From crisis to collective: Turning cyclone Ditwah into a call for climate accountability

In November 2025, Cyclone Ditwah tore through Sri Lanka with devastating force. In the days after, the air felt heavy with silence. Not the quiet kind of silence, but the kind that follows destruction when people are still processing the shock of what has just happened.

More than 600 people lost their lives. Over 300,000 were displaced. Homes, fishing boats, crops, and coastal ecosystems were destroyed. The damage crossed USD $4 billion dollars and entire communities had to rebuild from the ground up. But numbers never tell the full story.

They cannot capture the loss of a childhood home, the destruction of a fishing boat passed down through generations, or the disappearance of a temple, a playground, or a coastline that was once home to an entire community.

When disaster hits, communities respond first

In the immediate aftermath of the cyclone, people did not wait for help to arrive. Communities organised themselves, supported each other, and shared what little they had.

Greenpeace South Asia opened its office as a relief collection centre, mobilising volunteers and distributing essential supplies to affected families. It was a rapid response built on solidarity.

But even as relief efforts were underway, a deeper question began to take shape.

Why are communities always the first to respond to climate disasters, while the biggest polluters, who hold the greatest responsibility for the climate crisis, remain absent?

Changing the narrative around climate disasters

Cyclone Ditwah was not just another extreme weather event. Scientific analysis from World Weather Attribution confirmed what many already knew, climate change made rainfall 160% more intense than it would have been without the human-induced global warming of 1.3°C above pre-industrial levels.

Sri Lanka also contributes less than 0.1% of global emissions. But like many climate disasters, communities who hold the least responsibility suffer the most devastating losses.

This shifted the conversation.

Instead of treating Ditwah as an isolated tragedy, Greenpeace South Asia began building a public narrative around climate accountability, non-economic loss and damage, and the responsibility of major polluters.

Through media engagement, opinion pieces, interviews, and international coverage, the message was clear: communities should not be left to bear the cost of a crisis they did not create.

The call was simple and urgent: Polluters Must Pay.

Listening to the stories behind the numbers

Soon after, the Greenpeace South Asia team, along with journalists and researchers, travelled to the affected areas across Sri Lanka's Central Highlands to document what communities were experiencing on the ground.

Families spoke about losing their homes, but also their memories. Communities spoke about the impact on children's mental health and education, the disappearance of cultural spaces, damaged coastlines, and the loss of safety and belonging. Fisherfolk spoke about uncertainty, and young people spoke about fear for their future. These immeasurable losses are examples of what climate experts call non-economic loss and damage.

To better understand the scale of impact, the team conducted spatial analysis based on satellite mapping gathered through Geographical Information Systems (GIS). These maps indicate an obvious connection between increased loss of vegetation, surface water accumulation, and greater disaster risk in the affected areas. The gathered evidence of environmental degradation, loss of vegetation, and poor planning showed how human decisions and climate change together shape disasters.

The findings reinforced a critical point: climate disasters are not just natural events; they are political and economic failures.

Communities as leaders, not victims

One of the strongest lessons from Ditwah was the role of communities as first responders.

Local heroes stepped forward, rescuing neighbours, organising relief, and supporting recovery efforts long before external help arrived. Informal networks became lifelines, ensuring that vulnerable families were not left behind.

Women, in particular, played a central role.

They organised food distribution, supported families, coordinated relief efforts, and kept communities functioning during the most difficult days. Yet, like in many climate disasters around the world, their leadership often remains invisible in formal decision-making spaces.

To recognise this, Greenpeace South Asia worked with the community in Manaar, one of the most impacted regions. Together, we created a mural on International Women's Day that now stands as a reminder of the importance of women's leadership and their key role in ensuring community resilience and climate justice.

From documentation to accountability

The stories, field research, and expert discussions that followed the cyclone led to the development of a climate accountability Issue Brief focused on Non-Economic Loss and Damage.

Experts from climate science, gender justice, political economy, and social policy came together to highlight a major gap in global climate response: the world still struggles to recognise and address losses that cannot be quantified in financial terms.

This gap has real consequences.

When non-economic losses are ignored, communities lose their histories, identities, and security without recognition or support. When polluters are not held accountable, the cycle of destruction continues.

Greenpeace South Asia aimed to change this via the Crisis to Collective project, to connect community experiences with global climate justice conversations and push for stronger accountability mechanisms.

Building resilience for the future

The project is now moving into its next phase, supporting the development of climate-resilient community spaces in one of the most affected areas.

These spaces are not just physical structures. They represent preparedness, collective action, and long-term resilience. They are places where communities can organise, share knowledge, and strengthen their ability to respond to future climate shocks.

A collective call to action

What began as a tragedy transformed into a movement for climate accountability, led by solidarity, storytelling, research, and advocacy. It showed that climate justice is not just about responding to disasters. It is about addressing the systems that cause them in the first place.

The fossil-fuel industry continues to profit while vulnerable communities pay the price. Governments continue to delay meaningful climate action while frontline communities rebuild again and again.

This needs to change. Polluters must pay for the damage they cause.

Non-Economic Loss and Damage must be recognised in climate policy, and communities must be at the centre of climate decision-making.