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‘Climate justice is stories’
Caroline Mair-Toby, lawyer and chief empowerment officer at SHE Changes Climate, on why sharing stories is a crucial element of climate justice.
8 March 2023
Fossil fuel infrastructure poses risks for the health and livelihoods of at least 2 billion people globally, roughly a quarter of the world’s population.
This is the headline finding of a new report, from Amnesty International and Better Planet Laboratory, on the fossil fuel industry’s harms to climate, people and ecosystems across the world.
The report, Extraction Extinction: Why the lifecycle of fossil fuels threatens life, nature, and human rights, demonstrates that the full lifecycle of fossil fuels destroys irreplaceable natural ecosystems and undermines human rights, particularly of those living near fossil fuel infrastructure.
Proximity to coal, oil and gas infrastructure has been proven to elevate risks of cancer, cardiovascular illness, adverse reproductive outcomes and other negative health outcomes.
Amnesty International partnered with Better Planet Laboratory (BPL), at the University of Colorado Boulder, for a first-of-its-kind mapping exercise to estimate the potential scale of global harm from existing and future sites for the production of fossil fuels.
‘The ever-expanding fossil fuel industry is endangering billions of lives and irreversibly altering the climate system. Until now, there had been no global estimate of the number of people who live in close proximity to fossil fuel infrastructure. Our work together with BPL reveals the scale of the massive risks posed by fossil fuels throughout their lifespan. Coal, oil and gas projects are driving climate chaos, harming people and nature.
‘This report provides yet more evidence of the imperative for states and corporate actors to ‘defossilize’ the global economy to mitigate the worst impacts of the climate crisis on human rights. The age of fossil fuels must end now.’
AGNÈS CALLAMARD
Secretary General of Amnesty International
BPL mapped the scale of exposure to fossil fuel infrastructure by overlaying data on the known locations of fossil fuel infrastructure sites with gridded population data, datasets that are indicators of critical ecosystems, data on global gridded daily emissions and data on Indigenous People’s land tenure.
BPL’s findings are likely to underestimate the true global scales due to discrepancies in documentation of fossil fuel projects and limited census data across countries.
The report is also based on in-depth qualitative research conducted in partnership with Columbia Law School’s Smith Family Human Rights Clinic and consisting of interviews of more than 90 people, including directly affected individuals from artisanal fishing communities in Brazil (Guanabara Bay), Indigenous land defenders in Canada (Wet’suwet’en territory) and coastal communities in Senegal (Saloum Delta), academics, journalists, CSOs and government officials.
It also uses open-source data and remote sensing to corroborate and visualise findings. These were complemented by the results and conclusions of Amnesty International’s past research and ongoing campaigns against oil and gas giants in Ecuador, Colombia and Nigeria.
At least 2 billion people live within 5km of more than 18,000 operating fossil fuel infrastructure sites distributed across 170 countries around the world.
Of these, more than 520 million are estimated to be children and at least 463 million are living within 1km of the sites, exposing them to much higher environmental and health risks.
Indigenous Peoples are disproportionately exposed, with over 16% of global fossil fuel infrastructure sited on Indigenous territories.
At least 32% of the existing fossil fuel sites mapped out overlapped with one or more ‘critical ecosystems.’
The fossil fuel industry continues to expand, with more than 3,500 fossil fuel infrastructure sites either proposed, in development or under construction globally.
BPL figures suggest that such expansion could put at least 135 million additional people at risk.
Notably, the number of oil and gas projects is set to increase across all continents while the number of coal plants and mines is increasing mostly in China and India.
‘Governments have pledged to phase out fossil fuels, but we now have clear evidence showing new fossil fuel projects continue to expand preferentially in our most critical ecosystems globally. This is a direct contradiction with stated climate goals.’
GINNI BRAICH
Senior Data Scientist at BPL who led the paper underpinning the report’s global findings
‘We’re experiencing intergenerational battle fatigue… We physically won’t survive [this]. We were never the instigators but we have taken the brunt of all the violence’, said Wet’suwet’en land defender Tsakë ze’ Sleydo’ (Molly Wickham), while describing the imminent construction of new compressors set to increase the profitability of the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline in Canada.
