The year 2024 has seen its fair share of culprits responsible for pushing the planet closer to the brink.
From industries clinging to outdated habits to leaders whose policies read like climate disaster manuals, these “climate villains” featured prominently across news headlines, and would probably feature on Santa’s “naughty” list if there was one for climate.
Here’s a rundown of some of the more notorious offenders:
1. The one per cent
As half the globe suffered through record heatwaves this year, the ultra-rich kept their jet engines roaring – using their chartered aeroplanes ”like taxis” to hop from one city to another and boosting the emissions of the private aviation industry by nearly 50 per cent in the span of two years.
After being branded the “biggest celebrity CO2e polluter” last year, billionaire and frequent flyer Taylor Swift made headlines in early 2024 by vowing to purchase enough carbon credits to offset her flights for the Eras Tour twice over. However, critics have slammed the move as the “bare minimum” for a stadium tour that raked in billions in revenue.
With the “one per cent” hoarding half the world’s wealth and emitting more planet-warming carbon pollution in 90 minutes than the average person in a lifetime, widening wealth inequality is stewing class conflict in different parts of the world.
This year saw Spain’s royals pelted with mud and eggs after catastrophic floods hit Valencia and Americans “rooting for” 26-year-old gunman Luigi Mangione and his assassination of the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare – an insurance provider criticised for reportedly disproportionately denying health claims using artificial intelligence (AI). The latter incident reflects collective frustration and anger from people feeling helpless over the state of income inequality, which has worryingly translated into some kind of support for vigilante justice.
As climate disasters intensify and public outrage grows, the question looms: Will the world run out of tolerance for the excesses of the ultra-rich and what consequences will it bring?
2. Fossil fuel lobbyists
Climate activists protest against the presence of fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists at the COP29 summit in Baku, Azarbaijan. Image: UN Climate Change, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Flickr.
If there is one thing fossil fuel lobbyists excel at, it’s ensuring that progress for climate stalls and global greenhouse gas emissions continue to soar. Dressed in suits but acting like saboteurs, these lobbyists crashed both the COP29 summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, and the fifth and final scheduled session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) meeting to ink the Global Plastics Treaty in Busan, South Korea.
According to watchdog coalition Kick Big Polluters Out, at least 1,773 coal, oil and gas lobbyists were granted access to negotiations at the United Nations Climate Change Convention – largely outnumbering the delegation of almost every country at COP29, excluding only host state Azerbaijan and its COP30 successor Brazil.
Meanwhile, in Busan last month, the Center for International Environmental Law documented some 220 fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists infiltrating INC-5 talks. INC-5 saw an adjournment without a treaty to curb global plastic pollution.
3. Nickel mining
Nickel mining in Indonesia, driven by surging demand for transition minerals, has devastated ecosystems, displaced communities, and intensified pollution. Image: Arvid Knutsen, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Pexels.
Nickel mining activity that supports the growth of a global electric vehicle industry that is still burgeoning can leave deep scars on the natural landscape, if not managed properly. In Indonesia, mining has come under intense scrutiny this year, particularly for its displacement of communities and labour exploitation.
Indonesia – home to the world’s largest nickel reserves – produces over half of the global supply of the mineral. Yet the extraction of this resource has come at an enormous cost.
So far, mining has cleared more than 80,000 hectares of tropical forest – an area larger than Singapore – and threatens half a million more. Communities near mining sites face polluted waters, dwindling fish stocks, and dependence on “dust money” compensation that barely sustains them.
Meanwhile, low-grade nickel refinement – powered by coal – has turned Indonesia into a hotspot for toxic waste buildup. Smelters now consume more energy than Pakistan’s entire coal-fired capacity, and hazardous tailings accumulate without sustainable disposal plans.
The industry’s rapid growth has also been marred by bribery allegations, forced labour, and exploitative practices targeting Chinese migrant workers. While nickel is essential for the green transition, Indonesia’s mismanagement of its reserves reveals a stark truth: green solutions must be as sustainable as the problems they aim to solve.
