Category: MIL-OSI

Source: Greenpeace Statement –

From the Philippines to Thailand, Kalmaegi shows how the world left Global South countries exposed again

Each time a storm tears through Southeast Asia, familiar scripts quickly follow. We are told we weren’t prepared enough. We are lectured about poverty and resilience, as though these conditions appeared naturally and not through decades of global inequality. The story the world tells about developing countries is one of perpetual helplessness, an easy narrative that masks a far harder truth.

The truth is much harder to swallow. We are in this position because wealthy nations and fossil fuel companies built an economy that forces developing countries, including here in Southeast Asia, to carry the heaviest burdens of a crisis we contributed least to. Germanwatch’s Climate Risk Index tells the same story. Three Southeast Asian countries, namely the Philippines, Myanmar, and Vietnam, rank among the world’s most affected by extreme weather.

Typhoon Kalmaegi (known in the Philippines as Typhoon Tino) is the latest proof. It swept across the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, leaving destruction that communities will be grappling with for months. Days later, Super Typhoon Fung-wong (Uwan) arrived with even stronger winds and heavier rains. New rapid attribution studies generated using the Imperial College Storm Model (IRIS) model reveal that climate change—driven overwhelmingly by the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas—intensified both storms and left more economic damages. Fung-wong’s wind speed increased by 5.5% in the Philippines and rainfall by 10.5%, while Kalmaegi’s wind speed rose by 3% and rainfall by 8.6% as it hit Vietnam.

In the Philippines, Kalmaegi claimed 269 lives and left more than $9 million in agricultural losses and over $8 million in damaged infrastructure. Vietnam recorded about $300 million in economic losses, with close to 60,000 homes damaged and over 39,000 hectares of crops destroyed. In Thailand, Kalmaegi compounded weeks of flooding in Ayutthaya, a province in the vulnerable Chao Phraya Basin, inundating over 63,000 households and damaging homes, cultural heritage, and infrastructure. The World Bank notes that Thailand is among the world’s most flood-exposed nations, with climate change projected to intensify river flooding and escalate future losses.

Yet the region is often portrayed as chronically vulnerable instead of chronically wronged. While contributing only a tiny fraction of global emissions, they repeatedly face cyclone seasons that are now wetter and more unpredictable. Meanwhile, the nations and corporations that built their wealth on fossil fuels continue to profit while denying responsibility for the damages their emissions have created, all while investing heavily in Southeast Asia to expand fossil fuel projects that lock communities into decades more dependence on coal, oil, and gas.

As COP30 moves deeper into negotiations, progress remains slow and the ambition gap continues to widen. Fossil fuel lobbyists now outnumber several country delegations, and new UN assessments warn that the world is far off-track from keeping 1.5°C within reach. World leaders must agree to a clear, time-bound roadmap for a full, just, and equitable fossil fuel phase-out. They must accelerate renewable energy transitions, enabling communities to access clean, affordable power. They must ensure that the shift away from fossil fuels like oil, coal, and gas protects workers and supports communities who have lived for decades in the shadow of fossil-fueled development.

Above all, COP30 must deliver the finance that frontline communities need. Wealthy and historically high-emitting countries should provide new, public, and additional climate finance. The Loss and Damage Fund must finally function at scale. Recovery cannot be funded by loans that trap vulnerable nations in deeper debt. The Polluter Pays Principle must guide climate finance, and major fossil fuel companies must be held financially accountable for the harms they’re causing to the people and the planet.

Kalmaegi is a signal of a region being pushed beyond its limits. If COP30 fails to confront the root causes of these storms, Southeast Asia and other developing countries will continue to suffer the consequences of decisions made in boardrooms and capitals far from the damage.

The world owes developing countries more than sympathy. It owes justice and action that matches the scale of the crisis.

Jefferson Chua and Attapol Puangsakul are Greenpeace Southeast Asia’s campaigners in the Philippines and Thailand, respectively, working on key areas of climate litigation, policy, finance, and just transition.

