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Over 2m signatures delivered to UN in global ‘Make Polluters Pay’ campaign – EnviroNews
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Campaigners from around the world on Monday, September 21, 2026, presented petitions with a combined total of over 2 million signatures to Selwin Hart, Assistant Secretary-General for Climate Action at the United Nations, calling on governments to Make Polluters Pay and ensure fossil-fuel companies are taxed more to pay their fair share for the climate damage they have caused.
The petition presentation took place in New York as world leaders gathered for the UN General Assembly, following a season marked by devastating wildfires, floods and deadly climate disasters, alongside continued energy insecurity linked to dependence on oil and gas.
The fossil fuel industry right now is earning extraordinary profits. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the five largest oil companies have earned half a trillion in profits. As the climate crisis accelerates, developing countries are being starved of the resources they need to protect their communities and to safeguard livelihoods from a crisis they did literally nothing to cause. This is unjust. This is the heart of climate injustice.
Polluters must pay, and the UN supports this effort, we are with you. We urge you to use every single legal and lawful tool at your disposal. Regulate, legislate and litigate. Civil society must use every tool at your disposal to hold the polluters accountable. You are on the right side of history,” said Selwin Hart Assistant Secretary-General for Climate Action, at the presentation of the petition.
The action brought together by the Make Polluters Pay International Coalition alongside frontline campaigners and communities, highlighted the growing gap between the costs being borne by ordinary people and the extraordinary profits continuing to flow to fossil-fuel companies.
The campaign is calling on governments to introduce binding measures that make fossil-fuel companies contribute to the costs of the damage they have caused, including climate damages taxes, surtaxes on fossil-fuel profits and fines to fund recovery, adaptation and a just transition.
The over 2 million signatures represent people across countries and regions demanding that those who have profited from fossil fuels contribute their fair share to addressing the climate crisis. The petition presentation comes as governments discuss global security, resilience and economic stability at the UN General Assembly, with international negotiations on climate finance and global tax rules also approaching.
Campaigners argue that there can be no meaningful conversation about security or climate justice while economies remain exposed to volatile fossil-fuel markets and communities are left to carry the costs of climate disruption. Ending dependence on fossil fuels and investing in clean, affordable renewable energy is essential to building genuine energy security – and permanently higher taxes on fossil fuel profits are a crucial part of making this happen.
Anne Jellema Executive Director, 350.org, said: “For years, campaigners and communities on the frontlines have been saying the same thing: the companies that have profited from fossil fuels must pay their fair share of the costs of the crisis they helped create. Today, that demand is moving into the mainstream.
We have watched homes burn, communities flood and families struggle with the rising costs of climate and energy crises, while fossil-fuel companies continue to make extraordinary profits. We pay. They profit. It’s time to change that. Now the voices of more than two million people are being brought to the United Nations. Governments have the power to make polluters pay, and they must use it.”
Louise Hutchins, Co-Founder of the Make Polluters Pay International Coalition, said: “Two million signatures calling on world leaders to act is a powerful signal of the scale of public anger as oil profits soar. The movement for polluters to pay is growing rapidly, public pressure is mounting, and the politics are shifting. Politicians are starting to listen. Now governments need to catch up.”
Mads Christensen Executive Director, Greenpeace International, said: “2026 is a year the whole world could feel. August was the hottest month ever recorded, and scientists confirmed we are close to breaking the 1.5°C limit governments swore to hold. The climate crisis is here, and it falls hardest on the people who did the least to cause it.
“The biggest oil companies keep chasing profit to the last barrel, fueling the very disasters wrecking lives, ready to burn everything behind them rather than change course. The wealthiest polluters should be permanently taxed more to pay for the damage they cause, not the families and communities left to pick up the bill.
“Governments now face a clear choice, and too many are still on the wrong side of it: keep shielding the wealthiest polluters, or stand with the rest of us paying the price. This is how we take the profit out of destruction and protect the generations to come. It is us, or them.”
Amitabh Behar, Executive Director, Oxfam International, said: “Super-rich polluters are causing the most climate damage while the rest of us are left to pay the price. The emissions of just five oil giants were enough to cause around one in four heatwaves since 2000, and the six biggest are on track to rake in $147 billion this year. Meanwhile, farmers, women and families across the Global South are losing their lives, harvests and homes to a climate emergency they did not create.
“There is no fixing the climate crisis without taking on the billionaires and corporations cashing in on it. Frontline communities and millions of people have made their demand clear: make the richest polluters pay. Now world leaders must find the courage to protect billions of lives instead of polluters’ billions of dollars.”
Jamie HennSpokesperson for the US Make Polluters Pay Campaign, said: “The ‘make polluters pay’ demand is being heard around the world for a simple reason: billions of people are now paying the cost of a climate crisis that is fueled by just a handful of wealthy fossil fuel corporations. While we pay the costs of climate damages, they continue to rake in record profits at our expense. Today we’re bringing the Make Polluters Pay demand directly to the UN to thank the Secretary General and his team for their leadership and demand other world leaders follow suit.”
The campaigners say governments now have a clear mandate from millions of people: accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels, invest in clean and affordable renewable energy, and make the companies that have profited from fossil fuels pay their fair share of the costs of the crisis.
Rev. Fletcher HarperExecutive Director, GreenFaith, said: “Every religion teaches the same moral principle: you do not get to harm your neighbor and walk away. That is why religious leaders around the globe are calling for climate polluters to pay for the damage they have caused.
“For 50 years, the fossil fuel industry has enjoyed $3 billion in daily profits while knowingly creating pollution responsible for one in five deaths globally. Communities worldwide are absorbing the mounting costs of climate damage.
“Those expenses have not been paid by the polluters. They have been pushed onto families, communities, and taxpayers. In moral terms, that is theft.”
