Berlin, Germany – Greenpeace Germany activists protested during NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang’s keynote at NVIDIA GTC Conference. The activists projected “NVIDIA, clean up your dirty business” onto the stage and unrolled a banner with the same message referencing the environmental and ethical impact of the AI frenzy, enabled by the massive production of their chips for global markets.

In recent years, Greenpeace organisations have repeatedly exposed the company’s climate footprint especially through its outsourced manufacturers powered by dirty fossil fuels and concentrated in East Asia.[1][2]

Benjamin Stephan, Big Tech campaigner at Greenpeace International, said: “While NVIDIA is building an unchecked AI empire no one consented to, people are paying the price. Around the world, communities face damage to water supplies and soil, alongside rising electricity bills because of unchecked expansion of data centres. Meanwhile, the environmental burden of chip manufacturing weighs on communities in East Asia.”

NVIDIA, the world’s most valuable company by market capitalisation, generating huge profits, plays a central role in the AI investment frenzy. It has partnered with financial institutions to finance more data centres, glossing over both their environmental impacts and the risk of further inflating a financial bubble on the brink of bursting. Greenpeace International is sounding the alarm about this Big Tech expansion, which poses a direct threat to the environment and the global economy.

Referencing recent remarks by NVIDIA’s CEO,[3] Stephan said: “The world does not need more ‘pain and suffering’. People are already facing multiple crises, from climate change to the rising cost of living. Better technology is possible, if driven by communities’ needs and controlled by strong, binding regulation, so that technology serves the public interest rather than further inflating the AI bubble.”

Greenpeace International demands that NVIDIA serve the public interest by investing substantially in additional renewable energy capacity. The organisation also calls on the company to extend its 100% renewable energy target beyond its own corporate operations to cover its entire manufacturing supply chain by 2030, including suppliers in key production regions in East Asia.

Finally, Greenpeace International is calling for NVIDIA to implement an independent audit process covering all distributors, subsidiaries and third-party vendors worldwide to ensure that its products are not used in ways that violate human rights and are not incorporated into military equipment.

ENDS

Notes:

[1] NVIDIA’s climate hoax: New analysis on NVIDIA’s rising emissions and greenwashing details how NVIDIA has misleadingly masked its staggering emissions impacts.
[2] NVIDIA’s Green Illusion analysis by Greenpeace East Asia shows the environmental burden of chip productions is concentrated in manufacturing hubs such as South Korea and Taiwan, where power grids remain heavily reliant on fossil fuels.
[3] In an online interview published by the New York Times, NVIDIA’s CEO called for more fossil fuels and claimed “we must endure pain and suffering before AI can save us”.

Contacts: 

Guillaumine Lickel, Deputy Communications Lead , Greenpeace International, +33 6-73-89-48-90 (EMEA), glickel@greenpeace.org

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

Amsterdam, Netherlands – Greenpeace has urged governments meeting at the UN climate summit COP31 in Antalya next month to take stock of the latest emissions gap data and rapidly scale up action towards a just transition away from fossil fuels to keep 1.5°C alive.

The United Nations Environment Programme warned global warming could reach up to 2.8°C this century if current government policies continue, a worse prediction than last year, but rapid emissions cuts could still limit that to 1.7°C to 1.8°C. It said emissions cuts of 18 percent by 2030, 45 percent by 2035 and 69 percent by 2040 – all based on 2025 levels – were needed for this scenario, in addition to carbon dioxide removals.[1]

In its Emissions Gap Report 2026: The Point of Return, the UNEP said the roll-out of renewable energy and climate policies had already yielded cuts to emissions, but a massive acceleration was required to limit the extent of an overshoot of the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C limit. It had earlier declared the world would exceed 1.5°C warming, likely in the next few years.[2]

Jasper Inventor, Deputy Programme Director at Greenpeace International said: “This UNEP report is yet another alarm, but governments keep hitting the snooze button. Climate action delayed is climate harm multiplied. The pathway back to 1.5°C is still there in front of us, but only if governments wake up to the reality that the stability of our climate is rapidly slipping away.

