Introduction by Mads Christensen, Executive Director of Greenpeace International:

2024 challenged me deeply, as a leader, an activist, and a human being. There were days when hope felt hard to hold on to. But what carried me – and what carries Greenpeace – is the strength of our global community and the courage of collective action.

It was a year of relentless turmoil with escalating conflicts, rising authoritarianism, climate catastrophes, and deepening human rights violations from Ukraine to Gaza. The re-election of Donald Trump only sharpened a sense of anxiety and uncertainty. It’s a moment that felt heavy – geopolitically, morally, and existentially.

And, yet, it is also a moment that reminded me exactly why Greenpeace exists.

I have never believed hope to be a passive thing. Hope is action. Hope is resistance. Hope is a decision, one that we make over and over again, especially when the odds are against us. Hope is renewal. So even as the storms intensified, our movement chose hope. We stood firm, organised harder, and achieved victories that show what’s possible when people come together with shared values and cause.

Among the highlights of the year was our contribution to the European Court of Human Rights ruling in favour of the KlimaSeniorinnen, a courageous group of elderly Swiss women who successfully sued their government for failing to take sufficient action on climate change, arguing that it endangered their health and lives. This ruling marked a turning point in climate litigation and sent a powerful message about the deep connection between human rights and environmental protection.

Our Oceans Are Life campaign built a broad coalition of governments and civil society to stop deep sea mining, a new extractive industry poised to cause irreversible harm to ocean ecosystems. We pushed Norway to reverse its plans to open its waters to mining, and convinced multilateral negotiations to put the brakes on this dangerous new frontier.

Wins like these don’t come without a cost. In 2024, corporations increasingly used legal tactics – known as Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation suits, or SLAPP suits – to try to intimidate and silence us. These lawsuits are designed to drain our time, energy, spirit and bank accounts.

Let’s be honest: being hit with multi-million dollar legal assaults is not for the faint of heart. But we are not faint of heart. Our spirit, backed by public support, is inexhaustible. Our response has been resolute, with robust legal defences mounted against these attacks. Greenpeace has never been – and never will be – a movement that backs down from a big fight. They are what we were made for.

And even as we face increasing pressure and assault from autocrats and oligarchs, we have taken the time to do the vital work of strengthening our movement from within. We’ve made real strides embedding justice, equity, diversity, inclusion and safety (JEDIS) principles across our campaigns, culture, and everyday operations. This is essential to building a movement that is global, resilient, and truly transformative.

Looking ahead, I know the challenges will not ease. But as the storm is still gathering, I also know this: Greenpeace is still here. Still fighting. Still building power, coalition, and momentum. Still choosing hope, not as an abstract ideal,
but as a bold and deliberate act.

We are powered by millions of people who know a green and peaceful future is still possible. And with that power, we will continue to adapt, evolve, and act with courage.

Progress is never easy, but it is always possible – with hope, courage and community.

In solidarity,

Mads Christensen
Greenpeace International
Executive Director

Download the reports:

• Greenpeace International Annual Report 2024
• Standaardformulier publicatieplicht ANBI algemeen (Dutch)

Sevilla, Spain – Barbados, France, Kenya, Spain, Benin, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Antigua & Barbuda supported by the European Commission, have announced they will form a ‘solidarity coalition on premium flyers’ to raise funds for climate action and sustainable development. Campaigners reacted to the announcement, which was made on the first day of the UN Financing for Development conference in Sevilla (FFD4).[1]

Rebecca Newsom, Global Political Lead of Greenpeace International’s Stop Drilling Start Paying campaign said: “Flying is the most elite and polluting form of travel, so this is an important step towards ensuring that the binge users of this undertaxed sector are made to pay their fair share. With the cost of climate impacts surging in countries least responsible for the crisis, bold, cooperative action that makes polluters pay is not just fair – it’s essential.”

“The obvious next step is to hold oil and gas corporations to account. As fossil fuel barons rake in obscene profits, and people are battered with increasingly violent floods, storms and wildfires, it’s no surprise that 8 out of 10 people support making them pay. Members of the Global Solidarity Levies Task Force and rich countries around the world should act upon this enormous public mandate: commit to higher taxes on fossil fuel profits and extraction by COP30, while ensuring that those being hit hardest by the climate crisis around the world benefit most from the revenues.”  

Greenpeace International maintains it is critical that the revenues raised from solidarity levies in Global North countries go towards the countries and communities most affected by the climate crisis, for example through helping to fill the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage. 

