Last week I woke up to a hazy, orange sky, a red sun, and the smell of burning wood drifting through the Montreal city air. 

Smell is one of our strongest ties to memory.¹ As someone who has spent years camping with friends, I have always associated the scent of burning wood with warmth, laughter by the fire, and a deep connection to nature.

This time, the smell made my stomach sink.

That scent did not come from a nearby campfire. It was millions of hectares of boreal forest burning across the continent. My throat tightened as I thought of the thousands of people, especially Indigenous communities, forced to evacuate while their homes burned to the ground.

Smoke Knows No Borders

We are actually witnessing a global ecological shift. Canada’s devastating 2023–24 wildfire seasons saw 20.4 million hectares burn down. These were not isolated events. We’re seeing forests burn around the world, from Australia’s bushfires and Mediterranean blazes to the burning Amazon; climate-driven fire seasons are increasingly common occurrences.

Climate change and wildfire smoke do not respect geopolitical borders. In 2023, haze from Canadian fires crossed the Atlantic and caused air quality alerts in western Europe. Pollution anywhere speeds up climate disruption everywhere. If we treat ecological collapse as just a local problem, we miss how interconnected the climate crisis really is.

And right about now, the images of wildfires surging from across the world create a real sense of global emergency. Do you feel this, too?

Health Risks of Wildfire Smoke Exposure

We can’t keep seeing wildfire smoke as just a seasonal problem. The fine particles found in wildfire haze carry toxic chemicals, heavy metals, and black carbon that go deep into our bloodstream.

Recent research confirms that breathing in wildfire smoke raises the risk of heart disease, stroke, and lung problems for months after the smoke is gone. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) also warns that extreme fires could increase by up to 50% worldwide by the end of the century if emissions are not reduced.

We must urge our leaders to consider this: What is the point of short-term economic growth or rising stock markets if the simple act of breathing outside becomes dangerous for our health?

Need for Political Courage and Systemic Change

One of the most frustrating aspects of this dire situation is the gap between what politicians say and what they actually do.

Governments may issue air quality warnings and talk about climate targets, but many still use public money to support fossil fuel projects and support industrial practices that worsen global warming. For example, in Canada, billions of tax dollars are set to fund fossil fuel projects, even as the country falls behind on its emissions targets.

Calling fossil fuel expansion short-sighted during a climate crisis is an understatement. While oil company CEOs rake in excess profits, frontline communities and families pay the real price through health problems, food insecurity and higher living costs.

Forest Management & Indigenous Fire Stewardship

For over a century, industry-led forest management has focused on putting out all fires, clear-cut logging and planting monoculture tree plantations. Unfortunately, this has led to dense, uniform forests, turning them into giant tinderboxes during climate-exacerbated heatwaves. 

To change this, we need to move from just fighting fires to caring for forests in a holistic way that respects nature and Indigenous knowledge:

1. Restoring Indigenous Fire Stewardship 

For thousands of years, Indigenous Peoples in North America, Australia, and South America have practiced cultural burning, which means controlled, low-intensity fires during cooler seasons. Recent research shows that returning land and fire management to Indigenous communities helps clear dangerous undergrowth, restore biodiversity, and prevent major wildfires.

2. Resilience from Diversity 

Instead of managing forests by planting fast-growing trees that benefit the timber industry, experts recommend focussing on ecological diversity. A mix of tree species, ages, other vegetation and structures in the forest makes ecosystems stronger in the long run.

3. Protecting Primary & Old-Growth Forests

Ancient forests store huge amounts of carbon and keep soil moist much better than young tree plantations. Protecting these old-growth forests is one of the most affordable and effective ways to fight climate change.

Reason for Hope: Global Climate Solutions for Wildfire Prevention

The solutions we need already exist. If we recognize how serious this crisis is, we can move forward together and achieve real change by:

• Respecting and supporting Indigenous-led solutions → For millennia, Indigenous Peoples and local communities have respected and defended nature. Their experience shows that the resiliency of forests is strongest when the local people who rely on them have the power to care for and manage their territories.
  
• Stopping the flow of government subsidies to fossil fuels and Making Polluters Pay → Moving government support from fossil fuels to green energy, forest restoration, and community resilience can address the real causes of climate change. And instead of making wealthy polluters wealthier, we should make them pay for the harm they cause.
  