“As we come to terms with the prospect of a 1.5°C overshoot, we know that every fraction of a degree still matters and these successive UNEP reports must galvanise political leaders to take the steps needed now and tomorrow to help turn the trajectory around. That means holding fossil fuel polluters to account and standing with the people rather than profiteers.”

The UNEP report starkly revealed the shortfall in government policies, outlining that even with the full implementation of climate action plans (NDCs), this would only reduce emissions by 5-8 percent by 2030 and 11-15 per cent by 2035, relative to 2025 levels.

At COP31, Greenpeace is calling on states to reaffirm and accelerate action towards the first Global Stocktake energy goals agreed at COP28 in Dubai in 2023: tripling renewable energy and doubling energy efficiency by 2030 and accelerating a just, orderly and equitable transition away from fossil fuels this critical decade.[3][4]

Notes:
[1] UNEP: Emissions Gap Report 2026: The Point of Return 

[2] UNEP report: Limiting Overshoot 

[3] UNFCCC: Outcome of the first global stocktake

[4] Greenpeace: COP31 Priorities and Expectations

Contact:

Aaron Gray-Block, Greenpeace International, Climate Politics Communications Manager, aaron.gray-block@greenpeace.org

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

Mérida, Mexico – Water testing conducted in Mexico’s Yucatán State, in an area near the state capital city of Mérida, has found that severe, widespread fecal and chemical contamination is threatening the country’s largest source of renewable groundwater, driven in part by illegal industrial pig farms, a new report by Greenpeace México and Greenpeace International has revealed today. [1]

José Luis Perlasca, Campaigner at Greenpeace México, said: “For years, the rapid expansion of high-impact industrial activities has been allowed to take place in one of Mexico’s most important—and at the same time, most vulnerable—hydrological systems, causing various problems of water and groundwater contamination on the peninsula. This report offers a grim picture of the devastating effects that megafarms are having on the Selva Maya.

Commissioned by Greenpeace México and conducted by an accredited independent laboratory, the study, titled ‘The Price of Pork: How Illegal Pig Megafarms Are Destroying Mexico’s Underground Springs’,  investigated 17 sites across six communities, taking water samples from wells and cenotes, the iconic freshwater sinkholes that dot the densely forested Yucatán Peninsula. The results showed critical levels of fecal bacteria, with multiple sites reaching maximum laboratory quantification limits. 

Additional studies conducted by local Maya community group To’one Ja’o’on (We Are Water) Network in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico at five overlapping sites has confirmed the presence of pig fecal matter in water samples. [2]

Perlasca continued: “The contamination of Mexico’s largest groundwater source not only threatens the environment and the livelihoods of nearby communities but also poses a potential public health disaster that could endanger the drinking water supply for millions of people. Environmental authorities need to realise: this is not just a local problem, but one that could jeopardise the whole region’s capacity for survival and regeneration.” 

Testing revealed high levels of water pollution, with nitrate concentrations in several locations exceeding World Health Organization (WHO) drinking water safety guidelines and two-thirds exceeding lower thresholds recognised as presenting health risks through long-term exposure. At peak contamination sites, chemical oxygen demand and phosphorus levels suggested direct influxes of livestock manure slurry or municipal wastewater. Nitrate contamination in drinking water has been linked by recent research to health risks like colorectal cancer and pre-term birth at levels far lower than the current WHO guideline. [3]

The Yucatán Peninsula karst aquifer is the world’s most extensive interconnected cave system and supplies drinking water to 5 million people in southeast Mexico. [4] However, the region’s highly porous karst limestone provides minimal filtration against surface pollutants, meaning agricultural runoff and swine manure slurry can migrate rapidly into the subterranean system, posing severe health risks and threatening fragile ecosystems.

