Governments are failing environmental defenders. COP30 must act

Binaifer Nowrojee is the president of the Open Society Foundations.

As thousands of people from across the world descend on Belém for COP30 this week, one priority must be the protection of environmental defenders as central to tackling climate change.

Seven years ago, Latin American and Caribbean states came together to adopt the landmark Escazú Agreement. The legally binding treaty compels governments to share information related to the environment, it affirms the right to a healthy environment, and it protects the rights of citizens to participate in decisions affecting their land, health and livelihoods.

The Escazú Agreement is the first international treaty to guarantee protections to environmental human rights defenders - ensuring a safe environment and taking measures to protect, investigate and prosecute attacks against them. The agreement builds on gathering momentum over recent years.

My organisation, the Open Society Foundations, supported civil society in the region to help secure an important advisory opinion from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which affirms the duty of states to protect environmental defenders.

This year, the International Court of Justice issued its own advisory opinion, recognising the right to a healthy environment, which implicitly acknowledges the rights of environmental defenders. These rulings also lay the ground for accountability when it comes to attacks. There is also a push from island nations in the South Pacific to recognise the crime of ecocide.

To be an environmental defender today is an act of courage. According to Global Witness, 117 environmental defenders were killed last year, with 82% of those killings taking place in Latin America. According to the latest data, Colombia is the deadliest country for environmental defenders, followed by Guatemala, where the number of killings has quadrupled within a single year. There has been no accountability for the attacks, which include harassment and arrests.

In several countries, environmental defenders have been criminalised, rendering their legitimate and necessary work illegal. There are laws to silence free speech and shut down protests. In some cases, the authorities have used national security laws to label the defence of the environment as terrorism.

There is impunity for these attacks, which are carried out by criminal gangs and state authorities. In Colombia, for example, the Global Witness report said only 5% of the killings since 2002 have led to convictions.

The failure to hold the attackers accountable is linked to the influence of extractive industries over governments, seeking to perpetuate their ravaging of the environment at the cost of the planet.

Up to now, 28 countries in the region have signed up to the Escazú Agreement and 18 have become state parties. But this is the easy part. States often sign up to treaties for the sake of appearances, never intending to act on them. Research has even shown that these commitments can be used as cover by governments while they increase their abuses.

Implementation is the real test. Governments need to act on their commitments, narrowing the distance between their pledges and their practices. Encouragingly, five countries, including Chile and Mexico, have adopted national plans to implement the Escazú Agreement.

The protection of environmental defenders benefits countries in the region. The most obvious benefit is to the environment. Latin America and the Caribbean have vast forests, including the Amazon rainforest - often described as the “lungs of the planet”.

The Brazilian government, which is yet to ratify the treaty, has taken important steps to halt the ravaging of the rainforests that happened under the government of former President Jair Bolsonaro. Protecting environmental defenders is crucial to its climate action agenda.

Tackling attacks on environmental defenders will also improve the security situation in the region, along with protecting women and communities from violence. Women,

Indigenous, Afro-descendant and rural communities are the most targeted in attacks on environmental defenders. The attacks reinforce their marginalisation. Strong environmental governance is also an essential condition for stability and sustainable growth.

At Open Society, we are committed to this work. As part of a wide-ranging effort to mark COP30, I’m proud to share that we are making a $2 million investment in supporting the implementation of the Escazú Agreement, working with civil society, governments and the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

This funding will complement our other commitments through impact investing, to support the energy transition in Brazil and work that is underway to create new economic models that will create green, sustainable growth.

It's in the interests of governments to protect environmental defenders, and where they show will, civil society will be there to support them.