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fridaysforfuture
'Jaw-Dropping' Analysis Shows Fossil Fuel Companies to Burn Through 62% of Carbon Budget
One researcher called the findings proof that a decarbonization pact signed by the companies "is little more than a forgery."
Jan 26, 2024
In another high-profile case of "greenwashing," the oil and gas companies that signed a decarbonization pact at last year's 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference have plans that would burn through around 62% of the carbon dioxide that can still be emitted without pushing global temperatures past 1.5°C above preindustrial levels.
The figures come from a Global Witness analysis published Friday, which found that the more than 50 companies that signed the pact would release over 150 billion metric tons of climate pollution into the atmosphere by 2050.
"This analysis, while jaw-dropping, only reinforces what we've long known—that fossil fuel companies will stop at nothing to extract every last drop of profit from the world's remaining fossil reserves, no matter the cost," Friends of the Earth climate coordinator Jamie Peters said in a statement.
The Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter was launched at COP28 on December 2 by Saudi Arabia and conference president Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, who also heads the United Arab Emirates' state oil company. In the announcement, Al Jaber called it a "great first step" and said that companies representing more than 40% of global oil production had agreed to reach net-zero by or before 2050, end methane emissions, and stop routine flaring by 2030.
However, the pact has a major loophole, as Global Witness points out: It only covers emissions released by the companies directly, not by the use of their products once they are sold. These "scope 3" emissions represent as much as 90% of the oil and gas industry's total carbon footprint.
"After looking at the detail of this pact, signed to great backslapping by bosses of some of the world's largest polluters, I have only two questions: Who do these people think they are, and how stupid do they think we are?" asked Global Witness senior fossil fuels investigator Patrick Galey in a statement.
"If a child promises to do less than 10% of their homework, they don't get a gold star. So why are oil and gas bosses congratulating themselves for signing up to rules they wrote themselves and which only address 10% of their companies' contribution to the climate crisis?" Galey asked.
"The only way to slash emissions from usage of oil and gas is to cut demand."
Global Witness used data from Rystad Energy to look at the production plans of the pact's signatories—which include major state and private companies such as Saudi Aramco, Al Jaber's Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), ExxonMobil, and Shell—and then calculated the total emissions of those plans through 2050.
It found that the companies would produce 265 billion barrels of oil and 26.7 billion cubic meters of gas by 2050, and that this would result in 156 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, or approximately 62% of the remaining carbon budget.
"This pact is little more than a forgery, publicly committing each company to address its outsize contribution to global heating, while privately allowing them to produce and sell billions of barrels of oil and gas for decades more," Galey said.
Of the companies who signed the pact, those with the largest carbon footprints through 2050 were:
- ADNOC and Saudi Aramco, with plans to emit more than a quarter of the remaining climate budget; and
- ExxonMobil, Equinor, TotalEnergies, Eni, and Shell, with plans to emit as much as the European Union does in 15 years.
"You'd think the hottest year in the last 125,000 would be enough to end greenwashing once and for all—but since it wasn't, let's state it plainly. No means no—there's not a way to square 'decarbonization' with fossil fuel expansion," 350.org and Third Act co-founder Bill McKibben said in a statement. "They mean the exact opposite."
The fact that the pact was announced at COP28, along with the high future footprint of ADNOC, calls into question the effectiveness of U.N. climate talks, especially when hosted by major fossil fuel-producing nations like the UAE. This year's COP29 is scheduled to take place in oil and gas-rich Azerbaijan, and will be presided over by a former oil executive.
"COP28 has shown that the profits of fossil fuel companies receive more care than the most affected regions of the world," Luisa Neubauer, climate activist and co-organizer of the Fridays for Future climate strike movement, said in a statement. "Parts of the COP agreement sound like a Christmas present for the fossil fuel lobby. Compared to what is needed in the hottest year in human history, the COP agreement is not even close to enough. The future will lie primarily in the hands of those who resist new coal, oil, and gas projects locally and globally."
Campaigners said that governments must act to phase out fossil fuels.
