Global Witness

Five Just Stop Oil protestors have received what are thought to be the longest sentences ever given in the UK for non-violent protest, in a shockingly disproportionate punishment The UK Government must urgently end the criminalisation of climate activists. https://lnkd.in/eQQK6Kdp

Investment in renewable energy technologies is soaring as they are hailed as the answer to the energy crisis. But is there a hidden cost? Global demand for ‘transition minerals’ – such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper – has dramatically increased in the past year and led to an un-precented scale up of mining activities. At Global Witness we have been holding mining companies and big polluters to account for over 30 years. Our recent investigations into lithium mining in Zimbabwe 🇿🇼, Namibia 🇳🇦 and Democratic Republic of Congo 🇨🇩 and rare-earth mining in Myanmar 🇲🇲 show the devastating impact of mining these minerals on people and the planet. Our transition minerals team are campaigning for the current energy transition to be fair and responsible for both people and the planet. We are calling for: 🔴 Inclusive decision-making for people in mineral-rich countries 🔴 Improved standards and accountability throughout the mineral supply chain 🔴 Fair benefit sharing for affected communities Find out more https://lnkd.in/dJJR4Kxt #TransitionMinerals #ClimateChange #Sustainability #HumanRights #Environment #GreenEnergy

🗣️ “These business models, which promote division and hate, is the absolute opposite of what we need in the face of the climate emergency. Now is the time we need to come together across national and political divides to figure out how we combat the biggest challenge that humanity has ever faced.” Our Ava Lee speaking at the UK premiere of 'The Click Trap’. This year is a huge one for global democracy and much of the global political conversation is happening online. Now more than ever it's vital we put a stop to billionaire Big Tech CEOs putting their profit above people and planet. These platforms amplify climate disinformation and hate, and use toxic business models hinder climate action and put minority and marginalised communities in danger. Learn more about our work tackling digital threats below. https://lnkd.in/eVg6xTx7

Labour's plan to restore international climate leadership starts at home and that means tackling the UK's contribution to global #deforestation. Keir Starmer's government has said they'll help end the nature emergency. Now they must push to deliver the world's first deforestation-free economy. 🌳 Our report with Trase - Intelligence for sustainable trade found the 2+ year delay to the UK's law preventing the import of commodities like beef, soy and palm oil if grown on illegally deforested land has destroyed an area of forest at least twice the size of Paris. 🦗And recent analysis by Greenpeace International with Global Witness found that the UK remains a huge provider of financial services to companies endangering forest ecosystems worldwide. Here's three ideas to get Defra and HM Treasury going, all ripe with potential to live up to the Global Biodiversity Framework and make sure the UK returns to the stage with a bang at #CBD COP16 and COP29 later this year: https://lnkd.in/ebK9S2MV

Becoming a Mum can impact a woman’s income for the rest of her life – this is sometimes known as the motherhood penalty. At Global Witness we’ve tried and (are still very much learning) to reduce the motherhood penalty by:  ❤️ A gender-neutral parental leave policy: after a qualifying period, a new parent will receive 6 months full salary ❤️ We’ve always offered the right to request flexible working from day 1 (long before it became a right) ❤️We’re about to trial a shorter working week ❤️Our employees are offered the opportunity to attend a Leadership Development Programme for working parents with the amazing Leaders Plus Verena Hefti MBE FRSA Impact so far... 🌼 Our gender pay gap (not a legal requirement to report as we’re under 250 employees) but we do anyway has gone down year on year since 2020. In 2023 our mean (average) hourly pay gap was 2.88% 83% of the Senior Leadership Team are parents or parents to be 70% of the wider leadership community are employees who identify as women and 66% of these women are parents or parents to be To keep reducing inequity and the motherhood pay penalty in the UK I would like to see: 1)     Employers in the NGO sector with more than 50 employees but less than 250 sign up to a voluntary code to report the gender pay gap 2)     The new government increases statutory maternity and paternity pay and removes any qualifying periods #motherhoodpenalty #flexibleworking #workingparents #HR

