Philippine authorities relocating communities displaced in 2021 by Typhoon Odette have ignored the rights of residents, especially those with disabilities.
In a new report, HRW explores how people with disabilities experience climate-related risks.
Cattle ranching is the leading driver of deforestation in Brazil + traceability is essential to stop deforestation and protect local communities.
Postponing Pará’s cattle traceability system until 2030 weakens transparency and allows deforestation-linked beef to keep flowing through supply chains.
Governments are seldom this brazen when obscuring the true costs of air pollution.
On January 12, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it will stop assigning economic value to lives saved and illnesses avoided when considering air pollution controls.
www.hrw.org/news/2026/01...
By retreating from international climate cooperation, the US undermines global efforts to safeguard rights and weakens its own capacity to protect people —especially those already most vulnerable — from the worsening impacts of climate change, including within its own borders.
New @hrw.org report: UK authorities have severely restricted the right to protest.
A stark illustration of the escalating crackdown is the case of 5 Just Stop Oil activists who, in July 2024, were sentenced to between 2 and 5 years in prison for merely joining a Zoom call to plan a protest.
#Bulgaria has delayed its exit from coal, trailing behind most EU countries in its transition, and risking breach of new #EU air quality standards. Fresh @hrw.org report shows this contributes to serious health harms, esp for children. It may cost Bulgaria EU funds too. www.hrw.org/news/2025/12...
Despite clear—and powerful—calls from civil society for the #COP30 summit to take bolder steps on climate change and to uphold human rights, the summit failed to make any real progress on the two issues key to stabilising greenhouse gas concentrations: fossil fuels + deforestation.
As #COP30 comes to a close, we remind governments of their international obligations to address climate change as well as to respect and protect environmental defenders' basic rights.
Hear more from environmental defenders at #COP30 ⤵️
Push-back on the latest #COP30 draft:
“We cannot support an outcome that does not include a roadmap for implementing a just, orderly, and equitable transition away from fossil fuels.”
Here in Belém, we’re into the last hours of #COP30.
It’s our hope @hrw.org the way Indigenous Peoples have made their presence felt throughout this COP will spur a global commitment towards protecting climate-critical forests, Indigenous Peoples + other forest-dependent communities:
As the world comes together to tackle the climate crisis at #COP30 in Brazil, its Congress is considering proposals that would exacerbate it.
Those measures could severely impact the Amazon, which is critical for global climate.
As the world comes together to tackle the climate crisis at #COP30 in Brazil, its Congress is considering proposals to dismantle environmental licensing requirements + to revoke a plan to protect human rights defenders.
Brazil’s Congress should reject these proposals:
www.hrw.org/news/2025/11...
Le président du #Brésil Lula a déclaré que la #COP30 était la "COP de la vérité" — "Il faut donc que la vérité soit appliquée dans la reconnaissance des territoires autochtones en tant que mesure d'atténuation climatique."⤵️
Brazil's President Lula has said #COP30 is the COP of truth — "so it must be the truth when it comes to recognizing the titling of Indigenous territories as a climate mitigation measure.”
Secure land rights are crucial for the survival of Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities. Learn more ⤵️
A reminder that while plenty of people (rightly) call for a phase out of fossil fuels at #COP30, last week a court in Uganda put 12 activists on trial on charges stemming from their protests against the planned East African Crude Oil Pipeline (#EACOP).
Charges against them should be dropped.
Imagine having to leave your home due to sea level rise and other climate impacts.
Many communities are facing this difficult choice.
@myrtotilianaki.bsky.social is at #COP30, where HRW is pushing for community-centered climate policies ⤵️
Climate COPs are, essentially, an opportunity to better align govt actions with their rhetoric.
So as #COP30 begins in Brazil's Amazon, @hrw.org is drawing attention to the Terra Nossa settlement, where a federal agency plans to hand over a large area of the rainforest to illegal cattle ranches:
COP30, the annual United Nations climate change conference, kicks off today in Belém, Brazil.
This year, countries should move forward with plans to phase out fossil fuels in a way that protects human rights and supports a just transition.
Learn more ⤵️
A new study from PSE Healthy Energy highlights hidden dangers of methane leaks, an often overlooked threat to both climate +public health
The research serves as a warning: weakening or delaying methane regulations would undermine climate goals + leave many communities exposed to toxic air pollution
"For now, the world isn’t performing an energy transition but an energy addition, where renewables top up oil, gas and coal. ... [T]hat will remain the case for years, if not decades, unless governments impose significant changes."
Depressing.
www.smh.com.au/business/mar...
“Land and environmental defenders – those protecting our forests, rivers, and lands across the world – continue to be met with unspeakable violence. They are being hunted, harassed, and killed – not for breaking laws, but for defending life itself.”
-Laura Furones, @globalwitness.org
Next week, Pacific leaders gather in Solomon Islands for the Pacific Islands Forum.
As single communities across the Pacific face sea level rise + coastal erosion without assistance or support, @hrw.org calls on Pacific leaders to adopt the Pacific Guidance on Internal Planned Relocation:
A Chinese company spilled toxic mining waste into Zambian villages and rivers.
When the company's consultant warned that the spill was 3 times worse than previously disclosed and could cause serious illness for locals, the mining firm fired the consultant.
insideclimatenews.org/news/0409202...
Aneto Glacier
03 Sept. 2025
What's left of the largest glacier in the Pyrenees! 😱
Only few years more to see ice at the roof of this magnificent mountain range...😭
📷 @cryopyr / IG
Not just resisting, but leading the fight: five women who refuse to be ignored
New rules barring disaster assistance to undocumented immigrants raise a core values question: Is there any universal humanitarian principle that takes precedence over the raw animus toward undocumented people that now seems to be a bedrock principle of US govt policy? www.hrw.org/news/2025/08...
Air pollution from the oil and gas sector causes 91,000 premature deaths and hundreds of thousands of illnesses in the US each year. Communities of colour face the greatest burden.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Continuing oil production in Block 43 in Ecuador’s Yasuni National Park ignores the people’s mandate and directly affects the rights of the Indigenous Peoples inhabiting the park: @hrw.org