"This powerful analysis by Global Witness highlights that the operations of the fossil fuel industry make up a tiny proportion of the total carbon emissions from the sector," Cara Jenkinson, the cities manager at climate charity Ashden, said in a statement. "The only way to slash emissions from usage of oil and gas is to cut demand—governments across the world must speed up their electrification plans, with poorer nations being supported to bypass fossil fuel vehicles and ramp up clean renewable energy production."
Galey concluded: "We need a rapid and equitable phaseout of fossil fuels, and fossil fuel bosses must be locked out of climate talks. Everything else is marketing and spin, pure and simple."
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'A Reckoning': 500 Groups Endorse March to End Fossil Fuels
"The March to End Fossil Fuels isn't a request," one organizer said "It's a demand for President Biden to enact actionable solutions that match the scale of the crisis at hand."
Sep 05, 2023
A total of 500 international, national, and local organizations have endorsed the September 17 March to End Fossil Fuels in New York City, leaders behind the event announced Tuesday.
The march comes ahead of U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres' Climate Ambition Summit and follows a summer of fossil-fueled extreme weather that smothered the Northeast and Midwest in wildfire smoke, flooded the streets of Vermont's state capital, devastated the town of Lahaina in Maui, and baked Phoenix under 31 days of more than 110°F heat.
"It's never been more clear than now–a summer of record heat, deadly fires, and devastating floods–that we need to unite to put an end to fossil fuels," Oil Change International U.S. program manager Allie Rosenbluth said in a statement. "Every new fossil fuel project is incompatible with a livable future."
Oil Change International is one of the march's main organizers, along with the Center for Biological Diversity, the Center for Popular Democracy, Climate Organizing Hub, Food & Water Watch, Fridays For Future USA & NYC, Earthworks, Greenfaith, Indigenous Environmental Network, New York Communities for Change, and Oil & Gas Action Network.
They have been joined more recently by the Sunrise Movement, the Sierra Club, and the NAACP, as well as by prominent activists and progressive politicians like Jane Fonda, Bill McKibben, Naomi Klein, Mark Ruffalo, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), and Tennessee State Rep. Justin Pearson.
The march will call President Joe Biden to stop approving new fossil fuel projects, end oil and gas drilling on public lands, declare a climate emergency, and ensure a just transition to renewable energy that provides good jobs and respects local communities.
"The same voices that called him to the presidency are now calling on him to take bold climate action."
"With 500 organizations strong, the March to End Fossil Fuels isn't a request, it's a demand for President Biden to enact actionable solutions that match the scale of the crisis at hand," Olivia Leirer, co-executive director of New York Communities for Change, said in a statement.
The march comes as Republican candidates are already jostling to decide who will face Biden in the 2024 presidential election, and younger activists warned that Biden's approval of carbon bombs like the Willow Project or the Mountain Valley Pipeline could hurt him with the youth voters who helped him win in 2020.
"In the past three years many of us have lost the passion and hope we originally had when fighting for Biden," Fridays For Future NYC Organizer Noa Greene-Houvras said in a statement. "We have watched him approve pipelines and fossil fuel projects that youth have consistently pushed against. The same voices that called him to the presidency are now calling on him to take bold climate action."
Organizers also emphasize the impact that the burning of oil, gas, and coal and the pollution and extreme weather it generates have on communities across the country, especially low-income or minority communities.
"The current reliance on fossil fuels is literally killing Black Americans," NAACP director for the Center for Environmental and Climate Justice Abre' Conner said in a statement. "Black elders are three times more likely to die from air quality-related issues and Black youth continue to suffer the impacts of living in communities that are more likely to house fossil fuel plants and other toxic waste incinerators."
"This is an emergency," Conner added. "For Black communities to have any hope of a just and sustainable future, we must act now."
The New York march is part of a larger international escalation against fossil fuels launched in June and timed for the weekend before Guterress' September 20 summit, which asks nations for the first time to present plans for phasing out fossil fuels and ceasing production of the climate-warming energy sources.
It will begin from 56th Street and Broadway at 1 pm Eastern Daylight Time, move down Broadway to 52nd Street, and then follow 52nd Street to First Avenue for a rally at First and 50th outside U.N. headquarters. Organizers expect thousands of participants, and to join them, you can RSVP here.
"We demand President Biden wield his power, to usher in the end of fossil fuels so our planet and people can thrive," Rosenbluth said. "We join together for the March to End Fossil Fuels, not just to ask for change, but for a reckoning."
