Protection, courage, kindness, fairness – these are words I think of when I imagine firefighters and emergency relief workers. Stepping up and ready to put themselves at risk to protect people and the environment when disaster strikes.
Disasters such as fires, heatwaves, floods, avalanches, and typhoons are becoming more frequent and severe as the climate warms. Fire chiefs worldwide have emphasised the increasing risks of climate change and the necessity for strategic planning, cooperation, and resources to enhance fire and rescue departments globally.
The United Nations Environment Programme warns that the frequency of wildfires might increase by 50 per cent by the end of the century. It further calls on governments “to radically shift their investments in wildfires to focus on prevention and preparedness.”
But the sad truth is that emergency services around the world remain underfunded and overstretched. Those brave people who are stepping up to help experience stress and exhaustion. All the while, shareholders and CEOs of fossil fuel corporations sit back and rake in unimaginable profits. The contrast could not be more stark.
First responders and trainers have been among the first to join the Polluter Pays Pact. An initiative to make fossil fuel corporations, not people, pay for the climate crisis.
Sign the pact, record your story. Join the global movement to make polluters pay.
Join the movementOur vision is that governments shift rapidly and responsibly away from dirty energy sources like oil, gas, and coal to avoid even worse extreme weather in the future. At the same time, all first responder services must be well funded. We should invest in adaptation and the services we rely on when climate disasters occur. It is those who are most vulnerable and least responsible for climate change who should receive the most support.
And how to pay for that? Let’s start by recovering the money due from the oil and gas companies that have profited for decades from climate pollution.
Fire Brigades Union (United Kingdom)
“While oil and gas giants profit from pollution, firefighters are left to deal with the sharp end of the climate crisis – and all too often without the resources they need to protect lives.
It’s frontline workers and vulnerable communities paying the price. Governments must get serious: make polluters pay, fund public services, and back a transition to clean, green energy.
The UK and global leaders must be braver and bolder in holding polluters to account, starting with signing up to the principles set out in the Polluters Pay Pact.”
Greg Mullins (Australia)
“I have fought fires for over 50 years and have seen firsthand how climate pollution is supercharging fires in Australia and across the globe.
The 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires devastated communities across Australia and stretched emergency services to their limit. This year, extreme fires fuelled by climate pollution have ripped through Los Angeles in the US, Japan and South Korea. Fires are burning at times when they haven’t burnt before, and in places that communities and emergency services aren’t prepared for.
The costs are escalating. Climate disasters are destroying the environment and taking lives. It is time that companies making huge profits from polluting coal, oil and gas – start to pay for the damage they are doing.”
Severina Miteva (Bulgaria)
“I lost a friend in an avalanche. That is what pushed me to become a trainer – to help keep others safe.
I teach avalanche response – and I am frightened at the speed that climate change is increasing the risk around ski resorts. Young people going off-piste are most at risk.
I teach them what to do in the critical 15 minutes they have after an avalanche to save the life of a friend. Bulgaria Mountain rescue is underfunded. Teams risk their own safety, sometimes walking for 10 hours carrying an injured person to safety.
Pressure is only going to grow as climate change worsens. And who should pay the bill? I say the fossil fuel corporations who have lobbied to delay the transition for so long.”
Daniel Gutierrez Govino (Brazil)
“I am a volunteer forest firefighter. My experience with climate change is intense, both in suffering its consequences and in fighting its causes. We are on the front lines of combating forest fires in our community and help other communities establish groups like ours to provide the first response in case a wildfire occurs.
We are not paid by the government, we are not military, we are volunteers. We study and are become professionals in integrated fire management, for now, on a voluntary basis. But in the not-too-distant future, our organization will have the resources to sustain us—to live and be paid to take care of the forest and the people who keep it standing.
Oil companies should pay more for climate change because they are the primary cause of greenhouse gas emissions that heat the planet and trigger chain reactions such as polar ice melting, ocean acidification, and forest destruction.”
Boyan Mitov (Bulgaria)
“Last year my country was devastated by so many fires that it is just impossible to keep track.
As an emergency response volunteer, I was getting called a few times a week for the whole summer. The situation was so bad that my country managed to get in one of the worst rankings a country could ever be in; scoring second with the most forest area being burnt by fires…
…And now I choose to be on the ground, helping to fight extreme weather events. It should be those fossil fuel companies that are made to pay. It is them who are responsible and therefore it is them who should pay the price.”
Dennis Todorov (Bulgaria)
“In the last 10 years we`ve seen in Bulgaria many big floods, forest fires and droughts that not only were destructive for nature and species living in it, but also impacted people directly. Many lost their homes or in the worst case scenario their lives.
All these disasters are different in a way, but at the same time there is one thing that connects them and it’s climate change. So we took the decision in Greenpeace Bulgaria to not stand still but to do something. We had the idea of providing training for first line response in such events.
We have delivered training for 3 years already, but we see that it’s not enough. Big contributors to climate change like oil and gas companies must be made to start paying for what they have caused. At the same time they must be stopped from developing future fossil fuel projects.”
Join the Polluters Pay Pact today
These are just some of the hundreds of thousands of individuals and over 60 organisations that have joined the Polluters Pay Pact. If enough of us join now, we can inspire more first responders and unite many more climate-impacted communities, concerned citizens, politicians, humanitarian groups, economists and campaign organisations so that it becomes impossible for governments to ignore.
Sign the pact, record your story. Join the global movement to make polluters pay.
Join the movementSophie Allain is the Senior Portfolio Manager of Greenpeace International’s Oil Campaign, based in the United Kingdom.
