In the second half of 2024, in Newcastle, an industrial city on the east coast of Australia, a group of kayak boats inserted into the port transport lane to stop a large coal ship from docking.
The “Climate Defenders” collected by the radical group Rising Tide aims to temporarily block the world’s largest coal port and draw attention to the climate crisis caused primarily by fossil fuels. It also calls for an end to new coal, oil and gas projects.
The NSW (NSW) state government and police are trying to stop the court’s lockdown. But protesters held the kerosene tanker for more than 30 hours after the judge raised an order to establish an exclusion zone in the port. About 170 militants have been arrested for suspected crimes, including the destruction of major facilities. Under the 2022 counter-protest bill, most people could face fines of up to A$22,000 (€12,350) or two years in prison.
The law criminalizes the public council that undermines most of public infrastructure, such as roads, tunnels and ports, and is a response from climate protesters to past lockdowns. The then-New South Wales Attorney General said previous laws did not adequately punish “significant inconvenience caused to events that have been caused to the community” and “severe financial impact” due to “loss of productivity.”
Zack Schofield, a spokesman for the rising tide, was also arrested, saying New South Wales laws are almost targeting climate protesters. ”
Australia is getting harder
A young climate activist blocked a lane on Sydney Harbour Bridge in 2022, the first person charged in New South Wales law, was initially sentenced to 15 months in prison.
Sue Higginson, a member of the Green Party in New South Wales, called the imprisonment of nonviolent protesters “undemocratic”, adding that people should not be punished for “engaging in legal forms of dissent and civil disobedience forms.”
According to a 2024 study of crimes conducted by researchers at the University of Bristol, UK, one in five climate and environmental protesters were arrested in Australia, the highest speed in a democratic world.
The country’s third largest exporter of fossil fuels has passed harsh anti-protest laws across the country. These include the state of Tasmania, where protests at old growing forest logging sites could be fined $13,000 or two years in prison.
Climate protests crack down on global
Similar punitive anti-specific laws have been enacted in Europe and the United States.
In the UK, the latest amendment to the Public Order Act gives police the power to increase their “severely destructive” actions in public protests.
Under the amended law, five oil activists who have just stopped are charged for organizing a lockdown on British expressways in 2022.
Protesters were charged with conspiracy to cause “public nuisance” and were sentenced to four to five years in prison in 2024, then their sentences were slightly reduced.
It is said to be the longest sentence for nonviolent protests in British legal history, and they are almost comparable to the maximum sentence for aggravated attacks.
Oscar Berglund, senior lecturer in international public and social policy at the University of Bristol, said UK law has opposed climate and environmental protests 95% of the time.
In Germany, members of the nonviolent climate action group Lett Generation (Last Generation) were accused of “forming criminal organizations” in May 2024, Berglund said.
The law, generally targets mafia organizations and has never been applied to nonviolent activist groups, the researchers said.
Meanwhile, a blockade of a highway in The Hague, Netherlands includes a blockade of a highway in the Netherlands. According to an Amnesty International study by Amnesty International, it is a European protest that describes “systemic protests.”
Protesters face cruel litigation
In addition to the anti-protest laws passed by the government, climate activists face massive compensation claims for damage caused by fossil fuel companies in action.
Known as the Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (SLAPP), it was a counter-claim in March 2025 when a jury in North Dakota found that Greenpeace’s role in the oil pipeline blockade was more than $660 million (€660 million).
The action was purchased by an oil professional, which used years of resistance to oil pipelines passing through North Dakota, especially from the local Sioux Tribe, which protested on the rock reservation on the scene, which attracted international attention.
“This is part of the company’s re-push to get our courts to weapons that could force the organization to close its U.S. operations,” said Sushma Raman, interim executive director of Greenpeace.
According to the crime and repression of climate and environmental protests by Bristol University, between 2012 and 2023, about 2,000 environmental defenders were murdered between 2012 and 2023, with 401 cases in Brazil and 401 cases in the Philippines.
Is law a tool in the fossil fuel industry?
“You don’t have to delve into it,” Berglund said on the impact of oil, gas and coal interests on stricter counter-protest laws and policing. “The protesters are targeting because they pose a threat to fossil fuel profits.”
He added that in the UK, a counter-protest law was drafted in consultation with the right-wing think tank policy exchange, which has publicly promoted the oil and gas hall.
But for Luke McNamara, a professor at the University of New South Wales School of Law and Justice, these “punitive behaviors” also reflect “increasing tolerance” as a result of the destruction caused by climate protesters’ appeal to peaceful civil disobedience.
“Australian politicians often share their affection for the right to protest.” But this principle “every innovative climate protest draws attention,” he told DW.
Back in Newcastle, about 130 tide protesters who have pleaded guilty will remain uncertain about the severity of potential fines or imprisonment when the trial begins later this month.
“If the penalties are disproportionate, we will appeal,” spokesman Zack Schofield said. This could become a verification case where the judiciary is willing to identify environmental objections as environmental objections in Australia and beyond.
For Berglund, such prosecutions confirm the growing impact of climate movement. “Protesters are targets when they succeed,” he said.