The report highlights systemic regulatory failure, where over 90% of industrial pig megafarms operate illegally in the Yucatán peninsula without mandatory environmental impact assessments, driving deforestation and pollution. Dozens of these operations encroach directly on Protected Natural Areas and Indigenous Maya territories without free, prior, and informed consent from local communities, violating constitutional rights and destroying traditional livelihoods.

Greenpeace México is calling on Mexican authorities to enforce an immediate moratorium on new and expanding industrial livestock operations across the Yucatán Peninsula, prosecute illegal megafarms, and uphold the rights of Indigenous Maya communities.

ENDS

Notes:

Full report available here.

[1] Estrada-Medina, H., & Álvarez-Rivera, O. O. (2024). Distribución geográfica y características del medio físico natural de los ambientes kársticos de México. Acta Universitaria

[2] Carter et al, (2026) Establishing Methods to Monitor Swine Fecal Contamination of Surface Water, Drinking Water, and Settled Dust in Communities Neighboring Swine Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, Yucatán, Mexico, 2022. Environmental Justice

[3] Evaluation of the parametric value for Nitrate in drinking water. Report delivered to the Ministry of Environment and Gender Equality of Denmark on November 24, 2025.

[4] Global Americans, ‘Tourism Boom, Water Bust: The Hidden Crisis Beneath the Maya Train’, 13 October 2023

Contacts:

Joe Evans, Global Comms Lead for Agriculture, Greenpeace UK, +44 7890 595387, joe.evans@greenpeace.org 

Sara Del Real, Oficial de Comunicación, Greenpeace México, +52 554084 5320, sdreal@greenpeace.org

Amsterdam, Netherlands – Greenpeace has raised new concerns that the next round of assessment reports from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) might not be completed in time for the next global stocktake of climate action.

The 65th Plenary Session of the IPCC was due to decide the timeline of the three Working Group contributions to the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7) in Addis Ababa last week, but the meeting ended without resolution. It is the sixth time since early 2024 delegates have been unable to agree on the timings of the critical three-part assessment report. The IPCC said its 65th Session and its deliberations on the pending agenda will resume at the earliest opportunity.[1][2]

Jasper Inventor, Deputy Programme Director at Greenpeace International said: “This is another deeply frustrating setback in efforts to have the best and latest climate science available for governments at the next global stocktake. With rising emissions and escalating climate impacts, governments should be clearing the path for stronger action, not putting roadblocks in the way. It’s critical that they have the AR7 reports at their disposal to measure collective progress and accelerate action.”

The second global stocktake (GST2) of the Paris Agreement will conclude in 2028 and Greenpeace International is calling for all three AR7 working group reports to be published beforehand to help shape government decisions on mitigation, adaptation and finance.

IPCC assessments have unmatched authority on climate science, owing to the thousands of experts that work on them, exhaustive multi-stage review of published research and the consensus of member states. Aligning AR7 with the next global stocktake would build critical momentum for climate action in a world already facing 1.5°C overshoot. 

Tracy Carty, Climate Politics Expert at Greenpeace International said: “While concerns about equity and Global South representation must be addressed in this assessment cycle and beyond – missing the Paris Agreement’s global stocktake would compromise the very tool meant to keep the world on track and increase ambition. Delaying the science that communities who are already bearing the brunt of the climate crisis need, will not address legitimate concerns around equity and representation.

“But the existing science leaves no room for doubt that current action falls dangerously short, especially on phasing out fossil fuels, the primary driver of climate breakdown. A delayed IPCC assessment must not cost us critical time needed for urgent scaled up global action.”