With demand for a climate damages tax on big polluters fast gaining momentum globally, Greenpeace urges all countries to join and implement the commitments of the new solidarity coalition on premium flyers by COP30. It also calls on all governments to adopt bold taxes and fines on greedy oil and gas corporations for the damages they have caused, without delay.[2][3][4][5][6] 

ENDS

Notes:

[1] The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD) takes place from June 30 to 3 July 2025 in Sevilla, Spain, with participation of Heads of State and Government, relevant ministers, and other special representatives. Official website

[2] Popularity of climate damages taxes on fossil fuel consumption and production. A global survey, commissioned by Greenpeace International and Oxfam International, found that 3 out of 4 people agree that wealthier airline passengers (i.e. those who fly more often, use business and first-class and or/private jets) should pay additional tax due to their outsized individual impact on climate change. The same survey found that taxing oil, gas and coal corporations for their climate damages is even more popular. 81% of people support this, while 86% support channeling the revenues from higher taxes on oil and gas corporations towards communities most impacted by the climate crisis.

[3] A call to action. The Polluters Pay Pact is a global alliance of more than 160,000 people on the frontlines of climate disasters, concerned citizens, first responders like firefighters, humanitarian groups and political leaders. It demands that governments around the world make oil, coal and gas corporations pay their fair share for the damages they cause. 

[4] 80% of the world’s population have never flown. A single transatlantic flight on a private jet can produce emissions equivalent to those generated by an average person over several years. Private jets are 10 times more carbon-intensive than commercial flights and 50 times more polluting than trains. Greenpeace is calling on governments to introduce frequent flyer levies so that those who fly the most, pay the most, while preventing the expansion of the aviation industry. Private jets are an extravagant luxury which should be banned altogether. 

[5] Recent Oxfam International research found that a polluter profits tax on 590 oil, gas and coal companies could raise up to US $400 billion in its first year. This compares to estimated loss and damage costs of $290-1045 trillion in the Global South annually by 2030. Further, Oxfam analysis found that the emissions of just 340 fossil fuel companies each year make up half of all global emissions – emissions of just one year are enough to cause 2.7 million heat-related deaths over the next century. 

[6] Over 100 climate groups are backing a ‘Climate Damages Tax’ on fossil fuels extraction. This could be imposed by OECD countries, which if introduced at low initial rate of US$5 per tonne of CO2e increasing by US$5 per tonne each year could raise a total of US$ 900 billion by 2030 to help the world’s poorest and most vulnerable with climate damages, and pay for damages caused by some of the worst extreme weather events last year.

Contacts:

Tal Harris, Global Media Lead – Greenpeace International’s Stop Drilling Start Paying campaign, +41-782530550, tharris@greenpeace.org 

Greenpeace International Press Desk: +31 (0) 20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org

Sevilla, Spain – BREAKING: Activists from Greenpeace Spain today covered the iconic Setas de Sevilla monument with a massive banner, displaying the message: “They are destroying the planet. And you are paying for it.” The action marked the first day of the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development Conference (FfD4).

Eva Saldaña, Executive Director of Greenpeace Spain and Portugal, said “Global activism is the essence of our democracy and climate justice. If we want to build a green and fair world, the people have to unite against the takeover by billionaires and polluters, and call for a redistribution of wealth and power in the multilateral arena and international financial institutions. Global justice must prevail over greed!”

ENDS

Yesterday’s release: Giant baby Musk float in march for tax justice at UN summit in Sevilla: ‘Make rich polluters pay’

Members of the Greenpeace delegation in Seville are available for interviews in Spanish, English, German, and Swahili.

Photos and Videos can be downloaded via Greenpeace Media Library and will be updated throughout the conference. 

Contacts in Seville:

Tal Harris, Global Media Lead – Stop Drilling Start Paying campaign, Greenpeace International. +41-782530550, tharris@greenpeace.org  

Begoña Rodríguez, Media Lead – Climate Responsibility Team, Greenpeace Spain & Portugal. +34 605248097, begona.rodriguez@greenpeace.org

Additional contacts: 

Christine Gebeneter, EU Communication lead, Greenpeace CEE based in Austria, +43 664 8403807, christine.gebeneter@greenpeace.org 

Lee Kuen, Global Comms Lead – Fair Share campaign, Greenpeace International. +601112527489, lkuen@greenpeace.org

Greenpeace International Press Desk, +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org

