As The G20 Summit Opens, India Targets Climate Activists

As they arrive in New Delhi, world leaders will be talking a big game on climate. They won’t be talking about their crackdowns on climate protesters.

by Emily Atkin and Arielle Samuelson, Heated

Over the next two days, some of the world’s most powerful nations will meet for the G20 summit, which is widely seen as vital for making progress on international climate goals.

The host of this year’s summit, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has pledged to place climate change front and center—but has maintained that the focus should not be on his country.

“India has not caused any problems to the environment,” Modi said during a visit to the U.S. this summer.

Kolkata, India - 09 27 2019: Global Climate Strike

Disha Ravi, a 24-year-old Indian climate activist, would likely beg to differ. If India did not cause any problems to the environment, she wouldn’t have co-founded Fridays for Future India—and she wouldn’t have participated in the 2021 protests that eventually led to her arrest, imprisonment, and indefinite wait for trial.

So in light of the G20 summit kicking off this week in India, today we’ll be telling Ravi’s story, and looking at the growing effort to vilify and dehumanize climate activists—both in India, and around the world.