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'The Fight Has Only Just Begun': Greta Thunberg Pledges More Protests After Final School Strike
"When I started striking in 2018 I could never have expected that it would lead to anything," Thunberg tweeted in a reflection on the Fridays For Future movement on the day of her graduation.
Jun 09, 2023
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg—who launched a global movement when she began skipping school to protest in front of the Swedish parliament nearly five years ago–carried out her last school strike on Friday.
"School strike week 251," Thunberg tweeted. "Today, I graduate from school, which means I'll no longer be able to school strike for the climate."
Thunberg, who is now 20, first made headlines at the age of 15 when she refused to attend school during the three-week lead-up to September Swedish elections in an effort to persuade politicians to take action on the climate crisis.
Instead, she sat outside the Swedish parliament with a sign reading, "School strike for climate," in Swedish.
"We young people don't have the vote, but school is obligatory," Thunberg told The Local at the time. "So this [is] a way to get our voices heard."
"There are probably many of us who graduate who now wonder what kind of future it is that we are stepping into, even though we did not cause this crisis."
On the day of her final school strike, Thunberg took the opportunity to reflect on the movement she helped galvanize.
"When I started striking in 2018 I could never have expected that it would lead to anything," she tweeted. "After striking every day for three weeks, we were a small group of children who decided to continue doing this every Friday. And we did, which is how Fridays For Future was formed."
The movement went global "quite suddenly," Thunberg recalled.
"During 2019, millions of youth striked from school for the climate, flooding the streets in over 180 countries," she said.
Fridays For Future found a different way to protest during the coronavirus lockdowns by launching a #digitalclimatestrike.
"In a crisis we change our behavior and adapt to the new circumstances for the greater good of society," Thunberg wrote at the time.
However, one group that hasn't changed their behavior are the world leaders Thunberg has famously excoriated in a number of high-profile speeches. A study released Thursday found that greenhouse gas emissions rose to record levels in the last decade despite the promises of the Paris agreement.
"Much has changed since we started, and yet we have much further to go," Thunberg tweeted Friday. "We are still moving in the wrong direction, where those in power are allowed to sacrifice marginalized and affected people and the planet in the name of greed, profit, and economic growth."
Thunberg has spoken up for frontline communities recently. In January, she was detained while protesting the destruction of a German village to pave the way for a coal mine expansion, and in February, she joined with Norwegian Sami activists in opposing the placement of wind turbines on Indigenous land.
While graduation is typically a joyful occasion, Thunberg reflected on how the climate crisis has altered her generation's vision of the future.
"There are probably many of us who graduate who now wonder what kind of future it is that we are stepping into, even though we did not cause this crisis," she wrote.
Whatever Thunberg's future contains, climate activism will continue to be part of it.
"We who can speak up have a duty to do so. In order to change everything, we need everyone. I'll continue to protest on Fridays, even though it's not technically 'school striking,'" she promised.
"We simply have no other option than to do everything we possibly can," Thunberg concluded. "The fight has only just begun."
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Right-Wing Influencer Arrested on Human Trafficking Charges After Online Spat With Greta Thunberg
"This is what happens when you don't recycle your pizza boxes," Thunberg quipped.
Dec 30, 2022
Supporters of climate leader Greta Thunberg cheered late Thursday into Friday after Andrew Tate, the latest right-wing influencer to attack Thunberg online, was arrested in Romania after bragging to the activist about owning dozens of emissions-heavy vehicles.
The arrest—on human trafficking, rape, and organized crime charges—came shortly after Tate addressed Thunberg in a video uploaded to Twitter in which he was holding a pizza box from a Romanian pizza chain, although authorities in Romania "said that it was not the case that Tate's arrest had been made as a result of the pizza boxes," according to The Guardian.
Tate and Thunberg's interactions this week began after Tate addressed her on Twitter Tuesday regarding his "33 cars" and asked her to provide an email address "so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions."
"Email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com," replied Thunberg.
Thunberg's response provoked Tate to post a video in which he, clad in a red bathrobe and smoking a cigar, said the Swedish climate action advocate "doesn't realize she's been programmed" and is "a slave of the matrix" before calling her "hate-filled" and "bitter."
