Fear of reprisal keeps climate whistleblowers silent

UK workers are reluctant to report their organisation’s environmental wrongdoing due to fear of reprisal, according to new research from UK whistleblowing charity, Protect.

A survey commissioned by the charity reveals the top barriers to climate whistleblowing include fear of reprisal (22%), concerns about providing proof (22%) and worries that their concerns would not be dealt with properly (20%). Only a third of respondents (36%) believe they can raise environmental issues and be protected under whistleblowing law.

Of those that had raised a concern about the environmental practices of their workplace, nearly three-quarters (74%) said they faced negative treatment for doing so.

Protect commissioned the research when it discovered that only 1% of calls it received to its confidential advice line in 2022 were about environmental issues.

Workers can often be the first to spot climate harms, from greenwashing and rule breaches to polluting activities, so they can make an important difference by raising their concerns. Anonymous whistleblowers helped to expose significant failures by the Environment Agency to prevent water pollution, while one woman exposed corporate greenwashing at Deutsche Bank’s asset management arm DWS Group, leading to several regulatory investigations.

“Workers are the eyes and ears of an organisation and are best placed to spot when things go wrong,” says Caitlin Comins, legal officer at Protect. “With the right information, they can raise concerns and damage can be prevented, minimising the impact on the environment. By exposing environmental wrongdoing, they can also help ensure organisations are accountable for their climate impact and there is appropriate intervention where required.”

To support would-be whistleblowers, Protect has produced an interactive Environmental Whistleblowing Toolkit with step-by-step guidance on how to go about raising a concern and the legal protections in place. Drafted with the assistance of trade unions, lawyers, non-ogvernmental organisations (NGOs) and journalists, it provides clear information on whistleblowing in the workplace, to help workers raise environmental concerns safely and with maximum impact. 

As well as Protect, workers can raise concerns directly with the UK’s environmental regulators. Natalie Prosser, the chief executive of the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), said her organisation was a safe space for people to report their concerns, and that the OEP recognises the challenges and risks inherent for whistleblowers. “We are committed to providing qualifying whistleblowers with an avenue to report their concerns,” she says. “It is critical that we do this alongside other prescribed persons, now more than ever, to ensure that potential threats to the natural environment can be identified and where possible, guarded against.”