Almost 200 land defenders and climate activists were murdered last year. And environmental activists are increasingly facing tougher suppression and harassment from governments in Western countries.

Nearly 200 environmental activists around the world were murdered in 2023, according to a new report by the organization Global Witness. But the real number of murdered activists is most likely much higher.

For the second year in a row, Colombia tops the list of countries where most climate activists and land defenders are murdered. Last year, 79 activists were killed in the country. Brazil, Honduras and Mexico were next in line. These four countries alone made up more than 70 percent of all recorded killings globally.

The report, which has been released yearly since 2012, shows that Latin America remains the most dangerous region with 85 percent of the total 196 murders. But the authors of the reports notes that findings are conservative and likely incomplete. For example, in all of Africa, Global Witness recorded only four deaths and consequently warned that their figure was likely a "gross underestimate" due to difficulty in collecting information.

In addition to murder, activists are also subject to "enforced disappearances and abductions," tactics which are particularly used in both the Philippines and Mexico.

"We are facing difficulties in returning to our homes and communities. We are still experiencing surveillance, red-tagging, and intimidation," said Jonila Castro, a Filipino activist who was abducted by the Philippines military in 2023 and currently facing criminalization, the report said.

Environmental activists are also being silenced and suppressed by legislation in several countries. The report highlights Western countries where the situation for climate activists has become increasingly tougher in recent years. The report points out the USA, EU, and the UK as examples of countries and regions which have introduced harsher legislation, penalties and "draconian levels of surveillance" for environmental protesters and activists.

But it's not just governments and politicians that are actively suppressing environmental activists. The report notes that media institutions also play "a major role in tainting mainstream perceptions of those protesting against climate breakdown." In January 2024, the UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders under the Aarhus Convention, Michel Forst, emphasised his distress at observing the disparagement of environmental and climate defenders by the mainstream UK media and politicians. The result, he says, is “a significant chilling effect on civil society and the exercise of fundamental freedoms.” 

We've all seen how environmental activists and protesters are being portrayed by mainly right-leaning politicians and various media outlets as extremists and terrorists that must be harshly dealt with, and how they gleefully post on social media with sick enjoyment whenever environmental protesters face brutality and violence from both fellow civilians and law enforcement. If you want a fresh example, just look how human rights activists and anti-war protesters are being suppressed by Germany and other Western governments right now. These heavy-handed police tactics and anti-protest laws will most likely also be used to suppress environmental protesters and activists. Make no mistake, if democratic governments can suppress activists that are protesting against a genocide today (They are trying to silence people who are protesting a genocide. A genocide! What happened to us?), they will have no qualms about suppressing climate activists using the very same heavy-handed treatment tomorrow.

Another report, by Climate Rights International, builds upon this and exposes Western governments for their apparent double-standard. The report details how democratic Western governments are increasingly using harsh, vague and punitive measures to crack down on climate protests in their own countries, while they are criticising similar tactics used by more authoritative governments and countries in the global South.

“Governments too often take such a strong and principled view about the right to peaceful protest in other countries – but when they don’t like certain kinds of protests at home they pass laws and deploy the police to stop them,” said Brad Adams, director at Climate Rights International.

The report highlights how Australia, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and the US frequently criticise regimes in developing countries for not respecting the right to protest peacefully. But back home, these countries' governments are increasingly suppressing and cracking-down on climate activists. These governments have themselves responded to non-violent climate protests with mass arrests and draconian new laws that have resulted in long prison sentences. In the UK, climate activists now face longer prison sentences than rapists and far-right rioters. The report also shows how politicians - and the media - have been labelling the protesters as hooligans, saboteurs and even "ecoterrorists".

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• In the United Kingdom, five protesters were given unprecedented prison sentences for conspiring to cause a public nuisance on a the M25 motorway that encircles London. Daniel Shaw, Louise Lancaster, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, and Cressida Gethin received four years in prison while Roger Hallam received five years, thought to be the longest sentence ever given in the United Kingdom for non-violent protest. Over 1,200 artists, athletes, academics, and human rights lawyers signed an open letter to the Attorney General condemning the sentences. In an earlier case, Steve Gingell was prosecuted under a law enacted in 2023 that allows a sentence of up to twelve months in prison for even minor disruption of “key national infrastructure,” which is defined to include roads. He was sentenced to six months in prison for slow walking for 30 minutes in a climate march on a London road.
• In Germany, Winfried Lorenz received 22 months in prison without parole for his participation in a sit-in blockade. It is believed to be the longest prison sentence ever imposed in Berlin against a peaceful climate protester. Christian Bergemann was held in preventative detention for 10 days because of his intention to help block a road to peacefully protest an auto show. This is allowed through a controversial Bavarian law.
• In Australia, Deanna “Violet” Coco was prosecuted under a New South Wales law that allows a sentence of up to two years in prison for anyone who enters or remains on a bridge or tunnel if doing so leads to any part of the bridge or tunnel being closed or vehicles or pedestrians being redirected.
• In the Netherlands, Sieger Sloot, a Dutch actor and activist, encouraged his followers on social media to join a peaceful protest at The Hauge in The Netherlands that involved blocking a roadway. The police arrested him before the protest even took place and prosecuted him for the felony of sedition.
• In the United States, Timothy Martin and Joanna Smith faced felony charges that included up to five years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine for smearing water-soluble paint on the protective case of a statue in the National Gallery in Washington D.C.

Governments around the world are not doing enough to stop greenhouse gas emissions from rising rapidly. Climate change is accelerating and not slowing down. We are clearly losing the fight against climate change. But rather than taking urgent measures to rapidly reduce the use of fossil fuels and halt ecological collapse, our governments are instead suppressing and stopping those who are bravely raising the alarm by taking part in non-violent protests and civil disobedience.

The worse climate change gets, the more the status quo powers will escalate their crack-downs and violence against climate activists in a futile effort to cling to power and maintain order in a dying world. Dark times are ahead of us.

Cover photo by Joël de Vriend.