Face A, the European movement for climate and biodiversity is dozing off. In Austria, the Letzte Generation (Last Generation) group renounces road and theater blockades. In London, Extinction Rebellion has swapped its punchy actions for good-natured happenings. Face B, the administrative court of appeal of Bordeaux has just canceled the authorization issued to the Sainte-Soline reservoir (Deux-Sèvres), offering a symbolic victory to the Earth Uprisings, who knew how to stage the battle megabasins.
Familiar with the ups and downs of the ecological struggle throughout history, political scientist Oscar Berglund is careful not to predict failure or success. He prefers to provide, with other researchers from the University of Bristol (United Kingdom), a rich quantitative analysis of the growing criminalization carried out against environmental defenders. The phenomenon, more often studied in southern countries where repression is sometimes bloody, does not spare Europe, points out this native of Sweden, also a teacher at Sciences-Po Lille.
What was the starting point of your work?
I have been interested in environmental protest movements since 2019, after having worked on other forms of activism. This report looks at the criminalization of these protests, mainly peaceful, from 2020-2021. Usually, research focuses on countries in the South; our approach is more global.
What conclusion does this comparative study offer?
We observe a global intensification of repression during gatherings during the period we studied, that is to say between 2012 and 2023, including in democratic countries such as the United Kingdom, France or the Germany. Everywhere, environmental and climate defenders are subject to systemic violence, orchestrated by states, sometimes in collusion with private interests. This overcriminalization reveals a profound injustice, because those responsible for pollution, the climate crisis or the collapse of biodiversity often escape prosecution.
How many countries have your work covered?
We analyzed data from three main databases: Acled, which records violent conflicts and demonstrations around the world based on press articles; Global Witness, which documents the killings of environmental defenders; finally the Climate Protest Tracker from the Carnegie Foundation, with its list of current protests. The material thus collected allowed us to work on fourteen countries, where the frequency of demonstrations and violence against activists are significant, and for which we were able, in addition to a quantitative analysis, to conduct a in-depth qualitative study.
Why distinguish between environmental and climate defenders?
Even if some participate in these two forms of struggles, environmental activists, opposed to industrial or agricultural projects, suffer more violence. We are more frequently beaten by the police when demonstrating in a rural area against the expansion of a mine, an oil well or the construction of a dam, than when marching for the climate in the center of a city. big city. An indigenous woman fighting against deforestation in Brazil faces more risk than an Extinction Rebellion youth at a rally outside London's Westminster Parliament.
How does repression manifest across the planet?
Four main mechanisms are at work. First of all, from the United Kingdom to Australia via the United States, we are witnessing an alarming increase in repressive laws, particularly those against demonstrations, with the introduction of new offenses, or the worsening of sanctions for existing violations.
Secondly, anti-terrorism or anti-organized crime legislation is, in Germany, Spain or the United States, diverted from its initial objectives to be used against environmental activists. This leads to a depoliticization of legal debates; sometimes it is forbidden to mention global warming or environmental damage in court.
Third, in some countries, the police or the army, but also non-state actors such as private security companies or mafias, infiltrate protest movements, prevent demonstrations from taking place, threaten, search or brutalize activists.
Finally, the same actors go so far as to assassinate and disappear activists. These acts, common in certain countries of the South after death threats or other forms of intimidation, constitute a form of extension of law enforcement practices.
You give new figures on the proportion of arrests and police violence during demonstrations, two indicators of the level of repression…
Our study shows that 6.3% of environmental mobilizations result in arrests, with a peak of 20% in Australia. Police violence affects 3% of environmental demonstrations and even 6.5% of them in Peru.
The United Kingdom stands out for its high arrest rate, while French police officers have more brutal practices than those across the Channel…
In the United Kingdom, repression takes place within a legal framework, via draconian laws wanted by the Conservatives when they were in power, an extension of the length of certain sentences (five people were sentenced to four and five years in prison in July), and strict judicial supervision of trials which limits the means of defense of activists. In France, the arrest rate (3.2%) is much lower than in the country where I live (16.8%) and than in the average of the countries studied (6.7%), but police violence ( 3.2% compared to 0.2% in the United Kingdom and 3% on average) are much more massive.
The data confirms what is obvious to the researcher that I am during a demonstration in Lille or to those of a British journalist reporting in Sainte-Soline: where you live, the police or gendarmes arrive at the scene of a mobilization with tear gas, armed, ready to fight, equipped to “confront” the demonstrators, even peaceful ones. In general, police violence is more widespread in countries where arrests are less frequent. These are two different methods to achieve the same goal: dissuading citizens from mobilizing.
But this is “nothing” compared to the situation in certain countries of the South…
Between 2012 and 2023, more than 2,000 environmental defenders were murdered, mainly in Brazil (401), the Philippines (298), India (86) and Peru (58). In Peru, it is often the police who kill, while in Brazil, it is often organized crime. Certainly the Brazilian state does not do much to prevent these murders, but at least it does not commit them itself.
Was the Extinction Rebellion movement, to which you devoted several passages of this report and, in 2021, a book not translated in France, particularly targeted by repression?
This movement has played a key role in the climate fight, especially in the UK and Australia, with activists often voluntarily seeking arrest. This strategy explains the high rate of arrests, but also demonstrates a certain confidence in a system where police brutality remains limited.
Does the repression that you document explain the lesser current success of the climate marches?
Not necessarily. Since the 1960s and 1970s, environmental movements have gone through cycles. After the financial crisis of 2008, they went through a slump. And then, from 2018-2019, the pro-climate movement gained momentum, driven by its discussions with left-wing environmental parties, the idea of inventing a Green New Deal to facilitate the ecological transition and well sure the emergence in youth of a figure like Greta Thunberg. In recent years, the number of mobilizations has remained stable despite less popular success.
How do you interpret the growing criminalization of environmental protests?
This escalation paradoxically reflects the growing effectiveness of these movements. If criminalization continues, it risks making the protest more radical.
Your report precisely recommends putting an end to the repression…
It is crucial to recognize environmental activists as legitimate political actors and not criminals. Systematic repression slows down an already sluggish ecological transition.
Facing the incomprehension of governments, isn't that the common lot of many civil disobedience movements?
History shows that many vilified movements ultimately triumph. Nothing says that these activists will not experience the success of the English suffragettes or the American civil rights activists. A new year is starting, why not believe it?