Source: Amnesty International –

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Source: Amnesty International –

Responding to the news of Türkiye hosting COP31 next year, Marta Schaaf, Amnesty International’s Programme Director for Climate Justice said:

“As the newly designated host for the annual UN Climate summit next year, Türkiye must take decisive and transparent actions to tackle climate change in line with its international obligations as confirmed in this year’s Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice. This requires not only establishing and implementing greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets that are aligned with the collective target to keep global warming to below 1.5, but also delivering a full, fast, fair and funded fossil fuel phase out through a just and human rights compliant transition across all sectors that protects people’s rights and ensures that no one is left behind.

“Türkiye must also respect, protect and facilitate the work of environmental human rights defenders, and guarantee the rights to freedom of expression and to peaceful protest so that those advocating for climate justice can freely participate in shaping climate policies before, during and after COP31.”

Türkiye must respect, protect and facilitate the work of … those advocating for climate justice (to) freely participate in shaping climate policies before, during and after COP31.

Marta Schaaf, Amnesty International’s Programme Director for Climate Justice

Source: Amnesty International –

The Chadian authorities have failed to protect the victims of armed clashes between herders and farmers as well as their right to truth, justice, and reparations, Amnesty International said in a new report.

“Live off the land and die for it: Human rights violations in conflicts between herders and farmers in Chad” documents seven episodes of herder-farmer violence – driven among other reasons by climate change pressures – in four provinces between 2022 and 2024 that left 98 people dead, more than 100 injured, and hundreds of families without homes or sources of income. In total, there are thousands of victims of these clashes, according to the United Nations data shared over the last years.

“Faced with recurring violence between herders and farmers, the authorities are failing to adequately protect the population. The security forces’ response is often delayed, and those suspected of killings, looting, and destruction of property are rarely brought to justice, fueling a sense of impunity and marginalization within communities,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

Source: Amnesty International –

By Joshua Franco is a Senior Research Advisor at Amnesty Tech  

For years, the EU has taken a leading role in creating standards that protect our rights online. But the winds have now shifted, and under the guise of “simplification” a corporate-backed wave of weakening digital rules is underway that threatens all of our rights – on and offline. 

Digital and human rights advocates including Amnesty International have been documenting some of the human impacts caused by new technologies, and it’s clear from these, that what’s needed more than ever is stronger rights protections. Despite this, this simplification agenda aims to roll these very protections back. 

It is becoming increasingly clear that this process is inevitably leading towards the weakening of provisions of the AI Act and data protection, and perhaps much more. The Commission have also proposed a “Digital Fitness Check.” While we haven’t been told what this will mean in practice, it is most likely going to be an exercise to identify further laws to be “simplified”. All of this is being undertaken under expedited procedures without prior impact assessments to ask how individuals and communities experience or are harmed by high-risk and emerging technologies, on the preposterous basis that laws that protect our rights can be pared back without impacting our rights.  

Source: Greenpeace Statement –

SYDNEY/BELÉM, BRAZIL, Wednesday 19 November 2025 — As Türkiye is confirmed as the COP31 host, Greenpeace Australia Pacific has urged the Australian government to show leadership and use its role to drive the phase out of fossil fuels. 

Türkiye and Australia had been competing to host the COP31 climate talks in 2026, with the decision coming down to the wire at the COP30 summit in Belém. Türkiye has been confirmed as host, with Australia salvaging the position of negotiations President — a highly unusual arrangement.

Speaking from Belém, David Ritter, CEO at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “Whatever the forum, whoever the President, the urgency and focus cannot change, and phasing out fossil fuels and ending deforestation must be at the core of the COP31 agenda.

“Prime Minister Albanese and his government are not fighting hard enough for our future. Here in Belém, Australia was a notable absentee from the press conference calling for a road map to end fossil fuels. Australia should clearly and unequivocally commit to supporting Pacific demands for a phase out of fossil fuels and to do everything possible to limit warming to 1.5°C. 