• Global Climate Accountability → We need to treat the climate emergency as a real international health and security crisis. Countries must keep their promises under the Paris Agreement and work quickly to cut methane and carbon emissions. If we lower global temperatures, forests will be less likely to burn to the ground.

Taking Back Our Future

The smell of firewood should continue to remind us of nights under the stars with friends, not the loss of our homes or our future. We already have the knowledge, tools, and solutions to protect and restore forests. Now is the time to ask our leaders for a long-term vision, while we can still safely breathe the air around us.

Defend the defenders

Demand the recognition of Indigenous rights and their territories.

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Julie Amira Byrnes is Engagement Manager at Greenpeace International

1. Molly McDonough (2024), The Connections Between Smell, Memory, and Health, Harvard Medicine Magazine ︎

New York – As the fifth round of negotiations on the Global Tax Treaty – also known as the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation – opens today in New York, Greenpeace International is calling on governments to raise their ambition. Gaps in the draft text, published in full for the first time, must be addressed so that global tax rules can help solve the connected climate, nature, and inequality crises, rather than letting corporate polluters and the super-rich profit while everyone else pays the price.

Nina Stros, Global Senior Policy Expert, Greenpeace International said: “Governments and delegates still have not grasped what is at stake but they face a simple choice. Create global tax rules to speed the transition to a fairer, more resilient future by disincentivising investment in environmentally destructive industries, ending tax-dodging, and holding wealthy polluters to account. Or keep shielding polluting corporations and the super-rich while communities pay the price through higher bills and climate devastation. The money is right there. It is about time governments recognised this once in a generation opportunity to make those most responsible for the climate, nature and inequality crises we are facing pay their share, and reclaim trillions of dollars to invest in our shared future.”

While the world recently saw its first-ever trillionaire, the largest oil and gas corporations are reporting another bonanza in second-quarter profits. Meanwhile, record-breaking heatwaves, rising ocean temperatures and the cost-of-living crisis continue to put communities under pressure worldwide.[1]

The newly published ‘zero draft’ of the Global Tax Treaty falls far short of the ambition needed to hold the wealthiest polluters to account. Negotiators must push back against the disconnect between this draft and the realities of the climate and inequality crises communities face.[2][3][4]

Despite 24 countries making submissions aligned with strengthening the Treaty’s Sustainable Development article, the text does not go beyond the high-level clause already in the terms of reference.[5][6] Governments are left with far too much room to continue with business as usual, rather than creating a clear new legal obligation to hold wealthy polluters to account through national and global tax mechanisms. Similarly, the polluter pays principle appears nowhere in the current draft. The article on taxing high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) has been weakened since the last round of negotiations in January 2026, reducing obligations on countries to act. The draft also fails to include any provisions on minimum profit taxation of multinational companies, or on the taxation of extractive industries and natural resources.

Ucizi Ngulube, Tax Justice Campaigner, Greenpeace Africa, said: “The global majority championed this United Nations process because the current global tax system is fundamentally unfair, serving a handful of wealthy nations and billionaires at the expense of everyone else. As we head into INC-5, countries must remain ambitious. We don’t need vague promises, we need bold proposals that stop the exploitation and inequality, and hold the ultra-rich polluters accountable for the climate damage they leave behind.”

By closing loopholes on profit-shifting and tax havens, and setting new taxes, nationally and globally, on the profits of the biggest polluters and on extreme wealth, countries could unlock public funds urgently needed for climate action, nature protection and essential public services.[7]

Mayor Melchor Mergal, Municipal Mayor of Salcedo, Eastern Samar, Philippines, survivor of super-typhoon Haiyan and member of Greenpeace delegation in New York said: “I have seen what the increasingly frequent and devastating storms can do to a community, and I know what it takes to rebuild. The money is needed for stronger homes, schools and health centres that can safeguard our communities against the next storm. The funds exist. What we are missing is the political will to make those most responsible pay for the damage. A strong treaty would give communities like mine the means to recover and to build real resilience through making polluters pay.”

Greenpeace International is calling on negotiators in New York to strengthen the sustainable development and HNWI articles in line with the proposals countries, experts and civil society groups have put forward, to include the polluter pays principle into the text, and ensure the treaty can reclaim at least one trillion US dollars per year in public finance for climate action, public services and a fair transition.