Notes:

[1] IPCC: 65th Plenary Session of IPCC suspended
[2] Statement by the IPCC Chair Jim Skea on suspension of the 65th Plenary Session of the IPCC

Contact:

Aaron Gray-Block, Greenpeace International, Climate Politics Communications Manager, aaron.gray-block@greenpeace.org

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

Amsterdam, The Netherlands – A connected network of ocean sanctuaries in the Atlantic high seas would protect vital migration routes for leatherback turtles, shielding over 35% of danger zones they face from industrial fishing and reducing the vulnerable species’ risk of mortality, a new report from Greenpeace International shows.[1]

The report launches as a key UN biodiversity conference (CBD COP17) begins in Armenia today, where the first official assessment will be made of the progress towards globally agreed targets – including to protect 30% of the world’s ocean by 2030, which scientists say is the minimum required to give the ocean a chance at recovery. Governments must urgently close the glaring gap between commitments and action. The new Greenpeace report reveals that the current rate of progress will take 265 years to fully protect 30% of the ocean.

Lukas Meus, Ocean Campaigner, Greenpeace International said: “This report reveals the snail’s pace of progress governments have made to protect our ocean. But creating networks of sanctuaries in the high seas would help governments meet global targets for ocean protection and make up for the lack of progress made by nations. If they don’t, there might not be any animals left to protect.

“Having a network of connected fully protected ocean sanctuaries would make sure that incredible migratory species like whales and turtles are protected along their journeys, free from the threat of being killed by industrial fishing or being struck by cargo ships along the way. This is the only way to allow them to travel, eat and breed safely.

“Delegates meeting in Armenia need to agree on big bold solutions to put them back on track. Our proposed network of sanctuaries is exactly the sort of solution governments urgently need to implement to have any hope of meeting biodiversity targets.”

The report makes a clear case for fully protected marine sanctuaries that would stop industrial fishing and reduce shipping traffic from within their boundaries. Many current marine protected areas still allow for destructive industrial fishing, which renders them useless at protecting biodiversity.

Leatherback turtles are one of the most threatened marine vertebrates on the planet, classified as vulnerable on the IUCN red list.[2] Currently, there are no fully or highly protected areas in the Atlantic High Seas, leaving nowhere free from the threat of industrial fishing. The new Greenpeace International report reveals that in 2025, industrial fishing vessels on the Atlantic high seas spent a shocking estimated 1.6 million hours fishing in total – equivalent to over 180 years.

Currently only 3.5% of the world’s ocean is fully or highly protected from destructive human activity.[3] The network proposed in the new report, ‘Well Connected’, would cover 31% of the Atlantic high seas, connecting several key biodiversity hotspots in international waters and also protect almost 45% of danger zones for humpback whales in the Atlantic high seas, significantly reducing their risk of ship strike. 

In the report, Greenpeace International identifies 17 sites that should be fully protected ocean sanctuaries under the Global Ocean Treaty, which would both significantly increase the overall area under protection and cover locations where migrating species face the greatest threats. These areas include existing marine protected areas (MPAs) – which must be upgraded to be fully protected – some sites already being explored by governments and a number of new sites to form a network of protected sanctuaries covering over 31% of the Atlantic high seas. 

ENDS 

Notes:

[1] Well Connected: Protecting the Atlantic High Seas through an ocean-wide sanctuary network. (Available in the following languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Dutch.)

[2] Leatherback turtle listed as ‘vulnerable on IUCN red list

[3] Marine Conservation Institute MPA Atlas

• The report overlays leatherback turtle and humpback whale Atlantic migration routes, against areas of high bycatch risk and high ship strike risk respectively, to identify migratory ‘danger zones’ for these species. 
• The report identifies 17 sanctuary sites. One site includes all existing Atlantic high seas protected areas, which need to be upgraded to full protection. Five sites – the Sargasso Sea, Canary-Guinea Convergence Zone, Banana Hole, Walvis Ridge and Atlantic Equatorial Fracture Zone – are already being explored for protection by governments, scientists and NGOs. Of the remaining 11 newly identified sites, eight are already categorised as Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas (EBSAs).
• This report uses the term ‘sanctuary’ to align with the standards of ‘fully’ or ‘highly’ protected MPAs as defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It recommends banning industrial activity in protected areas.
• Creating big protected sanctuary networks will protect vital feeding and breeding grounds not only for whales and turtles, but also for over 800 other species that migrate through the ocean. Their survival depends on safety across entire migration pathways, rather than just in single isolated pockets. 
• Just 3.5% of the world’s ocean is fully or highly protected, meaning there’s a ‘marine protection gap’ of 26.5% that needs closing to reach 30%. In the 34 years since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, when countries initially agreed to establish networks of MPAs to safeguard marine biodiversity, fully and highly protected MPA coverage of the global ocean has increased by just 0.1% per year. At this rate, achieving the remaining 26.5% needed to fully protect 30% of the ocean would take the international community an estimated 265 years. 

