within 18 months, they must set new binding targets for the entire Dutch economy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to make a fair contribution to the goal of limiting global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees.

Belgium – Greenpeace Belgium activists inflated 10-metre-long representations of Putin and Trump sitting on a gas tanker in front of the EU Council headquarters in Brussels, to symbolise Europe’s dependence on fossil fuel imports from autocrats. They are warning EU leaders not to replace Putin’s gas with Trump’s gas, but instead to protect Europe’s political independence and achieve true energy security by phasing out fossil gas and accelerating the shift to a fully renewable energy system.

Switzerland – On Wednesday evening, Greenpeace Switzerland activists projected a film and a series of messages onto the cooling tower of the decommissioned Gösgen nuclear power plant. The aim is to denounce the decades-long cover-up of the safety breach in the plant’s feedwater system and the associated danger to the population.

South Africa – Greenpeace Africa hosted Open Boat Days aboard the iconic Rainbow Warrior while docked in Cape Town, welcoming over 1,200 members of the public onboard. Visitors toured the ship, met crew members and Greenpeace teams, learned about non-violent direct action, and engaged in conversations about climate justice, ocean protection, and people-powered change.

Taiwan – Greenpeace Taiwan staged a protest outside CPC Corp, Taiwan headquarters, warning that CPC is pushing the “New Fourth Naphtha Cracker” expansion despite five consecutive years of deficits. Greenpeace estimates the project could generate additional losses of over NT$11 billion annually from 2030, based on market pricing amid petrochemical oversupply. Greenpeace urged CPC to halt the project, reassess its petrochemical strategy, and develop a credible transition roadmap.

Australia – Activists stage a peaceful protest in front of the Sydney Opera House, Australia in solidarity with Greenpeace International and Greenpeace in the USA, facing a meritless SLAPP lawsuit from fossil fuel company Energy Transfer. Greenpeace USA was one of many organisations showing solidarity with peaceful Standing Rock activists and the Indigenous-led prayer camps against Energy Transfer and the Dakota Access Pipeline.

South Africa – Members of the public and crew of the Rainbow Warrior aboard the iconic Rainbow Warrior while docked in Cape Town, hold signs calling for an end to the age of plastic.

Greenpeace has been a pioneer of photo activism for more than 50 years, and remains committed to bearing witness and exposing environmental injustice through the images we capture.

To see more Greenpeace photos and videos, visit our Media Library.

The Hague – In a world first, a Dutch court today ruled that the Netherlands breached the European Convention on Human Rights by not protecting and discriminating against citizens living in the Dutch-Caribbean special municipality of Bonaire from the impacts of the climate crisis, and ordered the State to set new, fair climate targets.

Onnie Emerenciana, plaintiff in the Bonaire Climate Case, said: 

“I am very happy. Today, we are making history. Finally, The Hague can no longer ignore us. The court is drawing a line in the sand. Our lives, our culture, and our country are being taken seriously. The State can no longer look the other way. The next step is to free up funding and expertise for concrete action plans to protect our island. We truly have to do this together; Bonaire cannot solve this alone.”

Marieke Vellekoop, Director of Greenpeace Netherlands, said:

“This is truly a historic victory. The government’s discrimination of the people on Bonaire is finally being acknowledged and they now must protect them from extreme heat and rising sea levels. The State must also do its fair share with new climate targets to stay below 1.5 degrees of global warming. This means that Dutch greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced much faster. This is a huge breakthrough. The current climate policy is inadequate, and the cabinet can no longer get away with failing climate policies. Incoming Prime Minister Jetten must bring this ruling to the cabinet’s negotiating table tonight and ensure that funding is made available for protective measures on Bonaire and adequate climate policy.”

In a historic ruling, the Hague District Court found in favour of the residents of Bonaire and Greenpeace Netherlands, observing that the Netherlands is doing too little to protect Bonaire residents from the impacts of the climate crisis. 

The Court found the Dutch State in violation of multiple provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights (Art 8 and 14 and Article 1 of Protocol No. 12), citing discriminatory treatment of citizens of Bonaire and a failure by the Dutch State to both reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect people against the current impacts of climate change.[1] 

The Dutch court is the first court in the world to rule that the State is discriminating against its own people by failing to develop and adopt a climate adaptation plan. 

The court agreed that Bonaire residents are already experiencing climate impacts, such as rising sea levels, extreme weather, and dying coral reefs. It noted that these impacts will intensify under current policies, providing even greater urgency for a coherent and integrated climate adaptation policy for Bonaire than for the European Netherlands.

This case sets a precedent with global relevance. It is the first time that a European court has ruled that a country must take concrete adaptation and mitigation measures to protect all of its citizens, no matter where they live, from the impacts of climate change. 

Michael Bacon, lawyer at Kennedy Van der Laan, said: 

“With this ruling the court has done precisely what an independent court in a democratic society must do: determine whether national policy complies with national and international law, and specifically with human rights. The court correctly ruled that Dutch climate policy does not comply with international law. It is now up to the State to improve its climate policy.”

ENDS

Notes:

[1] The Court Judgement 

[2] On January 11, 2024, residents of Bonaire and Greenpeace went to court to demand fair climate policy from the State, after earlier research commissioned by Greenpeace Netherlands confirmed that the climate crisis is already affecting daily life on Bonaire and showed how, under current policies, climate change would continue to intensify risks for the island and its residents in the future. The hearings took place on October 7 and 8, 2025, and were attended by the eight plaintiffs. Greenpeace was assisted in this case by lawyers from Kennedy van der Laan.

Previously, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that states must keep global warming below 1.5 degrees and that their climate plans must demonstrate maximum ambition, taking into account historical emissions and economical and technological capacity of the State. This is the first climate case in Europe, in which these international recommendations have been applied.

Images from the court are available in the Greenpeace Media Library.

Contacts:

Laura Polderman – Greenpeace press officer, +31 (0)6 2900 1140 – laura.polderman@greenpeace.org

Greenpeace Netherlands general press number: +31 (0)6 2129 6895