The climate crisis is getting rapidly worse. Despite growing pledges of climate action, global emissions are breaking records. Climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss rage on and drive instability, displacement, and conflict. In the words of UN secretary António Guterres: “We are on the highway to climate hell”.
Our governance system has failed us completely. Economic and political leaders are powerless, if not complicit, in the face of a crisis that they know is intensifying. Yet, there is hope too. Civic resistance, political action, strategic litigation… Many are taking action to reverse the status quo. But others feel hopeless, unable to act.
Whistleblowing can be a crucial tool for the climate movement. By bringing precise and substantial evidence as well as poignant testimonies on attacks on the environment, whistleblowers can have a powerful impact by sparkling public debate, fuelling legal proceedings, and inspiring others to take action. Often, they illustrate a gradual paradigm shift. By publishing precise information, and sometimes evidence, they can trigger seismic shifts in public opinion, as demonstrated by Edward Snowden on mass surveillance or Antoine Deltour on tax optimisation.
The recent European directive aimed at improving their protection, and the Waserman law in France, bear witness to the legislator’s recognition of the role whistleblowers have to play in our modern societies in the face of economic and political powers that are increasingly inclined to compartmentalise decision-making processes. At a time when humanity is walking a tightrope, this legislative progress should help those who, on the front line, reveal sensitive information of vital importance to our planet, often hidden in the name of profit.
From a banker denouncing a fossil financing project to a government scientist who’s being silenced, from an employee denouncing greenwashing practices to an engineer revealing mass deforestation… Many people manage to escape the cognitive dissonance that leads others to turn a blind eye in the name of professional stability.
Revealing these abuses is a long, risky and lonely road. These whistleblowers 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 public interest need support and protection against reprisals, not only from the authorities, but also from the people to whom they provide their sensitive data.
Our organisation, Climate Whistleblowers, was created specifically to address such issues.
CW acts as a shield for these climate sentinels. Through our network of lawyers, journalists and activists, we put our experience at the service of climate whistleblowers to protect them and enable their revelations to have a significant impact.
CW is building on the experience and success of the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa (PPLAAF). PPLAAF has gone further than almost any other organisation in helping those most at risk. Since its creation in 2017, PPLAAF has supported dozens of whistleblowers from CEOs to security personnel, bankers and civil servants. PPLAAF has spearheaded legal fights, relocated families, cooperated with governments and law enforcement officials, disclosed international scandals, and shook public opinion.
Why France?
France now holds one of the world’s most progressive whistleblower laws, especially with regard to the protection of NGOs that support whistleblowers. It therefore seemed logical to establish the headquarters and team of our organisation there.