From the US to Uganda, how climate activism has been criminalised in 2024

Back in early August, I reported on the arrest of two climate activists outside the New York headquarters of Citibank, one of the world’s largest fossil fuel financiers and target of a campaign known as Summer of Heat.

John Mark Rozendaal, a former music instructor at Princeton University, and Alec Connon, director of the climate nonprofit group Stop the Money Pipeline, were detained for 24 hours and charged with criminal contempt, which carries up to seven years in prison. Why? Rozendaal was playing a Bach solo on his cello while Connon sheltered him with an umbrella – which police claimed broke the conditions of a temporary restraining order that related to another bogus charge of assault (that was later dropped).

Mary Lawlor, the UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders, took up the pair’s case, and together with three other UN experts wrote a formal letter to the US government explaining their fears that the charges were without foundation, and appeared to be a punishment for participating in peaceful protests on the climate crisis and human rights.

More on what happened next, and how this case fits into a bigger picture of climate protest crackdowns, after this week’s most important reads.

Lawlor and the other UN experts wrote to US authorities: “Please indicate what steps have been taken and measures put in place to ensure that all human rights defenders taking peaceful action to promote measures to mitigate climate change and a just transition can carry out their work free from fear of threat, violence, harassment or retaliation of any sort.”

Last week, Lawlor made the letter public after they failed to respond – it’s customary to give states 60 days to respond privately to special rapporteurs before communications are published.

“Authorities should be listening to defenders, but they are not … they are being met with criminalisation,” Lawlor told me. “The climate crisis is a human rights crisis, but states aren’t responding as they should.”

Rozendaal and Connon pleaded guilty to “disorderly conduct” for playing the cello and holding an umbrella. They were among thousands of climate activists who over the summer participated in a series of nonviolent protests calling on Citibank to stop financing the oil and gas industry and increase funding for renewables. Many activists were arrested but most cases were dismissed, with just a handful proceeding through the courts.

Amid continuing fossil fuel expansion, activists in the US and around the world have turned to protests and nonviolent civil disobedience – such as blocking roads and chaining themselves to trees and equipment as a way to slow down construction – to raise public awareness and press for more urgent climate action by governments, corporations and financiers. In response, peaceful climate activists are facing trumped-up criminal and civil charges amid mounting evidence of collusion between corporations, lawmakers and state security forces.

Around a third of the climate activists Lawlor’s team helped between May 2020 and the end of 2023 had faced criminal or civil action in retaliation for their work. They’ve dealt with even more cases this year, as deploying the justice system against environmental and climate defenders is a modus operandi being adopted by democracies and autocratic states alike.

Earlier this week, 15 student activists in Uganda were granted bail after spending a month in jail. The students were charged with common nuisance while attempting to deliver a petition to parliament to stop the 900-mile transnational east African crude oil pipeline. In the UK this June, five supporters of the Just Stop Oil climate campaign received record sentences after being found guilty of conspiracy to cause gridlock on the M25 motorway. In fact, on Wednesday the Guardian reported Britain has the dubious honour of leading the world in arrests of environmental protesters, at “nearly three times the global average rate”.

In the US, Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the Dakota Access pipeline, is suing Greenpeace for $300m related to the 2016-17 Standing Rock protests. The case is scheduled to go to trial in North Dakota in February and, if the jury sides with the company, it could create a new legal precedent that would have major ramifications for environmental groups organising against fossil fuels. In Atlanta, Georgia, 61 social and climate justice activists opposed to the construction of a massive police training facility on an urban forest have been charged with racketeering – a crime usually used to prosecute those involved in organised crime. Meanwhile, US president-elect Donald Trump, whose cabinet nominations include several climate deniers, has vowed to quell protests and “drill, baby, drill”.

The global crackdown against climate activists and groups is one to watch next year. It is clearly part of the fossil fuel industry’s strategy to crush dissent and keep burning the planet.

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Down to Earth readers on the eco-friendly changes they made for the planet

After assessing their climate footprint, New Zealand readers Rachael Goddard and Cheryl Reynolds vowed to take steps to reduce their plastic output. An audit of their dairy purchases led to much guilt about how much packaging was involved, so they decided to start making their own cheese.

Rachael (pictured above) converted her shed into a “tiled, lined and insulated cheese cave” and sourced milk from a local farm – “no air miles, no cruel farming practices, no plastic” – and the pair began experimenting.

They started slowly, saying: “The easiest cheeses for beginners were cream cheese, paneer, feta and halloumi, which can be made and eaten on the same day.” But they quickly developed quite the menu. “More difficult cheeses created were blue and white stilton-like cheese, triple-cream brie, wensleydale and cranberry, cumin gouda and Cheryl’s own made-up recipes.” Their bespoke selection includes a stout cheddar, a marbled brown cheese made with a friend’s black stout.

The art of cheese making is tricky but worth it, they say: “It’s brie-liant. You gouda give it a go!”

Let us know the positive change you’ve made in your life by replying to this newsletter, or emailing us on downtoearth@theguardian.com

Profiling the Earth’s most at-risk animals

Population: fewer than 200,000
Location: North America
Status: Near threatened

Greater sage-grouse now inhabit only half their historic range in the US and Canada due to oil and gas development, conversion of land for agricultural use, climate change and human encroachment on their territory. Those concerned about the conservation of grouse species may be fearful about Donald Trump’s re-election as US president, as the birds’ protections were weakened during his previous term in office.

For more on wildlife at threat, visit the Age of Extinction page here

One image that sums up the week in environmental news

Credit: Rotary Club of Harrogate

Harrogate Spring Water, a bottled water brand owned by the multinational Danone, is “planning to cut down a wood planted by schoolchildren in order to expand its bottling factory in the North Yorkshire town,” Grace Livingstone reported this week.

Two primary schools, along with other local volunteers, helped to plant 450 trees in Harrogate almost 20 years ago, for a project aimed at fighting climate breakdown.

Now, local conservation groups are protesting against the company’s plan to demolish the beloved woodland. Lily Stockburn, who took part in the planting scheme when she was six, said: “They taught us that trees made oxygen and were good for us. I’m devastated they want to destroy it. To cut down trees to make more plastic bottles goes against everything we learned.”

For more of the week’s best environmental pictures, catch up on The Week in Wildlife here