"Please bring me pizza and make sure that the boxes are not recycled," Tate said to someone off-camera, who handed him two boxes labeled "Jerry's Pizza."
Romanian authorities, who have been investigating Tate and his brother, Tristan, since April, said that the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) mobilized to arrest them "after seeing, including on social networks, that they were together in Romania."
"The authorities waited for the right moment to catch the Tate brothers, who were always out of the country," reported the Romanian news agency Gandul.
Although authorities said the pizza boxes were not what tipped them off and didn't confirm whether the video had been part of what they observed when examining Tate's recent social media presence, Thunberg joked, "This is what happens when you don't recycle your pizza boxes."
Earlier this year, Tate was banned from several social media platforms for posting violent and misogynistic content in which he described how he would assault a woman and said women who are raped are partially responsible for their attacks.
Tate and his brother are accused of recruiting victims who they forced to perform pornography "through physical violence and mental coercion." The Romanian investigation into the two brothers began in April when the U.S. embassy received a tip that a 21-year-old American woman was being held at their mansion in Bucharest against her will.
Tate and his brother were reportedly detained for 24 hours after the arrest. Reuters reported Friday that prosecutors asked a court in Bucharest to extend Tate's detention to 30 days.
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Fonda's Fire Drill Fridays Returns to DC Streets Over Manchin Dirty Deal
"The time is now to vote out the politicians like Joe Manchin that are having the dirty deal perpetuated and who think that their pollution and their profits are more important than our lives," said White House adviser Jerome Foster II.
Dec 02, 2022
Fire Drill Fridays--the climate action protest launched three years ago by actor and activist Jane Fonda--returned Friday morning to Washington, D.C., where participants rallied and marched against U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin's "dirty deal" while demanding President Joe Biden declare a climate emergency.
"What we do or fail to do in the next eight to 10 years to cut our fossil fuel emissions in half will determine how much of a livable future we will have."
"Organizing does not stop after an election, does it? We must hold the folks we got into office accountable to us, not to oil companies, because the fossil fuel industry does not stop, so we can never stop," Fonda told demonstrators gathered in Freedom Plaza near the White House.
"Time is running out. Scientists are telling us we are in our last decade of action," she added. "What we do or fail to do in the next eight to 10 years to cut our fossil fuel emissions in half will determine how much of a livable future we will have. So this is the time. This is the time for bold action before it's too late. And that's exactly why we are here right now."
Inspired by activists including Fridays for Future founder Greta Thunberg, Moral Mondays co-founder Bishop William J. Barber II, and author Naomi Klein, Fonda started Fire Drill Fridays in 2019 in collaboration with Greenpeace USA. Fonda and other activists were arrested for civil disobedience during the protests, which continued until the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic the following year, when the demonstrations went online.
The activists took aim at Manchin's so-called dirty deal, proposed permitting modifications favorable to the fossil fuel industry that, while left out of a stopgap funding bill in September, could be revived if the West Virginia Democrat successfully includes it in the next National Defense Authorization Act--which lawmakers are working to pass by the end of the year.
Jerome Foster II--a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council and, at 20, the youngest-ever presidential adviser--told demonstrators that by being there, they were showing that "the time is now to vote out the politicians like Joe Manchin that are having the dirty deal perpetuated and who think that their pollution and their profits are more important than our lives."
"They chose pollution of their children. They chose profits over our future. And we are tired of having to come here and demand the bare minimum," Foster added.
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) spoke at the demonstration, declaring, "We cannot develop any more fossil fuel infrastructure."
"You know what's in that dirty deal? The Mountain Valley Pipeline for fossil gas," he continued. "And it would mow down every single environmental law in the process... We've got to keep it out of the National Defense Authorization Act... And no dirty deal in any continuing resolution or any other budget bill."
Merkley added that "we need President Biden to declare a climate emergency" and "use all the powers of the federal government to respond to this biggest test of humanity."
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) told the protesters that "this Manchin dirty deal unfortunately is not unique. There are other dirty deals that threaten the health of people for profit margins."
"We cannot address climate change," he added, "if the balance of power is such that oil and gas interests control the agenda."