Contacts:

Florri Burton, Global Media Lead, Oceans Are Life, Greenpeace Nordic, +44 (0) 7896523839, florri.burton@greenpeace.org
Greenpeace International Press Desk, +31 (0) 20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org 

At current rate it will take 265 years to reach crucial target to protect 30% of the ocean – but sanctuary networks could save it, Greenpeace report.

A connected network of ocean sanctuaries in the Atlantic high seas would protect vital migration routes for leatherback turtles, shielding over 35% of danger zones they face from industrial fishing and reducing the vulnerable species’ risk of mortality, a new report from Greenpeace International shows.

The network proposed in the new report would cover 31% of the Atlantic high seas, connecting several key biodiversity hotspots in international waters and also protect almost 45% of danger zones for humpback whales in the Atlantic high seas, significantly reducing their risk of ship strike. Governments must urgently close the glaring gap between commitments and action.

The report reveals that the current rate of progress will take 265 years to fully protect 30% of the ocean.

Download the Report:

WELL CONNECTED: Protecting the Atlantic High Seas through an ocean-wide sanctuary network – full report

Yerevan, Armenia – Greenpeace is demanding governments at the UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP17) move from simply recognising gaps and deliver strong, action-oriented decisions to prevent irreversible ecosystem collapse and biodiversity loss. Four years after the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF), CBD COP17 will conclude the Convention’s first Global Review¹ of collective progress towards the framework’s goals and targets. 

An Lambrechts, Head of the Greenpeace delegation to CBD COP17 said: “We’re halfway to 2030 and the evidence is clear: we are far off track to reach the 30×30 targets. The systems that sustain life on Earth are under threat, and decisions made at COP17 must deliver a clear course correction to protect our planet’s ecosystems. This COP can’t become a mere entry in a vast log of destruction. Governments need to agree on concrete actions that tackle the drivers of biodiversity loss, increase finance and redirect money flows to where they are needed. But decisions in Yerevan will only matter if governments follow through at home. They cannot continue promising to protect nature while supporting its destruction through harmful subsidies and incoherent policies. Any more delay is a threat to our survival on the planet.”

Protecting and conserving at least 30% of land, and water by 2030 is one of the most visible targets of the KM-GBF. Yet the quality of protection matters as much as the area covered. Effective conservation must safeguard ecosystem integrity, prevent habitat loss and degradation, and recognise the rights and leadership of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, whose territories and stewardship practices are essential to protecting biodiversity.

Nichanan Tanthanawit, Ocean Justice Campaign Global Project Lead said: “Protecting 30% of the planet by 2030 is not just a numerical target. Our ambition must be centered around justice, equity, and those who protect nature. Indigenous Peoples and local communities have cared for these lands and waters for generations, yet their knowledge, rights, and leadership are still too often overlooked. Governments must recognise Indigenous and Traditional Territories as distinct conservation systems, secure customary tenure rights, and provide direct funding for community-led solutions. We cannot call conservation a success if it is not grounded in the rights, realities, and leadership of the people on the forefront of nature protection.”

With all three Rio Conventions meeting in 2026, this year is also critical to strengthen cooperation and align action across biodiversity, climate and land use agendas. COP17 must help translate this momentum into coordinated action, with ecosystem integrity and human rights at the heart of decisions and implementation.

