Podampeta, Ganjam (Odisha): In the coastal village of Podampeta, where the sea creeps closer each year, the residents gathered on Sunday to send a message that has echoed across climate-hit regions worldwide — those who caused the crisis must pay for it.
Standing on a beach scarred by erosion, villagers and Greenpeace India activists unveiled a massive “climate bill” installation bearing the words “Make Climate Polluters Pay.” The symbolic bill listed a series of devastating weather events that have struck South Asia since the 2015 Paris Agreement — a reminder of the mounting costs communities endure due to a warming planet.
The event, held ahead of the COP30 climate summit, highlighted how the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies have contributed disproportionately to the crisis. According to Greenpeace India, economic damages linked to the carbon emissions of just five major oil and gas corporations since 2016 are estimated at over US$ 5.36 trillion — nearly 7,000 times more than what countries have so far pledged to the UN’s loss and damage fund for vulnerable nations.
For people like Chandragiri Tiki, a resident of Podampeta, the numbers only tell part of the story. “We have lost our homes and income to cyclones that come harder each year,” she said, watching the waves roll in. “The sea has taken away our future. We are paying for a crisis we didn’t create.”
Over the past decade, Odisha’s coast has faced repeated battering from cyclones, floods and heatwaves. Each storm redraws the coastline, forcing families to rebuild further inland. Scientists have repeatedly linked such extreme events to fossil fuel-driven climate change.
“Communities like those in coastal Odisha are on the frontlines of a crisis they did not cause,” said Selomi Garnaik, Climate and Energy Campaigner at Greenpeace India. “The ‘climate bill’ represents the unpaid debt owed to these communities. Justice now means making polluters pay and using those funds to protect people and the planet.”
As world leaders prepare to meet in Brazil for COP30, the message from Podampeta is clear — climate justice is not a matter of charity but of accountability. For the residents here, every new storm is a reminder that time is running out.
As the sun set over the Bay of Bengal, the giant bill fluttered in the salty breeze — part protest, part plea, and a vivid symbol of a coastline on the edge.