“The Australia government’s moral and legal obligations to its own citizens, to the Pacific, and to global efforts to slash climate pollution remain unchanged. There is still a global spotlight on Anthony Albanese because Australia is the third-largest fossil fuel exporter in the world, one of the highest-emitting countries and a global deforestation hotspot. All of this is hopelessly inconsistent with the future safety and security of both the Australian people and Pacific communities. 

“Australia has the global responsibility as COP31 President to show the kind of leadership for the world that is being demanded by  Pacific nations . As over 80 countries have already made clear at COP30 in Bélem, there needs to be a rapid global phase out of fossil fuels and a clear roadmap to do so. 

“The Albanese government must end approvals for new coal and gas projects, and deliver a clear national plan and timeline for the managed phase-out of all fossil fuels, including exports. 

“The world’s political leaders have a sacred duty to limit warming to the 1.5°C temperature goal, agreed under the Paris Agreement 10 years ago. Any delay will be measured in the accelerating loss of human life and the destruction of the natural world. The obligation to act is clear. What matters is the action we take now.”

Also in Belém, Shiva Gounden, Head of Pacific at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “While it is disappointing that Australia’s bid for hosting the Pacific COP31 was unsuccessful, the Pacific’s fight for survival does not rise or fall on a single hosting decision. For us, climate action has never been about prestige — it is about protecting and preserving our homelands, our cultures, and our future with dignity and humility. 

“Hosting COP in our region would have built on the foundations of strong, ambitious Pacific leadership — but our commitment does not waver because of a lost bid.

“Science is crystal clear: to keep 1.5°C alive, the world must rapidly and equitably phase out fossil fuels. No exceptions. No delays. And those who have profited from polluting must finally pay their fair share for the loss and damage our communities are living with every day.

“The Pacific has carried the moral compass of the climate movement for decades, and we will continue to push global powers to rise to the moment. Our islands may be small, but our resolve is immense. 

“We will keep fighting — in every space we can, no matter where the COP is — for a safe, just and livable future for all. This fight does not start and end at COPs, it starts in our communities and ends in the hearts of justice.”

-ENDS-

High res images for media use can be found here 

For more information or interviews contact Kate O’Callaghan on +61 406 231 892 or [email protected] 

Source: Amnesty International –

Responding to the European Commission’s so-called “digital omnibus” proposals, which will dismantle the bloc’s protections against digital threats, Damini Satija, Programme Director at Amnesty Tech, said: 

“The EU’s ongoing deregulatory push will lead to a weakening of people’s rights and expose them to digital oppression. It will open the door to unlawful surveillance, discriminatory profiling in welfare and policing, strip people of their right to have control of their personal data and object to automated decisions, and the spread of harmful content online. It will also make it harder to detect and challenge decisions made by automated systems on who gets social benefits, jobs, and educational opportunities, while further exacerbating climate harms fuelled by policies that prioritize the tech industry. 

“Years of hard work by civil society, trade unions, and human rights defenders has gone into ensuring that the EU’s digital rulebook protects people against digital threats and unfair AI systems, while safeguarding their data and holding governments and corporations accountable for misusing technologies. These measures are essential for a digitally safe society.  

“Some of these hard-won laws have yet to even come into effect, but the EU is already seeking to shift the balance of power from individual protections to corporate impunity, conceding to the profit-centric motives of tech behemoths who often operate at the cost of our rights.  

Years of hard work by civil society, trade unions, and human rights defenders has gone into ensuring that the EU’s digital rulebook protects people against digital threats and unfair AI systems, while safeguarding their data and holding governments and corporations accountable for misusing technologies. These measures are essential for a digitally safe society.  

Damini Satija, Programme Director, Amnesty Tech

“If the EU truly wants to support the smooth implementation of digital laws, including the AI Act, the GDPR, and other vital protections, it should strengthen existing safeguards and ensure that laws are meaningfully enforced – not dismantle the frameworks that currently hold companies to account and allow progress towards a rights-respecting tech future.” 

Background 

The digital omnibus is part of a wider deregulatory push by the EU, which civil society has raised alarm over.