GCCP OVERVIEW

The Global Climate Crimes Project (GCCP) seeks to bring “Climate Criminals” to justice. We believe that people should be held accountable for the large-scale harm that they knowingly or intentionally cause to others. We believe a “Climate Criminal” is anyone who acts intentionally in ways that aggravate our ongoing climate crisis knowing full well their actions will harm many people and the planet. We work with scientists, lawyers, and advocates to bring Climate Criminals to justice in their home countries or before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

All of us have some involvement in activities that impact the Earth. We also understand that some people may still question the overwhelming evidence proving that humans have engaged in practices that aggravate global warming, especially since the Industrial Revolution began. They are not Climate Criminals (though we certainly think they are mistaken if not misguided).

We are targeting people who, because of their power and position, have knowingly decided that corporate profits are more important than the planet. These are individuals who:

  • Own or control massive international corporations whose work and operations are proven to cause major harm to the environment (e.g., fossil fuel companies);

  • Use their wealth and privilege to fund climate denial organizations, not skeptical organizations, but groups that intentionally undermine climate science and fraudulently confuse people about global warming; and/or

  • Own or control massive international financial corporations which knowingly fund extraction projects that harm the environment and aggravate global warming.

  • Own or control international media corporations which intentionally spread fake news and greenwashing that falsely covers up and/or minimizes the truth about global warming and the harm created by climate criminals.

  • Deliberately engage in political action which channels public funds to subsidize the extraction industries that create and aggravate global warming. 

  • Own or control international retail corporations that deliberately engage in for-profit retail activities while knowing that their commerce harms the environment and aggravates global warming.

  • Deliberately engage in for-profit climate change denialism while knowing that their activities harms the environment and aggravates global warming.

We are targeting people like:

  • Darren Woods, Chairman of the Board of ExxonMobil, the first oil company to become aware of climate change, more than 40 years ago.

  • Rupert Murdoch, an Australian-born American billionaire businessman and media tycoon.

  • Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, the world’s worst financer of climate chaos, having dumped over a quarter of a trillion dollars into fossil fuels in the last few years alone.

  • Senator Joe Manchin, one of the Senate’s strongest proponents of extraction subsidies, despite a massive conflict of interest due to his strong financial associations with the fossil fuel industry.

  • Chris Kempczinski, CEO of McDonald’s. With 36,000 locations in over 100 countries, McDonald’s burgers, sandwiches, sides, and beverages involve significant amounts of beef, soy, and palm oil obtained in an environmentally destructive manner.

  • Myron Ebell of Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is a paid climate denier and lobbyist. Between 1998 and 2005 CEI received over $2 million from ExxonMobil.

We are considering and engaged with a number of efforts such as:

  • Providing factual information and a new perspective concerning Generational Genocide: how the young face limited opportunity, pain, suffering, and an early death because of climate criminals.

  • Shifting the frame of acceptable discourse concerning climate criminals (the Overton Window).

  • Assessing legal strategies for indigenous people and First Nations to bring legal claims against Climate Criminals in Canada, the United States, or elsewhere;

  • Analyzing options for bringing cases before the ICC as Crimes Against Humanity (as defined in the Rome Treaty); and

GCCP has no paid staff. We are all volunteers (activists, scientists, support staff, and attorneys).