6th International Rights of Nature Tribunal: Calling for an End to the Fossil Fuel Era at Climate Week NYC 2024
On Sunday, September 24th, 2024, the 6th International Rights of Nature Tribunal convened at Climate Week in New York in an urgent call for an end to the fossil fuel era, underscoring the Rights of Nature as a pivotal framework to address the escalating climate crisis. The session brought together some of the world’s leading environmental defenders, scientists, Indigenous leaders, and human rights activists, and examined a broad spectrum of environmental and human rights violations perpetrated by the fossil fuel industry. From oil spills and mega-pipeline projects to coal mining and false climate solutions like geoengineering, the cases presented offered a sobering view of the industry’s destructive path and the governments and corporations complicit in exacerbating the climate emergency.
Scientists, journalists, activists, Indigenous leaders and land defenders all shared their frontline experiences. From the mountains of Appalachia to the rainforests of the Amazon, many of the experts and witnesses at the Tribunal traveled great distances to share their stories of resistance and resilience, carrying with them the weight of entire human and non-human communities, and offering a firsthand glimpse into the catastrophic consequences of fossil fuel extraction.
Themes included:
- False Climate Solutions: Cases tackled how geoengineering, carbon offsetting schemes like REDD+, and other so-called “solutions” are merely bandaids designed to allow continued extraction and pollution. Rather than addressing the root causes of climate change, these schemes often displace Indigenous communities and harm ecosystems further.
- Devastating Pipelines: The Tribunal spotlighted major pipeline projects such as the Mountain Valley Pipeline in the U.S., the Coastal GasLink Pipeline in Canada, and the Mozambique Pipeline in Africa, which have destroyed biodiversity, violated the rights of Indigenous peoples, and contributed significantly to carbon emissions.
- Oil and Coal: In regions like the Amazon and the Philippines, oil drilling and coal mining have had catastrophic impacts on both the environment and human health. Olivia Bisa, President of the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Chapra Nation, Peru, testified about the long-term devastation caused by Lote 64 Petroperu and the oil refinery Talará, which continue to threaten the survival of her people. Similarly, Yolanda Esguerra and Fr. Edwin Gariguez from the Philippines brought forward the horrifying consequences of oil spills and coal projects that have contaminated vital ecosystems.
- Sacrifice Zones: One of the most critical points raised was the idea of “sacrifice zones”—regions like Vaca Muerta in Argentina and Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, where predominantly poor and marginalized communities have been systematically exposed to environmental toxins. Sharon Lavigne and Roishetta Ozane, environmental justice advocates from the region, spoke about the disproportionate burden placed on African American and Indigenous communities in Louisiana, where oil refineries and petrochemical plants have turned entire regions into uninhabitable toxic zones.
Testimonies included:
- Olivia Bisa, the first woman president of the Chapra Nation in Peru, testified that fossil fuel companies, funded by CitiBank, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Bank of America, & JP Morgan, are funneling oil from her people’s land, burning down trees, killing animals and biodiversity, and endangering, threatening, and killing Indigenous peoples. Watch her testimony here.
- Yolanda Esguerra from the Philippines testified on the Verde Island Passage oil spill in February 2023, which resulted in biodiversity and marine habitat destruction, activists being abducted, and dangerous levels of contaminants and chemicals in drinking water. Watch her testimony here.
- Panganga Pungowiyi, member of the Sivungaq from Anchorage, AK, testified about geoengineering being test-piloted in her native community: Presented as a climate solution to manufacture ice and snow, the initiative is harming wildlife and the community. Watch her testimony here.
- Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), testified on Shell extracting Liquified Natural Gas on her Indigenous land in Canada without consent and experiencing violence at the hands of the state in response to the project. Watch her testimony here.
- Sharon Lavigne, activist from Louisiana spoke on the infamous Cancer Alley, sharing heartbreaking testimony of staggering cancer rates in her community due to pollution from nearby petrochemical plants. When asked if she felt the United States was allowing her community to die, she responded, “Yes. The USA is complicit in environmental racism and allowing our people to suffer in our communities.” These petrochemical plants are funded and ignored by the 6 largest banks in America, including CitiBank and JPMorgan. Watch her testimony here.