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With COP Gridlocked, Critics Blast '27 Years of Obstructionism, Delay, and Greenwashing'
"As we race towards climate breakdown, once again we are seeing rich countries trying to evade their responsibility to step up and do their fair share of climate action," one activist said as talks spilled into overtime.
Nov 18, 2022
As the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt was extended until at least Saturday, campaigners, scientists, and others expressed alarm and frustration over the "gridlocked" negotiations dominated by rich countries and fossil fuel lobbyists.
"Nothing short of a complete transformation of our economic system and phaseout of fossil fuels is needed to avoid complete climate breakdown."
"I remain concerned at the number of outstanding issues, including on finance mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, and their inter linkages," Sameh Shoukry, an Egyptian diplomat serving as COP27 president, told delegates at the International Convention Center.
Friends of the Earth (FOE) Scotland head of campaigns Mary Church said in a statement that "as we race towards climate breakdown, once again we are seeing rich countries trying to evade their responsibility to step up and do their fair share of climate action."
"As extreme weather events wreak havoc around the world, the U.K. and U.S. are parroting the mantra of keeping 1.5degC alive while doing exactly the opposite by continuing to expand damaging fossil fuel projects," she noted, referring to the more ambitious goal of the 2015 Paris agreement. "They are failing to stump up the climate finance they owe and which Global South countries need to adapt to and recover from the impacts of global heating."
Meanwhile, Church continued, "big polluters who brought the climate to the brink of breakdown are cynically bargaining away the future of people and planet in order to eke out a few extra years of profits from business-as-usual, by pushing dangerous fantasy techno-fixes and human rights trashing nature-fixes."
"Nothing short of a complete transformation of our economic system and phaseout of fossil fuels is needed to avoid complete climate breakdown," she stressed. "World leaders lack the political will to take the necessary action, but people everywhere are rising up and fighting dirty energy projects and putting in place the real, community-based solutions which can deliver climate justice."
Joining weekly global youth climate strikes, young campaigners marched in Sharm El-Sheikh with a message for nations of the Global North: "Don't just say it, pay it!"
"The division between the two sides has been clear; the highest polluters have continued to block and delay the bare minimum funding through poor climate finance mechanisms such as the global shield," Fatemah Sultan of Fridays for Future Pakistan told The Guardian.
"Coming from a country like mine, Pakistan, which does not even emit 1% of global emissions, we are not here talking about the loss and damages of tomorrow, we are talking about the ones from my yesterday, my today, and my tomorrow," the activist added.
Brian O'Callaghan, lead researcher and project manager for the Oxford Economic Recovery Project, suggested that "if COP were a football rivalry, it would be amongst the most lopsided; fossil fuel interests: 27, humankind: 0."
As Common Dreams has reported, at least 636 fossil fuel lobbyists have been registered at this year's conference, up 25% from COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland last year.
"There have been successes, but mostly, it's been 27 years of obstructionism, delay, and greenwashing," said O'Callaghan. "The world is already moving faster than the COP processes--we need to double down on that trend."
"In many ways, ambition under climate treaties has moved backwards since the foundational" U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) of 1992, the expert explained, recalling when "developed countries committed to pay for all forms of mitigation and adaptation."
"Today, developed countries do all that they can to avoid that promise," he added. "The multilateral system is based on trust--every year developed countries are eroding that trust."
A key focus of COP27 has been loss and damage (L&D) financing. Nations of the Global South are pushing for the creation of a fund to help them deal with devastating climate disasters.
While admitting his "reluctance" to stray from "existing instruments," European Commission Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans unveiled a proposal early Friday, saying that because the Group of 77 (G77) members "are so attached to a fund, we have agreed."
Mary Robinson, chair of the Elders and former president of Ireland, was among those who welcomed the European Union's proposal. It "puts us on the cusp of a historic breakthrough," she said, adding that "we've gone from not even having loss and damage finance on the agenda at COP27 to having a fund, a mechanism, and a flow of finance all within our grasp."
Seve Paeniu, Tuvalu's minister of finance, said that "to me that is a major concession and a major breakthrough. It is our hope that will end up in the text of the cover decision."