Camila Jardim, International Political Expert, Greenpeace Brazil said: “The world is moving towards a looming 1.5°C overshoot and the sixth mass extinction, with the human caused climate and biodiversity crises already severely impacting people all over the world. Those are not separate issues, but pieces of the same puzzle, and action is more urgent than ever. Governments can make the most impact with aligned policies to address both crises them together, with clear actions for the short, medium and long term. This is especially critical for primary forests, which are essential for both climate stability and biodiversity protection, and the Brazil-led roadmap to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030 offers a real opportunity for strengthening synergies between conventions. Protection means tackling not only deforestation but also degradation, and ensuring that climate and biodiversity commitments reinforce each other rather than pull in different directions.”

Ahead of governments beginning discussions, Greenpeace activists deployed a hot air balloon in the historical village of Garni, Armenia, with the message “Delay is Destruction”.

Greenpeace is calling on governments at COP17 to:

• Address gaps in the implementation of the KM-GBF with concrete and forward-looking action;
• Increase finance from public sources, through aligning global and national economic and fiscal policies with the goals and targets of the KM-GBF, including removing harmful subsidies, tackling illicit financial flows and progressive environmental taxation to make nature destroyers pay;
• Ensure the quality of 30×30 protection and restoration, from the worlds’ forests to the high seas, by safeguarding ecosystem integrity, addressing drivers and respecting rights;
• Maximise synergies between biodiversity and climate policies and action globally and nationally.

ENDS

Photos and video: Photo and Video are available in the Greenpeace Media Library.

Notes

1. State of Biodiversity Action: The Global Report on collective progress | Convention on Biological Diversity 

Contacts:

Diego Gonzaga, Communications Lead at CBD COP17, Greenpeace International, +1 415 527 9440, dgonzaga@greenepeace.org

Jaqueline Sordi, Media Lead at COP17, Greenpeace International, +55 51 99678 9048, jsordi@greenpeace.org

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

Protesting a megafarm development in northeast Croatia, calls for economic and climate justice in Thailand, and calls for forest protection in Poland, here are a few of our favourite images from Greenpeace work around the world this week.

Croatia – 12 Greenpeace activists have scaled three barns at a controversial megafarm development in northeast Croatia, painting a 500m2 slogan reading ‘Stop This Shit’ in protest at the threat that animal waste from the facility poses to a nearby biosphere reserve.

Thailand – During the IMF-World Bank Group Annual Meetings 2026 (Oct 12–18) in Bangkok, Greenpeace Thailand activists called for economic and climate justice. Action took place in Bangkok’s business district with signs and shirts demanding ‘Tax The Super Rich,” alongside joining a public coalition protest urging international financial institutions and governments to prioritise people and the planet over profit.

While communities suffer from climate crisis impacts, fossil fuel expansion, and rising economic inequality, major polluters and the wealthiest elite continue to profit from an unfair financial system.

Greenpeace urges the IMF to move away from austerity policies and instead support taxing the super-rich and big polluters’ windfall profits, while advocating for a fair global tax system via the UN Tax Convention.

Poland – On October 15, 2026, on the anniversary of the Polish parliamentary election, a huge banner was hung on the building opposite the Civic Platform headquarters. It depicts Prime Minister Donald Tusk holding a saw alongside the text “Where are those saw-free forests?”. Greenpeace activists wanted to remind the Prime Minister of his promise to protect 20% of the most valuable forests from logging. To date, only a quarter of that promise has been fulfilled.

South Africa – Greenpeace Africa’s NVDA (Non-Violent Direct Action) during the African Energy Week, in Cape Town, South Africa. Following reports that fossil fuel companies had created their own wine labelled ‘Drill Baby Drill’, Greenpeace Africa brought their own drinks to the party with a giant bottle named ‘Pay Baby Pay’.

The conference is a forum where oil and gas companies and interests gather to discuss the promotion of fossil fuel investments instead of alternatives and renewable energy.

