Frontline workers and climate-impacted communities from Asia, Africa and the Pacific issue a joint statement holding oil and gas companies legally and financially accountable, citing escalating disasters and the ICJ’s landmark advisory opinion.

In a powerful show of solidarity, street vendors, fisherfolk, farmers, gig workers, construction and warehouse labourers, coastal and Indigenous communities, women, youth groups, trade unionists, climate scientists, negotiators and legal experts from across Asia, Africa, the Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa have issued a Global Statement for Climate and Polluter Accountability. The statement, coordinated through Greenpeace South Asia, insists that the companies most responsible for decades of greenhouse gas emissions must be held legally, financially and politically responsible for the destruction of homes, livelihoods, health and cultural heritage.

The document arrives as communities continue recovering from catastrophic events such as Cyclone Ditwah, which devastated Sri Lanka in late November 2025. The cyclone killed more than 640 people, left hundreds missing, affected over two million and caused an estimated US$4.1 billion in direct physical damage – roughly 4 per cent of the country’s GDP – according to a World Bank assessment. Flooding inundated nearly one-fifth of Sri Lanka’s land area, destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of homes, crippled infrastructure and triggered widespread landslides in the central highlands. Sri Lanka, which contributes less than 0.1 per cent of global emissions, has become a stark illustration of the injustice the statement seeks to confront.

Disasters Are Not Natural, Statement Declares

The signatories reject the notion that climate disasters are inevitable or merely the cost of economic progress. “These disasters are not natural,” the statement declares. “They are the direct consequence of decades of greenhouse gas emissions from a smaller number of oil and gas companies.” It notes that major fossil fuel producers and their financiers knew for decades that their products were destabilising the climate yet chose to conceal that knowledge, mislead the public, obstruct policy and expand production. Workers and communities who contributed least now pay with their lives, jobs and cultural heritage while inequalities deepen and fundamental human rights are threatened.

The statement draws strength from the International Court of Justice’s unanimous 23 July 2025 Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States in Respect of Climate Change. That opinion clarified that states have legal duties under international law to protect the climate system, pursue the 1.5°C temperature goal, regulate private actors contributing to harm, cooperate internationally and provide reparations where obligations are breached. It reinforced that the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment underpins other human rights and that intergenerational equity must guide action.

Eleven Concrete Demands for Accountability

The Global Statement sets out eleven clear demands directed at governments, international institutions, financial actors and the fossil fuel industry itself. Foremost is the call to hold global oil and gas polluters accountable through litigation, regulatory action and human rights mechanisms. Governments must adopt and enforce “polluter pays” laws and mechanisms that compel fossil fuel companies to fund loss and damage, adaptation and resilience – in addition to, not instead of, public climate finance.

World leaders are urged to use COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, and subsequent negotiations to secure binding, enforceable commitments on emissions reductions, an end to new fossil fuel exploration and dedicated finance for loss and damage. Public finance and subsidies for fossil fuel expansion must end, with resources redirected to adaptation and a just transition. Frontline communities must receive early-warning systems, adaptation finance, healthcare, social security and livelihood support designed with meaningful worker participation.

The statement also demands protection for communities, workers, activists and lawyers pursuing accountability from harassment, intimidation and strategic lawsuits. Fossil fuel companies must fully disclose emissions, climate risks and internal knowledge of harm, and face consequences for past and ongoing disinformation. Impacted communities and workers must be given a direct seat in national and global climate decision-making, including at COP negotiations. Climate impacts – loss of life, health, livelihood, food, water, housing, income and cultural heritage – must be recognised as human rights violations, with full access to remedies. National climate accountability and liability legislation is essential so that polluters, not the public, bear the costs. Finally, progressive taxation of the biggest corporate polluters, aligned with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, should fund climate resilience and the shift to renewable energy, supported by global tax reform under the UN tax convention.

From Local Pain to Global Pressure

The statement builds on earlier mobilisations. In October 2026, climate-impacted communities and workers gathered in Colombo and Mannar, Sri Lanka, under the banner “Make Polluters Pay,” linking local experiences of floods, extreme heat, droughts and rising seas to the global call for accountability. Greenpeace South Asia’s “Crisis to Collective” initiative has documented non-economic loss and damage – the irreversible loss of culture, identity, security and history that cannot be reduced to monetary figures – arguing that ignoring these losses leaves communities without recognition or support.

Broader campaigns reinforce the message. Analyses show that just five major oil and gas corporations – ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP and TotalEnergies – are linked to projected climate damages exceeding US$5 trillion from emissions since the Paris Agreement. Their combined profits remain enormous even as communities rebuild from disasters. Public support for making polluters pay is high; polling across G20 countries has shown strong majorities favour higher taxes on major emitters, with revenues directed to those who pollute less.

A Seat at the Table and Protection for Advocates

Central to the statement is the insistence that those most affected must shape the response. “Impacted communities, workers and workers groups must have a direct and meaningful presence in national and global climate decision making,” it states. This includes COP processes and national climate plans. Equally important is safeguarding the right to organise, litigate and speak out. Without such protections, the legal and political pathways opened by the ICJ opinion and national inquiries risk being closed by intimidation.

The signatories call on workers’ organisations, trade unions, climate experts, scientists, negotiators, the legal community, youth groups and communities worldwide to endorse the statement so that it becomes a truly global demand heading into COP31 and beyond. The document will be shared with governments, international institutions, fossil fuel companies and media.

Justice Beyond Charity

The statement crystallises a simple principle: climate justice is not charity. It is accountability. Communities in Sri Lanka still recovering from Ditwah, Pacific Island nations facing existential sea-level rise, African farmers confronting prolonged droughts and South Asian workers enduring extreme heat are not asking for handouts. They are demanding that those who knowingly fuelled the crisis pay for the damage and stop expanding the problem, Greenpeace says.

Focus keyphrase: climate polluter accountability COP31

Tags: climate justice, polluter pays, fossil fuel accountability, loss and damage, ICJ climate opinion, COP31, Global South climate, Cyclone Ditwah, Greenpeace South Asia, climate human rights,