However, a G77 negotiator who asked not to be named was unimpressed, telling The Guardian that "it is a predictable attempt by the E.U. to break up the G77 in talks. Of course, it's not a breakthrough. They are merely repeating its original negotiating position by making it sound like a compromise when they know very well that it is not. It is completely disingenuous."
Brandon Wu, head of policy and campaigns at ActionAid USA, was similarly critical at Friday's Demand Climate Justice press conference, saying that "the loss and damage fund proposal put forward by the E.U. is a compromise that includes a number of poison pills."
"Not only does it narrow who can receive funds, it also widens the number of countries required to pay into the pot--which is an abdication of responsibility. Developed countries have failed to meet their climate finance obligations, most obviously the $100 billion goal," Wu said, emphasizing the Global North's "moral and legal obligations" on the L&D front.
While developed countries agreed at COP15 in 2009 to put $100 billion annually toward climate action in the Global South by 2020--a pledge they have yet to fulfill--a climate clock erected at this year's summit shows that, based on research by the Center for Global Development, the Global North owes more like $31.8 trillion in loss and damage funding.
"The other poison pill is that the E.U.'s offer of an L&D fund is conditional on all parties aligning with the 1.5degC target," Wu pointed out. "This sounds great on paper, but without any mention of equity, it erases the historical responsibility of developed countries and could shift the burden further onto poorer countries. The 1.5 degree limit--originally championed by civil society and developing countries, who have the most to lose if the limit is breached--is being hijacked and weaponized against them."
According to the Independent, "There are big differences among negotiators over whether all big emitters should pay; heavy polluters China and India are arguing they should not have to contribute because they are still officially considered developing nations."
Sara Shaw of FOE International posited Friday that "the story developed countries will spin in the coming days is that larger developing countries, like China and India, are to blame for any lack of progress in Sharm El-Sheikh."
"This is not the story of what has happened here," she asserted. "Developed countries, especially the U.S., are cynically shifting the blame away from their own lack of action on emissions reductions to countries that are less historically responsible for climate change. They are trying to erase equity and historic responsibility."
Another key issue at COP27 is the inclusion of language about fossil fuels in the conference's overarching decision. Fearful of another "hollowed-out" deal, campaigners are demanding text that explicitly advocates phasing out oil and gas, along with coal.
The latest released draft only reaffirms a call for countries to accelerate the shift to low-emission energy systems, "including by rapidly scaling up the deployment of clean power generation and energy efficiency measures, including accelerating efforts towards the phaseout of unabated coal power and inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, recognizing the need for support towards a just transition."
As 350.org's Zeina Khalil Hajj put it: "This conference cannot be considered an implementation conference because there is no implementation without phasing out all fossil fuels. The Egyptian presidency is failing Africa, it's failing frontline communities, it's failing civil society, it's failing its own promise to implement, and it is failing the recommendations of the science community."
Rita Uwaka of FOE Nigeria also declared Friday that "Africa does not need more fossil fuels, especially not gas."
"Oil has devastated my country, Nigeria," Uwaka said. "Gas exploitation in Mozambique is displacing communities and stoking conflict. Africa needs a COP27 outcome that calls for rapid, equitable phaseout of all fossil fuels, not just coal."
Pushing for "stronger language... on a ban for new fossil fuel extraction and production," Tuvalu's Paeniu agreed that "the phaseout of all fossil fuels must be included in the cover decision for this COP."
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Rallies Across Africa Demand Global Action, Climate Justice Ahead of UN Summit
"The urgency of the climate crisis cannot be understated, particularly here in Africa, which is the region most vulnerable to climate impacts," said one campaigner.
Sep 23, 2022
Thousands of African activists and members of communities on the frontlines of the worsening climate emergency turned out Friday to call on world leaders--who will gather in Egypt in November for the United Nations Climate Summit--to urgently address a crisis that disproportionately impacts their lives.
"The least responsible nations and communities are suffering the most from the impacts of the climate emergency."
Demonstrators took to the streets, public spaces, and even waterways in countries across a continent that's responsible for just 4% of global greenhouse emissions to demand climate justice and an end to fossil fuel exploration and extraction ahead of the U.N.'s COP27 conference, scheduled to start November 6 in Sharm El-Sheikh.
