Hurricane Melissa Risks Flattening Jamaica: Big Oil Must Be Made To Pay

Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 28 October 2025 - In reaction to Hurricane Melissa, a powerful Category 5 storm that could be the worst storm in Jamaica’s history, and potentially threatens to strike other countries in its path, Ian Duff, Head of Greenpeace International’s Stop Drilling Start Paying campaign said:
“It is shocking to see Jamaica at risk of being turned into a quasi war zone in no time by Hurricane Melissa. Millions will soon be surveying the damage to their lives and loved ones, picking up the pieces and no doubt asking: who is going to pay for this?”

“At the same time as Hurricane Melissa is about to devastate, oil and gas corporations are preparing to publish their quarterly profits - profits that will add to the almost US$800 billion that just five companies have made over the past decade. The industry and their billionaire backers have known for decades they were heating our climate, while making massive profits from ordinary bill-payers.”

“Big Oil should pay for the damages this Hurricane inflicts. We know hurricanes are being supercharged by fossil fuel-driven climate change – with a warmer North Atlantic Ocean, increasing rainfall, and the risk of coastal flooding. Costs from previous hurricanes have reached hundreds of billions of USD. It’s time to make polluters – not ordinary people – pay for this.”

Giving visibility to its demand to make oil and gas corporations pay, Greenpeace organisations carrying a Polluters’ Climate Bill around the world: from the Climate Week in New York, to the Africa Energy Week in Cape Town, to the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage meeting in Pasay city, and next month to the UN Tax Convention negotiations in Nairobi and COP30 in Belém.

© Scoop Media