Canadian activist Tzeporah Berman named among TIME's top climate leaders

One of Canada’s most prominent environmental crusaders is being named among TIME’s Top 100 most influential climate leaders worldwide. 

Tzeporah Berman, a Vancouver-based activist and policy advocate, is at the forefront of climate action nationally and internationally. 

Her  latest brainchild, the Fossil fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, aims to check the expansion and end fossil fuels use and transition equitably away from coal, oil and gas in favour of clean energy to save the planet and people. 

The treaty’s network is growing and enjoys the backing of 14 nations, more than 100 cities or regional governments, thousands of civil and environmental groups, Indigenous communities and international bodies such as the World Health Organization and the Vatican — and nearly a million individual global citizens, including Nobel Peace Prize winners and most recently former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. 

The response to the international treaty, not dissimilar from successful global agreements to reduce the use of destructive nuclear weapons or landmines, has been tremendous, said Berman. 

“I think in 30 years [of advocacy], I’ve never done work that feels this meaningful and exciting,” Berman said, who is the treaty’s chair and international program director at Stand.Earth. 

“It's exciting every day; open the computer and see what's happening, who's endorsed, who's come on board, and what countries are considering.” 

TIME’s recognition for her work, and in conjunction, the efforts of everyone else striving to stop the burning of fossil fuels superheating the planet is both an honour and a daunting responsibility, Berman said. 

“The task in front of us is significant, and it's getting more difficult every day, she said. 

“It’s hard not to see the clock ticking and to get more anxious as every day goes by.” 

Collaborating in Baku

TIME is unveiling its list of climate leaders this week as the annual United Climate Change conference, COP29, takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan until Nov. 22. The periodical will also host an event to gather the named leaders at the climate summit. 

Berman said she intends to use the recognition from TIME — and the event celebrating it — as a platform to showcase the fossil fuel treaty and strategize about accelerating the transition to renewable sources of clean energy such as solar, wind, and hydro power. 

The stakes for accelerating climate progress at the international summit have never been higher, Berman stressed. 

The conference takes place against the backdrop of climate catastrophes such as the deadly and destructive flooding in Valencia, Spain. Meanwhile 2024 is on track to be the hottest year on record as global warming caused by humans’ carbon pollution continues to mount, and Donald Trump, an avowed cheerleader for the oil and gas industry and noted climate denier, has just been elected again to lead the largest economy in the world.

Days before attending the climate summit, Berman found herself speaking to BBC International about the “absolute betrayal” after it was revealed the host state’s top official hoped to help cut new fossil fuel deals at COP29. 

However, it’s a luxury and privilege, especially by richer nations, to fall prey to the sin of despair, Berman said. 

“I work with Pacific Island governments where despair is not an option,” she said. 

“They are already having to move people. They’re moving graves and schools because they’re underwater. They are fighting for their lives.” 

Hope is a responsibility, especially as a parent, and taking action is curative as it’s not a zero- sum game, Berman stressed. 

“Every ton of carbon that we save from building up in the atmosphere today will save lives.” 

The War in the Woods

Berman’s tenacity and grit paired with her strategic thinking, storytelling abilities, and willingness to confront climate denialism make her an ideal candidate for recognition by TIME Magazine, say friends and climate colleagues. 

Her colleague, Seth Klein, also a mainstay and author prominent in Canadian climate circles, watched Berman evolve and adapt to become an increasingly innovative and effective leader over the three decades since they met while cutting their teeth as student activists at the University of Toronto. 

Berman’s role as a consequential figure in the environmental movement crystallised during the years’ long “War of the Woods” on Canada's West Coast in the early 90s, Klein said. At the time a Greenpeace organizer, Berman became the spokesperson for the protracted logging blockades to protect ancient forests in Clayoquot Sound which drew media attention worldwide. 

“She has a willingness to be a lightning rod in very fraught moments,” Klein said. 

“She got a lot of admiration, but she was also the target of a lot of vitriol.” 

Berman soon pivoted from blockades to boardrooms, making the shift from civil disobedience to negotiating with CEOs after founding ForestEthics (now Stand.Earth), which wages creative campaigns to get global corporations to improve their environmental practices. She also started to tackle the issue of global warming, putting the oil and gas industry in the crosshairs, particularly the Alberta oilsands before going on to help shape provincial climate policy in B.C. and Alberta. 

Linda Solomon Wood, founder and publisher of Canada’s National Observer, said relentless energy and vision are hallmarks of Berman’s advocacy work, which has shifted conversations around forestry, fossil fuels and climate policy. 

The two women met raising their children on Cortes Island, part of a remote archipelago sandwiched between Vancouver Island and the B.C. mainland. However, Berman’s campaign targeting lingerie giant Victoria’s Secret for printing catalogues on paper derived from ancient forests drew Solomon’s attention while she was still residing in New York. 

“I think she got a billboard in Times Square, with a [lookalike] Victoria’s Secret model holding a chainsaw,” Solomon Wood recalls. 

Soon after, the company was working with Berman to determine how to create a catalogue without cutting down old growth forests to forestall sales losses. 

“I just thought this woman is brilliant and that, damn, she got things done,” Solomon Wood said, adding Canada’s National Observer has a podcast profiling Berman’s influence in the works with the working title, "Green Fire.” 

The missing piece

The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty is visionary and heartening, allowing thousands of people to work towards systemic change for a healthy planet, Solomon Wood said.  

The treaty’s strength is that Berman has rejected the status quo approach of incremental progress that has monumentally failed to address the scale and severity of the climate crisis in favour of a transformational policy, Klein added. 

It’s the “missing piece” in the puzzle in climate policy that provides a framework for countries to reduce fossil fuel collectively instead of leaving individual nations’ emissions reductions to be undermined by continued oil and gas production elsewhere. 

Berman’s oil and gas industry benefits and encourages a misplaced focus on emissions reductions, which is tinkering on the edges of a system that continues to allow the expansion of fossil fuels. 

“It’s ultimately absurd. What we build today will be used tomorrow,” Berman noted. 

TIME Magazine’s recognition is really an acknowledgement of a movement of people, groups and nations struggling to address the climate crisis, she said.  

She’s proud to have played a role in addressing the “global groupthink” on climate change that saw reducing fossil fuel emissions as a solution rather than phasing out oil and gas production.

“I feel really honoured to bring a solution like the fossil fuel treaty to centre stage [at COP29], so all of those leaders and communities aren't fighting alone, project by project anymore.”

Rochelle Baker / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada's National Observer