The climate crisis is getting worse every day. Despite increasing mobilization around the world, greenhouse gas emissions continue to reach record levels. Climate change, pollution and mass extinctions are increasing, causing instability, migration and conflict. According to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, we are “on the highway to climate hell, with our foot on the accelerator”.
Our governance system has reached its limits. Political and economic leaders are powerless, and sometimes even complicit, in the face of the magnitude of a crisis of which they are fully aware. However, the hope remains. Many seek to change the status quo through demonstrations, civil disobedience, and legal action. However, too many fundamental decisions for the future of humanity are being made without any scrutiny from citizens and behind closed doors. This organized opacity helps preserve the impunity of those responsible. The climate crisis is also a transparency crisis.
Imagine a world where anyone with access to information of general interest and for the preservation of the environment can disclose it with peace of mind and receive support in doing so. Image washing, carbon accounting, tax benefits, impact assessments… Imagine a world where consumers, citizens, politicians, judges, anyone have access to this information that is often hidden from them and would force those responsible for the climate crisis to accountable.
Whistleblowers, also known as leakers, whistleblowers, whistleblowers or whistleblowers are indispensable for the climate movement. They provide accurate and substantive evidence and powerful testimonies that can have a direct impact by initiating public debate, providing input into legal proceedings, and inspiring others to act. Whistleblowers are often the embodiment of a gradual paradigm shift. By publishing accurate information and sometimes providing evidence, they can shake public opinion, as Edward Snowden demonstrated with mass surveillance or Antoine Deltour with tax optimisation.
Too many fundamental decisions for the future of humanity are being made without any scrutiny from citizens and behind closed doors. This organized opacity helps preserve the impunity of those responsible. The climate crisis is also a transparency crisis
The recent European directive to improve the protection of whistleblowers or the Waserman law in France are proof that lawmakers recognize the role of whistleblowers in our modern societies in the face of economic and political powers that increasingly tend to fragment decisions. manufacturing processes.
At a time when humanity is at a crossroads, these legislative developments should assist those on the front lines in divulging sensitive and vital information to our planet, often hidden for the benefit of a few. A banker who reveals a shadowy fossil fuel financing project, an employee who warns against image-washing practices, an engineer who reveals the ins and outs of massive deforestation… Many can become climate stewards. Many manage to overcome the cognitive dissonance that causes us to close our eyes for the sake of professional stability.
Exposing these abuses is a long, dangerous and risky journey. These leakers threaten powerful and opaque interests. As they expose themselves to risks to their own safety and that of their loved ones, these defenders of the public interest need protection from possible reprisals from the accused organization or group and support to entrust such sensitive information to the authorities, media or civil society groups.
With this goal in mind, the NGO Climate Whistleblowers (CW) was founded this week. And their goal is to act as a shield for the weather guards. Lawyers, journalists, activists: As the founders of The CW, we put our experience at the service of climate whistleblowers to protect them and enable their disclosures to have significant impact.
A single whistleblower can be the start of a larger momentum and act as a catalyst for collective and massive action against opacity organized to maintain the status quo. The act of denunciation can give the earth a voice.
Anna Myers is Managing Director of the Whistleblowing International Network (WIN).
Henri Thullez He is a lawyer with the Paris Bar and director of the Platform for the Protection of Whistleblowers in Africa (PPLAAF).
Gabriel Bourdon-Fattall is an attorney for the Tel Aviv Bar Association and program director for the PPLAAF
Cecile Marchand She is a fossil fuel researcher at the NGO ARIA.
fade mud He is a journalist and founder of the Senegalese civil movement Y’en a Marre.
Simon Ilse is a consultant for globally networked security at the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
Jean Philippe Fogle He is a lawyer and researcher and former coordinator of La Maison des Lanceurs d’Alerte (the House of Whistleblowers).
Clara Gonzalez he is a lawyer
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