This press release was produced by CAN International.
Solidarity for Justice Award honours Palestine
Climate justice movements call for protection, accountability and unrestricted humanitarian access as winter floods threaten displaced families in Gaza
Climate justice movements at COP31 are honouring the people of Palestine with the Solidarity for Justice Award, recognising their resilience in the face of continuing violence, displacement and violations of human rights.
The award comes amid renewed attacks on Gaza, including an Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Thursday that killed at least six people, including a surgeon, and wounded more than 20 others.
Heavy rains have flooded an estimated 70,000 tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza, leaving families exposed to worsening winter conditions while restrictions on humanitarian aid hamper relief efforts. The UN has warned that restrictions on humanitarian access, delays and funding shortages are leaving Palestinians exposed to preventable suffering as winter approaches.
In the occupied West Bank, Palestinians continue to face military operations, settler violence and displacement. An October report by a UN Commission of Inquiry found that Israel had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and that genocidal acts continued in Gaza despite the ceasefire agreement.
Nominated by CAN Arab World and CAN Africa, the award is a recognition of Palestinian resilience and an urgent call for the protection of civilians, accountability for violations of international law and immediate, unrestricted humanitarian access.
The climate justice movement stands in solidarity with Palestinians defending their lives, homes, land, heritage and livelihoods.
No climate justice without a free Palestine.
Fossil of the Day to Russia
From challenging climate science to jailing Indigenous climate defenders, Russia is undermining climate justice at home and abroad.
Today’s Fossil of the Day goes to Russia for obstructing climate negotiations, clinging to fossil fuels and persecuting Indigenous climate defenders. Russia came to Antalya with a simple plan: less science, more fossil fuels. Earlier this week, it joined calls to delete references to scientific estimates of global temperature rise and to weaken language on exceeding 1.5°C. It also continues to count occupied Ukrainian territory in its UN climate reporting, as if invasion came with carbon accounting rights.
Why would a country work so hard to slow down climate action? Russia has a trillion answers.
Viktoriya Ball, Secretariat representative of CAN Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (CAN EECCA), said: “Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it has earned more than €1 trillion from fossil fuel exports. That’s a trillion reasons to keep the oil and gas flowing, and every one of them helps pay for the war.”
Russia’s long-term energy strategy expands coal and gas production. It ranks third from bottom in the Climate Change Performance Index, ahead of only the United States and Iran. It isn’t the gold medal, but Russia is clearly trying hard.
The war has generated an estimated 311 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in four years, comparable to France’s annual emissions, with climate damage estimated at more than US$57 billion. And it’s set to get even worse: next year, Russia’s draft budget raises military spending to about US $203 billion, 27% more than previously planned. Apparently, money is easier to find for war than climate action.
And while Russia’s delegation negotiates in Antalya, one of the Indigenous leaders who should be here is in a Moscow jail. In December 2025, weeks after returning from COP30, Daria Egereva, a Selkup climate advocate and co-chair of the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change, was detained with human rights defender Natalia Leongardt in a wave of raids on Indigenous activists. Both women remain in pre-trial detention on terrorism charges carrying up to 20 years in prison. From her cell, Egereva has written to her colleagues at COP31:“My voice is our collective voice – that is being put on trial within the UN arena.”
Participation in UN climate negotiations is not a crime. Defending Indigenous rights is not terrorism.
CAN calls on Russia to pay for the climate damage caused by its war, stop obstructing international climate action and free Daria Egereva and Natalia Leongardt.
Free Indigenous voices. End Russia’s occupation of Ukraine.