4. Ad agencies
In 2024, backlash against fossil fuel greenwashing intensified amid growing calls for the advertising industry to sever ties with polluters and embrace genuine sustainability. Image: Kindel Media, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Pexels.
The advertising industry proved in 2024 that it could sell anything – even untruths and lies. Agencies like Ogilvy and Edelman continued to secure lucrative contracts with fossil fuel giants this year, crafting campaigns that rebranded polluters as eco-warriors.
Campaign group Clean Creatives’ annual “F-list” reported that the industry signed over 1,000 fossil fuel contracts between 2023 and 2024, with WPP and Edelman leading the charge.
In a World Environment Day speech, UN secretary-general António Guterres did not mince words when he called for a global ban on fossil fuel advertising, lambasting how advertising industry giants have “aided and abetted” oil and gas companies in rolling out sprawling greenwashing campaigns.
The backlash reached a tipping point when Havas lost B Corp certification for four of its agencies earlier this year. Despite these agencies’ lack of direct involvement with fossil fuel clients, their parent company’s ties to Shell had triggered an investigation.
Meanwhile, The Hague has taken a bold step, becoming the first city to ban outdoor fossil fuel ads outright. With over 1,200 agencies and 2,300 creatives now pledging to refuse fossil fuel contracts, pressure is mounting for the industry to break ties with high-emissions clients and prioritise genuine sustainability.
5. Donald Trump, Elon Musk and company
As Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House, his appointments – including Elon Musk – signal a rollback of climate policies, sparking fears of renewed US withdrawal from global environmental agreements. Image: NASA HQ / Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Flickr.
After espousing his ‘drill, baby, drill’ campaign slogan and promising sweeping concessions to the oil industry on the election trail, American President Donald Trump is set to waltz back into the White House this January with a new cast of eccentric characters. Among them is Tesla CEO and self-proclaimed “first buddy” Elon Musk who’s slated to head a “government efficiency” department named after the tech billionaire’s favourite meme bitcoin.
The appointment comes as no surprise after Musk spent at least US$277 million backing Trump and other Republican candidates in the 2024 election cycle – on top of hosting a disinformation-riddled exclusive interview with the “Make America Great Again” politician on his X platform earlier this year.
On the other hand, incoming Vice President JD Vance dismissed climate change as “weird science” during the televised debates – echoing Trump who has famously called global warming a “hoax” for many years. Notably, Vance’s nomination was brokered by former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel who in October appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast championing right-wing denialism of climate change.
Ahead of his inauguration, Trump has already begun flexing his power – naming former congressman Lee Zeldin as his hatchet man inside the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to lead rollbacks on America’s decarbonisation policies.
After a visit to Trump’s Mar-A-Lago estate in November, Argentinian president and outspoken climate change denier Javier Milei abruptly withdrew his country’s delegation to the COP29 UN Climate Change Convention in Azerbaijan – stoking fears of the South American nation’s exit from the Paris Agreement.
You know it’s bad when it’s an Exxon oil magnate trying to be the voice of reason to Trump and advocating against the United States’ second withdrawal from the climate accord in the span of five years. While it might be premature to judge Trump’s presidency, all the moves the incoming President has made so far do not bode well for stronger climate leadership from the US.
6. Artificial Intelligence
The rapid expansion of data centre infrastructure in 2024 has led to soaring energy consumption and emissions, with tech giants like Microsoft and Google grappling with significant emissions. Image: Beyzaa Yurtkuran, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Pexels.
AI might be the future, but in 2024, it also became a climate liability. Energy-hungry data centres powering AI models have expanded rapidly – but so have their emissions that can rival the carbon footprint of entire nations.
According to a McKinsey survey, some 65 per cent of companies now use generative AI, with three in every four survey respondents expecting it to disrupt whole industries. Yet this revolution comes at a cost. Training OpenAI’s GPT-3 utilised some 1,300 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity – equivalent to the annual power consumption of 130 homes in the US. The advanced GPT-4 model, on the other hand, reportedly needed 50 times more electricity to train.
