UK Among World Leaders In Arresting Climate And Environmental Protestors; Only Australia Busts A Higher Percentage

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British police arrest environmental protesters at nearly three times the global average rate, research has found, revealing the country as a world leader in the legal crackdown on climate activism. Only Australia arrested climate and environmental protesters at a higher rate than UK police. One in five Australian eco-protests led to arrests, compared with about 17% in the UK. The global average rate is 6.7%.

The research comes amid an outcry over the targeting of climate and environmental protesters, with a rise in the suppression of dissent around the world as the climate, biodiversity and pollution crises take hold. It found an increase in the number and proportion of protests linked to climate and environmental destruction over the past decade, but argued that rather than tackling the issues provoking them, states are focusing on punishing dissent.

Michel Forst, the UN special rapporteur for environmental defenders, said earlier this year: “In many countries, the state response to peaceful environmental protest is increasingly to repress rather than to enable and protect those seeking to speak up for the environment.” The latest research paints a picture of extensive repression of climate and environmental protest in the global north and south, with distinct characteristics in each region contributing to the overall trend.

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Across the countries studied, an average of 6.7% of climate and environmental protests led to arrests, but the figure varied widely with the highest rates in the global north, not just in Australia and the UK, but also Norway, which had a rate of 15.1%. The countries with the lowest arrest rates were Brazil at 0.6%, Peru at 2% and Uganda at 2.2%, but these were also the countries with the highest levels of police violence. There were more than 2,000 killings of environmental defenders during the period studied, the researchers said, citing figures collated by the NGO Global Witness. The researchers also found that new laws in the UK, the US, Australia and elsewhere had created new offences, increased sentence lengths for non-violent protest and minor acts of sabotage, and given police new powers to stop protests during them and before they take place.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/dec/11/britain-leads-the-world-in-cracking-down-on-climate-activism-study-finds

[Think. Again.]

1. But they spill paint on glass! the horrors!