The Cambodian government has just escalated its war on environmental defenders by imposing prison sentences on 10 Mother Nature activists. This follows a long-established pattern of threats, attacks and murders targeting Cambodians who try to protect their nation’s rich natural heritage. When Global Witness had an office in hashtag #Cambodia (where our CEO Mike Davis worked from 2002-2005) our team members were frequently threatened and on a number of occasions physically assaulted and even shot at. Government officials launched lawsuits against our country director. We had to close our office in 2005 because of security risks. In recent years, much of this kind of intimidation has rained on young activists from the NGO Mother Nature. They have been highly effective in resisting a hydroelectric dam project that threatened to destroy ecosystems and livelihoods in Areng Valley and stopping the corrupt plunder of sands from Koh Kong Province. Why is the government so scared of them? Veteran despot Hun Sen, who recently handed over the prime minister role to his son Hun Manet, learned during the last chapters of Cambodia’s civil war that looting the country’s forests was a short cut to ample untraceable cash that could sustain his powerbase: https://lnkd.in/ewCB7egt. Thereon, his regime turned the opportunistic asset-stripping into a system. First steal the trees, next steal the land and then steal anything valuable – such as mineral deposits – that can be gouged from beneath the surface. That then provides the funds to rig elections, buy off adversaries and build up a private army (a “bodyguard corps”) that is far better equipped than the military and sits outside of the official chain of command. When laying waste to the environment – even committing hashtag #ecocide – is a significant foundation for your power, those that stand in your way are are at least as threatening as rival politicians. When the environmentalists are young and less susceptible to the Hun regime’s threats to drag the country back to the horrors of the 1970s if anyone challenges them, they are even more dangerous. International indifference to the rights and aspirations of Cambodia’s people helps explain many of the atrocious experiences they have been through in the past six decades. And the reality is it would not take much pressure to compel Cambodia’s bullying government to back off and release the Mother Nature activists – Ly Chandaravuth, Thun Ratha, Long Kunthea and Phuon Keoraksmey – now in prison. The governments of China, the EU, U.S. and UK need to step up. Cambodia’s Family Trees - Illegal logging and the stripping of public assets by Cambodia’s elite: https://lnkd.in/exj3nHvA; Country for Sale - How Cambodia’s elite has captured the country’s extractive industries: https://lnkd.in/egSbCaHq;

The UK has a new government...now what?   The labour party have been elected at a crucial time to tackle the climate crisis. We have 3 main asks of the new government.

The world’s largest survey on public attitudes to climate change is out and it makes me sad but hopeful - people everywhere are worried, care, and want to see real action to mitigate the crisis we’re in.   UNDP's survey represents *87% of the world’s population* (!) and shows that the climate crisis is on people’s minds everywhere. Globally, 56% said they were thinking about it daily or weekly.    As we head towards COP CBD 16 in October we need to take hope from the fact that 81% of those surveyed support the protection and restoration of nature, showing how much importance people everywhere place in biodiversity and healthy ecosystems. Equally, we need to remind leaders that 79% express support for climate justice.   At COP CBD Global Witness will be calling for global action to prevent financial institutions from bankrolling deforestation, biodiversity loss, and human rights violations. With parnters from affected communities we'll be demanding that decision-makers centre the defenders and Indigenous Peoples who are the guardians of nature and our best hope for the stewardship and protection of land and forests.   We’ll be making our case knowing that the public agree – and that counts for a lot. https://lnkd.in/e6PFn7Zd

Join us and an exciting line-up of speakers to explore what stops mineral-rich countries from developing local processing industries, moving up the value chain, and benefiting more. The rush for minerals needed for the #energytransition is often described as an opportunity for resource-rich countries to transform and diversify their economies. But countries often face multiple barriers to realising the full economic and development value of their natural resources. Register now to hear more from: Speakers: ◾ Pavel Bilek ◾ Deputy Head of Energy and Climate Policy at Berlin Economics ◾ Bart-Jaap Verbeek ◾ Senior Researcher, Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) ◾ Nozuko Mani ◾ Executive Director, Mintek ◾ Tatenda Mungofa ◾ Founder of Mureza Auto Co ◾ Claude Kabemba ◾ Executive Director of Southern Africa Resource Watch (SARW) https://lnkd.in/ep9g83F3

💡 Between 2019 and 2021, the #EU was exposed to 190,500 hectares of #deforestation on average every year from direct imports of forest-risk commodities, such as cocoa, oil palm, coffee or cattle, according to a recent Trase - Intelligence for sustainable trade analysis commissioned by Fern NGO.    This means an area more than *ten* times the size of Brussels 😲!   As a new political cycle is about to start in the #EU, it is paramount that the #EUDR gets implemented and effectively enforced - and that other major consuming countries follow suit in the fight against global deforestation!    There's no time left to roll back on obligations for companies that are destroying our world's forests 🌳 - as repeatedly shown by our investigations https://lnkd.in/dpPvXSNY