Germany – Greenpeace activists protest against the destruction of ecologically valuable forests outside the Ikea store in Hamburg-Altona. Two oversized figures, styled after the stick figures from Ikea’s assembly instructions, are positioned with saws as if they were cutting down the trees in front of the store. At the same time, Greenpeace climbers have unfurled a banner on the furniture store’s facade reading “Ikea is destroying protected areas.”

A Greenpeace report confirms that wood from a protected Natura 2000 site in the Romanian Carpathians is being processed for the world’s largest furniture retailer. Due to its high ecological value, the forest should be strictly protected from deforestation in the future.

Belgium – Activists from 17 countries together with the PeopleVsGas coalition supported by Greenpeace Belgium and other organisations protest in Brussels. They demand a short term emergency plan to shield people from increasing energy costs, and to establish a clear roadmap for Europe to phase out fossil gas by 2035. European policymakers are set to take crucial decisions for the bloc’s energy future.

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, please visit our Media Library.

Despite my best efforts to buy local, seasonal food, I have two non-negotiable vices: coffee and dark chocolate. Not a single day goes by, without me knocking back a shot of espresso and devouring a few squares of 90% dark chocolate.

Lately, though, my daily ritual feels less like a simple routine and more like an expensive indulgence. And I’m sure I’m not the only one who experiences it. If you buy food at a grocery store rather than growing it yourself, you have almost certainly felt the pinch of rising prices.

A recent analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) highlights that in the UK, for example, food prices could be 50% higher than 2021 by November 2026. Globally, the outlook is as gloomy as in the UK. Oxford Economics forecasts food prices could rise up to 11.8% in 2026 and even additional 4.8% in 2027. 

Before food hits grocery store shelves, its price is set in global trading markets. When wholesale prices jump for raw crops like wheat, sugar, soybeans, and corn, higher prices at the checkout counter are guaranteed to follow. Cereals commodity prices rose 17% in one year, while sugar commodity prices increased almost 15%. 

Why is food getting so expensive?

World Food Day’s theme this year reminds us how to “innovate today to nourish tomorrow”, but we should also think about how to nourish people with healthy and affordable food right now. Our modern food system is very fragile. It relies on a long, vulnerable chain of supply that breaks easily when global shocks hit.

These three main drivers are pushing prices up:

• Fossil fuel dependence: Industrial farming relies heavily on oil and gas to run tractors, make plastic packaging, and manufacture chemical fertilisers. When the prices of oil and gas go up, the cost of growing food skyrockets.
  
• Extreme weather: Climate change and severe weather events, like El Niño, bring record breaking heatwaves, devastating droughts, and sudden flooding. When bad weather destroys entire harvests, food becomes scarcer and pricier.
  
• Geopolitical disruptions: Wars and blockades in major trading hubs, such as key shipping routes in the Black Sea or the Strait of Hormuz, hold back critical exports of grain and sunflower oil, squeezing global supplies.

Who loses the most?

Families spend around 20% of their income on food. In low income countries, this even reaches between 40% and 60%. This means food inflation affects people very differently depending on where they live.

For millions of families around the world, this translates directly to skipping meals and, in extreme cases, acute hunger. For others, it means buying basic groceries on credit cards, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) schemes, or bank overdrafts.

Who profits from food prices going up?

While regular families struggle to afford basic groceries, giant corporations and financial traders are making record profits. Fossil fuel giants, chemical fertilizer companies, and massive food trading monopolies are pocketing historic revenues off the back of this crisis. At the same time, financial speculators bet on the future prices of food crops. This market speculation inflates costs artificially, benefiting wealthy investors while everyday people and hardworking farmers pay the price.

How do we fix this food crisis?

We do not have to settle for a broken, crisis-prone food system. A more resilient and more natural solution already exists: agroecology.

Agroecology is a way of farming that works with nature rather than relying on synthetic chemicals. Instead of planting hundreds of acres with just one crop—which can be completely wiped out by a single storm—agroecological farmers grow a diverse mix of plants. If extreme heat kills one crop, others survive to provide a harvest. It replaces industrial factory farming with smaller farms, where fewer animals and crops live together.