ENDS

A Greenpeace delegation, including Mayor Melchor Mergal, will be at INC-5 in New York. The delegation is available for comments or interviews before, during and after the talks.

Greenpeace media briefing for the key dynamics at INC-5, our analysis of the zero draft, and full background on the spokespeople.

Notes:

[1] As war on Iran drives record Q2 profits for Big Oil, communities struggle with extreme weather and soaring costs

[2] The Global Tax Treaty is the first genuinely inclusive forum for delivering fair and inclusive global rules. Unlike under the OECD, every country has an equal vote, and decisions are taken by majority rather than consensus. 

[3] In April, 57 countries met in Santa Marta, Colombia, to advance action on ending coal, oil and gas dependence. The final synthesis report highlights under-taxation of fossil profits as a barrier to a just transition, concluding that progressive tax reforms are necessary. 141 countries also voted for a just transition away from fossil fuels under a UN General Assembly resolution endorsing the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion on climate change in May. 

[4] Co-Lead’s Zero Draft of UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation (July 2026)

[5] Global Tax Treaty – briefing for champions on progressive polluter taxation

[6] United Nations General Assembly, Terms of reference for a United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation

[7] A Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels: Greenpeace Policy Briefing Policy Briefing 

Contact:

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

From calls for climate action in the Philippines and Switzerland, to protests demanding permanent protection of Raja Ampat. Here are a few of our favourite images from Greenpeace work around the world this week.

Philippines – Greenpeace Philippines and frontline communities challenge Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to ensure that his administration’s vision of development will protect people–not polluters–as he delivers his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA), warning that the country cannot claim genuine progress while millions of Filipinos continue to bear the growing costs of extreme heat and the climate crisis.

Switzerland – The drought in Switzerland is continuing and is casting a shadow over the National Day with bans on open fires and fireworks. This summer shows what lies ahead for us. Due to global warming, summer droughts and the risk of weather-related forest fires will continue to increase.

Greenpeace activists are therefore in no mood to celebrate. On Thursday 30 July 2026, they unfurled a banner on the shores of Lake Constance at Mannenbach-Salenstein harbour bearing the slogan ‘No reason to celebrate. Climate action now!’. They are calling on Switzerland to finally acknowledge the climate crisis and take appropriate action: 100 million Swiss francs are needed for immediate measures to tackle heatwaves and protect the climate.

Indonesia – Greenpeace activists staged a peaceful, non-violent protest to reiterate their call for the full and permanent protection of the Raja Ampat ecosystem. This action involved unfurling banners reading “Protect Raja Ampat, Stop Dirty Energy” and “Is Your Car Powered by Forest Destruction?” just as Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita pressed the button to open the Gaikindo Indonesia International Auto Show (GIIAS) 2026, the largest annual automotive exhibition in Indonesia.

Spain – Artificial smoke, ashes, burnt logs and a black banner outside the Congress of Deputies reading “Spain is burning. Your inaction is killing us”. This is how Greenpeace Spain activists peacefully protested this morning in Madrid to show their solidarity with the thousands of people affected by the fires, as well as demanding that political groups and administrations act and engage in real politics to address the climate emergency. All this at the start of a fourth heatwave and with much of the country affected by historic fires that have already claimed 15 direct fatalities and displaced more than 100,000 people.

New Zealand/Aotearoa – Greenpeace New Zealand activists dropped an 18-square-metre banner from a giant rimu tree to call for conservation land protections on New Zealand’s West Coast. They are protesting government reforms to conservation laws that would make it easier to commercially exploit and sell off public conservation land. The activists are recreating an iconic image from one of New Zealand’s most famous conservation campaigns, which successfully stopped native forest logging on public land across the country.

Germany – Greenpeace documents dead zones through research carried out on Boris Herrmann’s research yacht, the Malizia Explorer along the German Baltic Sea coast. Greenpeace scientists test the water with a CTD-Probe among other methods, for nitrate and phosphorous levels, temperature, oxygen and salt levels and for PFAS.