AI’s water demands are equally staggering. Cooling the world’s data centres could soon use six times more water than Denmark annually. Globally, emissions from 79 major AI systems released between 2020 and 2024 could surpass 102 million tonnes of CO2 every year.
Even tech giants are feeling the heat. Microsoft’s emissions have jumped 30 per cent since 2020 due to data centre expansion, while Google’s 2023 emissions were 50 per cent higher than in 2019 due to the explosive growth of AI.
7. Benjamin Netanyahu
Israeli military actions in Gaza have caused devastating loss of life, environmental destruction, and displacement, with emissions from the conflict surpassing the annual carbon footprint of 26 countries. Image: Chatham House, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Flickr.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has led a brutal invasion of Gaza that has landed him on the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) “wanted” list for crimes against humanity.
The conflict has displaced some 1.9 million people from their homes. In the last year, Israeli attacks have killed at least 41,615 Palestinians – of these some 17,000 were reportedly women and children, and another 10,000 missing might be buried under 39 million tonnes of debris and rubble.
As Israel wrought extensive destruction in Gaza, the territory’s natural resources have not been spared – the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights has slammed the Israeli military for its systematic “ecocide”. The invasion has razed more than half of Gaza’s farmland and tree cover, as well as led to the contamination of 97 per cent of the area’s freshwater resources.
A study found that emissions produced by the Israel-Gaza conflict between October 2023 and February 2024 alone exceeded the annual carbon footprint of 26 individual countries – comparable to burning 31,000 kilotonnes of coal, or enough fossil fuels to power 16 plants for one year. At landmark climate hearings before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that concluded this month, the state of Palestine argued that national responsibility for climate must include impacts caused by armed conflict and occupation.
In late October, Israeli Parliament adopted two bills banning the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) from operating in the Israel-occupied Palestinian territory of Gaza and the West Bank – effectively cutting off Palestine refugees from life-saving humanitarian aid.
8. Palm oil plantations
Indonesia’s palm oil expansion is exacerbating deforestation and environmental damage, as major companies and government offices face scrutiny for illegal practices and corruption. Image: CIFOR-ICRAF, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Flickr.
Efforts to clean up the palm oil ‘s bad reputation and image had looked like they were bearing fruits, but for the past year, the industry is under intense scrutiny again for environmental damage.
The sector continues its destructive march, with statistics showing that palm oil-driven deforestation across the Indonesian archipelago has increased in recent years, bucking a decade of gradual decline.
Deforestation in the Southeast Asian state surged 36 per cent in 2023, as 30,000 hectares of rainforest were cleared and the trend looks set to continue.
There are also palm oil expansion plans, with a 1-million-hectare plantation on Sulawesi backed by state-owned PT Sulsel Citra Indonesia and industry group Indonesian Plantation Companies Association in the works. Indonesian oil palm plantations now cover over 13 million hectares – an area the size of Greece – and most were developed in the last two decades.
This year, Royal Golden Eagle (RGE) – a palm oil and pulp giant – faced accusations of deforestation and land grabbing after being linked to shadow companies reportedly responsible for clearing rainforests in Borneo. An investigation ties Anderson Tanoto – son of RGE’s founder – to these illegal operations, further spotlighting the company’s allegedly murky practices.
Prosecutors are also investigating corruption within Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry, focusing on underpaid fines for illegal plantations. An estimated 3.37 million hectares of oil palm plantations – larger than the land area of Belgium – operate illegally on Indonesian forest-zoned land.
As the country maintains its position as the world’s top palm oil producer, these controversies highlight the urgent need for stricter oversight in one of the most destructive industrial agriculture sectors globally.
From polluters in power to industries cashing in on climate chaos, 2024’s “climate villains” demonstrated how saving the planet isn’t on everyone’s agenda.
The good news? Knowing these villains better could be the first step to holding them accountable. Here’s hoping 2025 bring fewer headlines about destruction – and more about progress.
This story is part of Eco-Business’ Year in Review series, which looks back at the stories that shaped the world of sustainability in 2024.