Extracting, processing and transporting fossil fuels undermines the human rights of neighbouring communities and causes severe environmental degradation, health risks, and loss of culture and livelihood.
Some of the groups interviewed described extraction as a form of economic or cultural pillage, perpetrated by corporate actors through intimidation and coercion.
‘We are not after money; we only want what is ours. We just want to fish in Guanabara Bay, it’s our right. And they are taking our rights’, said Bruno Alves de Vega, an urban artisanal fisher from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
All environmental human rights and Indigenous land defenders interviewed by Amnesty International faced severe safety and security risks, often stemming from disputes with companies whose activities threaten traditional ways of life and ecosystem integrity.
Beyond physical and online threats, states and corporate actors have relied on lawfare, abusing legal action, including criminal proceedings, to silence, delegitimise and intimidate defenders.
‘When we rise up to defend the Yin’tah (Wet’suwet’en territory), we are criminalised. Civil injunctions are a colonial legal weapon that has become a mechanism for the militarisation of our community, criminalisation of our People, and for companies to carry out destructive extraction without Indigenous consent’, said other Wet’suwet’en land defenders.
Members of communities living in close proximity to fossil fuel infrastructure condemned the lack of direct and meaningful consultation and transparency from corporate actors.
Many reported not fully understanding the scope of operators’ ongoing activities or expansion plans and stated that they had not consented to projects affecting their territory.
People interviewed by Amnesty International in the Saloum Delta in Senegal raised concerns regarding the poor dissemination of accessible information about the potential environmental and socio-economic impacts of the Sangomar project by authorities and project operator Woodside, a major Australian fossil fuel company.
‘These case studies are but a few examples of a globalised problem. Most affected groups condemned the power imbalance between their communities and corporate operators, as well as the lack of effective remedy. The fossil fuel era is inevitably coming to an end and states must stop criminalising environmental human rights defenders fighting to protect their communities.
‘States must investigate physical and online threats defenders face and put in place robust protection programmes to ensure critical voices advocating for an urgent and equitable energy transition can safely and meaningfully shape climate action.’
CANDY OFIME
Researcher and Legal Advisor on climate justice at Amnesty International
Most of the projects documented created pollution hotspots, turning nearby communities and critical ecosystems into ‘sacrifice zones’.
A sacrifice zone is a heavily contaminated area where low-income and marginalised groups bear the disproportionate burden of exposure to pollution and toxic substances.
Exploration, processing, site development, transportation and decommissioning of fossil fuels caused or risked harm to people and wildlife, led to severe pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and damaged key biodiversity areas or carbon sinks.
Despite commitments made under international climate agreements and repeated calls by the UN to urgently phase out fossil fuels, government actions have been wholly inadequate.
Fossil fuels still account for 80% of the global primary energy supply, while the industry is intensifying efforts to exert undue influence in climate policy forums to prevent their rapid phase out.
‘States should be embarking on a full, fast, fair and funded phase out of fossil fuels, and a just transition to renewable energy produced in a manner consistent with human rights. Amnesty International urgently calls for the adoption and implementation of a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.
‘The climate crisis is a manifestation and catalyst of deep-rooted injustices. This report responds to the host nation Brazil’s vision for this year’s COP30 to be a forum for the meaningful participation of forest peoples, including Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities and civil society. Our report exposes the magnitude of climate and human rights harms associated with fossil fuel production across the world, illustrating the industry’s disparate impact on Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities and highlighting the resistance they are mounting.
‘The fossil fuel industry and its state sponsors have argued for decades that human development requires fossil fuels. But we know that under the guise of economic growth, they have served instead greed and profits without red lines, violated rights with near-complete impunity and destroyed the atmosphere, biosphere and oceans. Against these continuing patterns, against the global fossil fuel political economy of repression, we must resist collectively and demand that world leaders deliver on their obligations and commitments. Humanity must win.’
AGNÈS CALLAMARD
Secretary General of Amnesty International
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