High numbers of factory farms lead to an increased production of liquid manure, which is later spread onto the fields, with traces eventually landing in the open seas after rainfall. These substances lead to detrimental conditions in the water and the sea bed, including so-called dead zones. Drone images of the Malizia Explorer just off the Schleswig-Holstein coast.

UK – As Shell announces record profits an electric advan outside Big Ben at Westminster is showing images of the damage caused by wildfires across Europe. The images raise awareness that the biggest polluters continue to profit while ordinary people bear the brunt of the costs of these climate disasters. It’s time to hold Shell accountable and demand they pay for the damage they’ve caused.

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.

Amsterdam, Netherlands – Chevron and ExxonMobil today reported combined profits of more than US$26 billion for the second quarter, closing another bumper earnings season for the world’s largest oil and gas corporations as the illegal war on Iran drives up oil prices and the cost of living.

The latest huge United States results follow high quarterly earnings from European multinational corporations Shell, TotalEnergies, Equinor and Eni.[1] The announcements land as households face rising energy, transport and food costs. Oil and gas giants are banking billions from the price shocks of another war, while the fossil fuels they sell keep driving climate disasters that communities are paying for with their homes, their harvests and their lives.[2] Late-June heatwaves alone killed more than 10,000 people across Europe, while wildfires in July forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes in countries including Algeria, Canada, France and Spain.

Rebecca Newsom, Global Political Lead at Greenpeace International, said:

“These profits are another reminder that crisis is a feature of the fossil fuel business model, not a bug. The illegal war on Iran has pushed oil prices higher and the world’s biggest polluters are cashing in – at the very moment their products are driving the deadly heatwaves and fires devastating communities around the world.

“This is fossilflation – their profits are driving up our bills. Families pay through rising food prices and other mounting costs of climate disasters, while oil and gas corporations profit from the very instability they help create. For as long as wrecking the climate stays this lucrative, the crises will keep coming.

“Governments must respond by permanently increasing taxes on oil and gas profits – not just windfalls – and backing a global polluter profits tax, alongside new rules to end tax dodging and profit shifting under the Global Tax Treaty. These measures could unlock hundreds of billions of dollars to help communities recover and accelerate the shift to renewable energy, while disincentivising further investment in the fossil fuel industry. It’s time governments used the tax system to make this destruction unprofitable, and to support a just and equitable global transition away from fossil fuels.”

Chevron’s second quarter profit of US$12 billion, is a 328 per cent increase from the first quarter, while Exxon’s profit of US$14.7 billion, is a 67 per cent increase from the first quarter.

From 3 August, governments meet in New York for the next round of negotiations to agree on a Global Tax Treaty.[3] Greenpeace is calling for new global rules to end tax-dodging and make oil and gas corporations and the super-rich pay for the climate damage they have caused, in order to fund a fair, green and resilient future. A new 20% global tax on oil and gas profits, applied fairly, with tax rates progressively increasing over time, could raise more than US$100 billion a year in its first few years.[4] The revenues from bolder taxes on wealthy polluters must support communities recovering from war and climate disasters, strengthen public services, protect families from rising bills, and finance a just transition to renewable energy that leaves no one behind.

Fifty seven countries committed to advancing an end to coal, oil and gas dependence at the Santa Marta conference in Colombia in April, and 141 countries subsequently backed a just transition away from fossil fuels through a UN General Assembly resolution endorsing the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion on Climate Change in May.[5][6] Governments must now turn those commitments into action by ending new fossil fuel expansion, permanently increasing taxes on oil and gas profits, and accelerating investment in renewable energy.

ENDS

Notes:

[1] Q2 profit results from Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, TotalEnergies, Equinor and Eni 

[2] Global Witness: big five oil majors’ profits jumped 125% in the year Russia invaded Ukraine 

[3] Also known as the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation. Greenpeace media briefing: Global Tax Treaty negotiators meet as record heat intensifies worldwide 

[4] Proposal for a surtax on fossil fuel industries’ profits (Global Alliance for Tax Justice) 

[5] Santa Marta conference to end fossil fuels a landmark moment for climate, energy stability – The final synthesis report from co-chairs Colombia and the Netherlands highlights the under-taxation of fossil profits as a barrier to a just transition, concluding that progressive tax reforms are necessary.

[6] UNGA heeds Pacific voices, backs world court on states’ climate obligations 

Contact:

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