We are not powerless. By raising our voices, we can build a fairer, more affordable food system:

1. Demand government action: We can push leaders to lower taxes and offer subsidies on local, organic, and plant-based foods to make healthy eating immediately affordable. Long term, policy needs to fund farmers as they transition toward agroecology.
   
2. Vote with our wallet: Shift the market today by buying local and seasonal foods, shopping at farmers’ markets, and incorporating more plant-based meals into our routine.

When millions of us take action together, governments and corporations cannot ignore the demand for affordable food and a healthy planet. With the right food policies, we can afford basic food, and can even keep enjoying our beloved foods without breaking the bank.

Alessandro Saccoccio is a Co-project Leader at Greenpeace International

One year ago, I went for the first time to Batalha da Matrix. “Batalha” is a lyrical and performance competition between two or more performers (MCs), where they improvise rhymes (freestyle) live and are evaluated by judges and Batalha da Matrix is one of the most traditional, historic, and influential in the state of São Paulo and in Brazil.

The goal of Greenpeace Brazil was to familiarise itself with a territory where communities already make politics through rap and slam. That is how Corre de Quebrada was born: a project that promotes encounters in spaces of cultural expression, such as rhyme battles, poetry circles, but also through debate meetings and conversation circles – and in doing so, unites art to climate justice, to recognise the role of urban populations on the front lines of socio-environmental risks.

Culture from historically under-resourced communities is one of the main forms of expression and transformation of reality. Through art, daily life becomes a narrative, activism and mobilisation. Through that experience of those living in these communities, injustice gains visibility, and collective action gains strength. In this sense, culture is not a complementary element of the strategy, it is the path itself to build engagement, belonging, knowledge, and action.

What we see in a rhyme battle is the concrete expression of the thoughts and feelings of those who know up close the worst impacts of the climate crisis and inequality. According to research by Teto Brasil, 86% of favelas and communities faced at least one extreme climate event in 2025. Communities who are forced to face these challenges and build solutions based on knowledge need to be valued by public authorities in the construction of policies that are mean to work for them.

“The rhyme battle is where we organise our anger, our revolt, where youth show themselves to be catalysts for solutions for the place where they live”, Gaio Jorge, cultural producer and organiser of Corre de Quebrada in Rio de Janeiro, told me. These young people ask that public policies consider their voices, for basic sanitation, safe territories when the rains fall, and not having their studies disrupted or their employment threatened when the streets flood.

Greenpeace Brazil held rhyme battles in five cities in Brazil: São Bernardo do Campo, Belém, during COP30, João Pessoa, Rio de Janeiro, and Recife. The last two battles took place on the Rainbow Warrior ship.

To celebrate one year of the project, we launched a video with big names in Hip-Hop, slam, and community leaders, joining our voices to denounce environmental racism and affirm culture as a legitimate space for political formation and citizenship.

Since we started, we receive daily testimonials that move me deeply because I see that we are building a relationship of exchange, learning, and, above all, trust. “I understand now that it has everything to do with what I live”, MC Magrão told me.

“I became a climate activist. I always experienced these issues, but I only associated everything I experienced to the climate agenda and to the lack of access to rights that guarantee a dignified life, and that we must demand, after I started participating in Corre de Quebrada”, says the MC Mileny, three-time champion of the Brazilian Slam Championship.

To speak of climate justice is to guarantee that the right to dream does not continue competing for space with the daily struggle for survival. And this is only possible when those who feel the impacts of environmental racism stop being seen merely as a statistical data point and start being recognised as leaders of the solutions.

Corre de Quebrada is the construction of this belonging. It is the faces, the voices, and the diversity of each neighborhood in Brazil united to say that the future will not be decided without us. Corre is a living network that refuses to be silenced.

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Camila Doretto is Engagement Analyst for the Climate Justice campaign with Greenpeace Brazil.