Key quotes:
- Judge Casey Camp-Horinek: “It’s us who need the healing. It’s us who need to take the responsibility for the manner in which humankind has misbehaved, particularly in these last few centuries.”
- Secretariat Natalia Greene: “The Rights of Nature Tribunal creates a forum for people from around the world to speak on behalf of Nature to process the destruction of the Earth, and makes recommendations for the legal protection and restorations of the Earth.”
- Judge Osprey Orielle Lake: “Rights of Nature can play a key role as the global community looks towards new government structures and legal frameworks that are transformative enough to address urgent interlocking ecological and social crises. We also need an entire systemic change which is why we’re looking at a new governance structure called the Rights of Nature that can look across the board and stop these harms, because the systems we’re in are clearly not working.”
- Earth Prosecutor Linda Sheehan: “Our existing environmental laws are insufficient to achieve healthy relationships with the natural world because they mirror our larger governance and economic systems, which dictate that Nature is merely property.”
- Witness Sivan Kartha: “The right to regenerate biocapacity and to continue vital cycles and life processes free from human disruption would not be preserved if we sent the Earth into the opposite of this.”
- Witness Antonia Juhasz: “The extraction, production, transport, and use of fossil fuels are the single largest source of the climate crisis, disproportionately targeting already marginalized communities.”
- Witness Paganga Pungowiyi: “Everything lives in balance and relationship to each other. This imbalance violates the sacred relationships and sacred balance of Mother Earth, Father Sky, and now even Grandmother Moon.”
- Witness Daniel Ribeiro: “The issue with most of these projects is that they first remove the people from the land because that’s the main resistance; the people are the ones who are going to push back.”
- Witness Makoma Lekalakala: “Protecting the environment is not a crime – U tshireletsa mupo asi mulandu!”
- Witness Delme Cupido: “The damage of this pipeline is actually immense… it’s beyond comprehension really that they would even contemplate such a thing.”
- Witness Roishetta Ozane: “This exploitation is not just an abstract issue; it is a direct attack on the health and well-being of our communities, primarily communities of color and low-wealth.”
- Witness Sharon Lavigne: “These are some of the chemicals in our air, water and soil… Ethylene oxide causes breast cancer; benzene – leukemia; formaldehyde – throat cancer. We have all of these things in our communities, our people are sick, they’re dying.”
- Witness Julia Horinek: “It is up to us, the speakers of the colonial court system’s language, to stand on her behalf and be her voice.”
- Witness Heather Milton Lightening: “I believe that just transition must address colonial harm, it must take down rampant crazy capitalism that has no boundaries.”
- Judge Shannon Biggs:“We are at a moment in time that demands more than the sum of our parts. It’s no longer enough to work within the current system that only perpetuates destruction. We must create systemic change, embracing Rights of Nature as a pathway to a future where ecosystems have the legal standing to thrive, regenerate, and evolve, free from the grips of extractive industries.”
- Judge Tom Goldtooth: “The fossil fuel economy is not only a destruction of Mother Earth, but it’s also an attack on our spirituality as Indigenous peoples. The Earth is our relative, not a resource to be exploited. The Rights of Nature and our Indigenous ways of knowing go hand in hand; they remind us that we must heal our relationship with the Earth to survive.”
- Judge Reverend Yearwood: “We stand at the intersection of climate justice and racial justice, where the harms of the fossil fuel industry are felt most deeply in Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities. The Rights of Nature offers us a vision of justice that includes all beings, reminding us that the fight for a livable planet is also a fight for human dignity.”
- Judge Tzeporah Berman: “The fossil fuel era must come to an end. And it’s not just a matter of reducing emissions; it’s about fundamentally changing our relationship with nature. We must leave fossil fuels in the ground if we are to have any hope of addressing the climate crisis. The Rights of Nature movement provides a powerful legal and moral framework to make this transition possible.”
You can watch the individual testimonies and the full Tribunal here.
The Tribunal closed by calling for a swift and decisive end to the fossil fuel era. The Tribunal’s outcomes are a clear message to governments, corporations, and civil society: the era of fossil fuels is over. The future lies in restoring balance between humanity and Nature, and that future begins now.
Photos: The Climate Group & the Rights of Nature Tribunal.