The climate crisis is worsening day by day. Despite growing mobilization around the world, greenhouse gas emissions continue to reach record levels. Climate change, pollution and mass extinctions are intensifying, causing instability, migrations and conflicts. According to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, we are on "the highway to climate hell, with our foot on the accelerator."
Our system of governance has reached its limits. Political and economic decision-makers are powerless and sometimes even complicit in the face of the magnitude of a crisis of which they are fully aware. However, hope persists. Many act to change the status quo through demonstrations, civil disobedience and court action. However, too many fundamental decisions for the future of humanity are made without any citizen control and behind closed doors. This organized opacity contributes to preserving impunity for those who are responsible. The climate crisis is also a crisis of transparency.
Imagine a world in which anyone who has access to information of general interest and vital for the preservation of the environment can reveal it in a serene way, while receiving support. Image washing, carbon accounting, tax benefits, impact studies... Imagine a world in which consumers, citizens, politicians, judges, everyone, have access to this information that is often withheld from them and that would hold those responsible for the climate crisis to account.
Whistleblowers, also called whistleblowers, whistleblowers, or whistleblowers, are essential to the climate movement. They provide accurate and substantial evidence, as well as powerful testimony, that can have a direct impact by generating public debate, providing inputs for court proceedings, and inspiring others to take action. Often, whistleblowers are the embodiment of a gradual paradigm shift. By publishing accurate information and sometimes providing evidence, they can shake public opinion, just as Edward Snowden demonstrated with mass surveillance, or Antoine Deltour with tax optimization.
Too many fundamental decisions for the future of humanity are made without any citizen control and behind closed doors. This organized opacity contributes to preserving impunity for those who are responsible. The climate crisis is also a crisis of transparency
The recent European directive to improve whistleblower protection, or the Waserman law in France, are evidence of the recognition by legislators of the role played by whistleblowers in our modern societies in the face of economic and political powers, increasingly inclined to fragment decision-making processes.
At a time when humanity is at a crossroads, these legislative advances must help those who, on the front line, reveal sensitive and vital information for our planet, which is often hidden for the benefit of the few. A banker revealing an opaque fossil energy financing project, an employee warning about image-washing practices, an engineer revealing the intricacies of massive deforestation... Many can become guardians of the climate. Many may abandon the cognitive dissonance that leads us to close our eyes for the sake of professional stability.
Exposing these abuses is a long, dangerous and risky road. These leakers threaten powerful and opaque interests. Because they expose themselves to risks to their own safety and that of their loved ones, these defenders of the general interest need protection against possible reprisals by the accused organization or group, and support to entrust this sensitive information to the authorities, media or civil society groups.
To this end, the NGO Climate Whistleblowers (CW) has been created this week. And its goal is to act as a shield for the sentinels of the climate. Lawyers, journalists, activists: As founders of CW, we put our expertise at the service of climate whistleblowers to protect them and enable their disclosures to have a meaningful impact.
A single whistleblower can be the beginning of a greater momentum, and act as a catalyst for collective and massive actions against organized opacity to maintain the status quo. The act of speaking out can give the Earth a voice.
Anna Myers is executive director of the Whistleblowing International Network (WIN).
Henri Thulliez is a lawyer at the Paris Bar Association and director of the Platform for the Protection of Whistleblowers in Africa (PPLAAF).
Gabriel Bourdon-Fattal is a lawyer at the Tel Aviv Bar Association and director of programs at PPLAAF
Cécile Marchand is a fossil energy researcher at the NGO ARIA.
Fadel Barro is a journalist and founder of the Senegalese citizens' movement Y'en a Marre.
Simon Ilse is an advisor on global connected security at the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
Jean-Philippe Foegle is a lawyer and researcher, former coordinator of La Maison des Lanceurs d'Alerte (the House of Whistleblowers).
Clara Gonzales is a lawyer.
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