Sevilla, Spain – Greenpeace activists joined a civil society march today for Global Economic Justice, with a giant float of a baby Elon Musk holding a chainsaw threatening planet Earth. As the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) starts tomorrow in Sevilla, campaigners are calling on world leaders to advance commitments for new and fair global tax and debt rules, and to hold fossil fuel polluters accountable for climate and nature damages.[1] [2]

The conference opens against a backdrop of intensifying conflicts, geopolitical tensions, rising inequality, and accelerating climate and environmental breakdown. The outcome document, the Compromiso de Sevilla, released ahead of the conference, does not go far enough. It delivers on some promises on international tax cooperation and encouraging taxes on environmental contamination and pollution. However, bold language on sovereign debt architecture reform was weakened by Global North governments during the negotiations, and the agreement falls short on responding to the urgency of the climate, nature and social crises.[3]

Fred Njehu, Greenpeace Africa’s Global Political Lead for the Fair Share campaign,[4] said: “Sevilla is a rare opportunity for global economic justice and for urgent conversations on how billionaires and corporate polluters should pay their fair share of taxes to fund climate action, nature protection and social programmes. World leaders need to listen to what the public wants and deliver a tax system that works for all.”

Eva Saldaña, Executive Director of Greenpeace Spain and Portugal, said: “Multilateral cooperation is key to addressing global threats and resource gaps for global climate and economic justice. It must not become an excuse for more powerful governments, in the Global North or elsewhere, to water down ambition. We must put people over greed and listen to the voices rising from the streets – in Seville and all over the world. All governments must actively support the UN Tax Convention process and pursue real solutions to the debt crisis, so that we can finally begin to transfer resources away from polluters and the super-rich for the wellbeing of all people and especially for those who are suffering the most from the climate emergency.”

Greenpeace demands reforms in international tax cooperation and public financing for sustainable development. Specifically: 

• Endorsement of the UN Tax Convention process for just and equitable global tax rules, that make the super-rich pay their fair share and make corporate polluters, such as the fossil fuel industry, pay for their climate damages.
• Explicit commitments from governments – via the Global Solidarity Levies Task Force, and beyond – to remove fossil fuel production subsidies and introduce progressive taxes and fines on fossil fuel corporations, and other high emitting sectors. This builds on the FfD4 outcomes document’s endorsement of “taxes on environmental contamination and pollution.” The revenues should be used to pay for domestic climate action and international climate finance support  – in particular action to support communities to respond and recover from climate disasters.

Rebecca Newsom, Global Political Lead for Greenpeace International’s Stop Drilling, Start Paying campaign, said: “While fossil fuel-driven floods, storms, wildfires and droughts increasingly hit communities around the world, people are crying out for their governments to tax oil, gas and coal corporations to pay for climate-related loss and damage. So what are political leaders waiting for? They must seize the opportunity of Sevilla to make polluters pay – or face growing public anger for continuing to let dirty industries off the hook.”

Hanen Keskes, Campaigns Lead at Greenpeace Middle East North Africa, said: “This is not the time to lack ambition as civil society is calling for urgent debt relief and structural reform. The burden of debt is undermining the most vulnerable countries’ ability to respond to climate, nature and social crises. Governments must show that they are ready to build a fairer and more sustainable future – one rooted in justice, not extraction.”

ENDS

Members of the Greenpeace delegation in Seville are available for interviews in Spanish, English, German, and Swahili.

Photos and Videos can be downloaded via Greenpeace Media Library and will be updated throughout the conference. 

Notes:

[1] Greenpeace Spain’s float of Elon Musk measures 2 metres wide by 3.5 –  4 metres high.

[2] The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) is a once-in-a-decade opportunity to reform financing at all levels, including to support reform of the international financial architecture. FFD4 Conference will be held in FIBES Sevilla Exhibition and Conference Centre (30 June – 3 July 2025)

[3] The Compromiso de Sevilla: Outcome | FFD4

Contacts in Seville:

Tal Harris, Global Media Lead – Stop Drilling Start Paying campaign, Greenpeace International. +41-782530550, tharris@greenpeace.org  

Begoña Rodríguez, Media Lead – Climate Responsibility Team, Greenpeace Spain & Portugal. +34 605248097, begona.rodriguez@greenpeace.org

Additional contacts: 

Christine Gebeneter, EU Communication lead, Greenpeace CEE based in Austria, +43 664 8403807, christine.gebeneter@greenpeace.org 

Lee Kuen, Global Comms Lead – Fair Share campaign, Greenpeace International. +601112527489, lkuen@greenpeace.org

Greenpeace International Press Desk, +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org