Activists expressed solidarity with global climate strikes--including the youth-led Fridays for Future movement--demanding justice and reparations for the people most affected by a crisis they did the least to cause. Some demonstrations called out individual contributors to the climate emergency, such as the Total-led East African Crude Oil Pipeline.
The protests took place as many parts of Africa are experiencing the worst food crisis in decades. Climate-driven drought and desertification have pushed tens of millions of people to the brink of famine, while shortages and soaring prices of food--fueled by climate change, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and capitalist predation--adversely affect many millions more.
"The urgency of the climate crisis cannot be understated, particularly here in Africa, which is the region most vulnerable to climate impacts. It is thus concerning that instead of funding a much-needed just transition in Africa, nations in the European Union are turning their gaze to Africa to meet their gas needs," 350Africa.org regional director Landry Ninteretse said in a statement.
"Rather than lock our continent into production of fossils, developed nations should be held accountable for their role in the climate crisis," Ninteretse added. "Ahead of COP27, our expectations are that they should provide compensation in the form of loss and damage suffered by the developing nations as a result of climate impacts, support adaptation measures to allow us to build resilience to these impacts, and inject funding into the just transition to renewable energy in Africa."
Earlier this week, Denmark became the first country to promise to establish a loss and damage fund that aims to compensate developing nations for the destruction caused by climate change.
Edmund Mumbere, a Ugandan activist, said that "as the communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis, we have to hold governments, corporations, financial institutions, and policymakers to account for the harmful practices that are devastating our communities."
"This is why we have been resisting fossil fuel projects, which should not have a place in the future of our continent, or the world," he added. "As climate impacts are projected to worsen, as seen with the recent severe flooding in Uganda, there's a great need for financing to be redirected into renewable energy to support a just transition in Africa."
Friday's protests took place three days before hundreds of young climate activists from across the Global South are set to kick off a weeklong Climate Justice Camp in Tunisia.
"The least responsible nations and communities are suffering the most from the impacts of the climate emergency, which is further deepening historical injustices," Greenpeace Middle East and North Africa regional campaigns manager Ahmed El Droubi said in a statement.
"In November, world leaders will be making decisions in Egypt, which will affect the future of our communities," he added. "We in the Global South need to be at the front of this process to apply pressure for real climate action rather than it being another photo opportunity producing empty words and pledges."
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'We Will Stop the Excavators': Thousands Rally to Save German Village From Coal Mine Expansion
Locals and climate campaigners said "no to the destruction" and "yes to the preservation of Lützerath and the good life for everyone."
Apr 25, 2022
A small German village was the site of a large demonstration over the weekend, when thousands of activists gathered to protest the slated demolition of Lutzerath that would allow for the expansion of the already gargantuan Garzweiler open-pit coal mine.
Lutzerath is slated to suffer the same fate as other nearby villages that have been destroyed in western Germany as the country's major power producer RWE, which operates the mine, continues to dig up the lignite, also known as brown coal.
That extraction continues even as the country touts its plans to accelerate a transition to renewable energy sources including a 2030 exit for coal.
"We will stop the excavators and defend the 1.5degC limit!" Fridays for Future Germany said Sunday in a tweet referring to the Paris climate agreement's warming threshold.
The group, which said roughly 4,000 people took part in the action, also shared video of the Saturday protest that showed activists forming an X and revealed just how close to the mine's edge the village sits:
"A big, human says NO to the destruction by lignite and YES to the preservation of Lutzerath and the good life for everyone," the LuetziBleibt account explained.
Saturday's action, The Associated Press reported, took place "weeks after the village's last farmer sold his property to the utility company RWE after losing a court case against his eviction. The village is still inhabited by activists, some of whom have built tree houses in a bid to stop the nearby Garzweiler mine from being expanded."
Images shared on social media by the climate activists show that farmer, Eckardt Heukamp, speaking at the action sporting a t-shirt with the message Alle Dorfer Bleiben, or All Villages Remain.
"I am grateful that you have come and that the fight goes on," he reportedly said. "We must fight to keep the coal in the ground, keep the soil, and keep the villages!"
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Youth Strikes Worldwide Demand Climate Action That Centers 'People Not Profit'
"We live in a broken system, one where the richest 1% of the world population are responsible for more than twice the pollution as the poorest 50%. That's why we strike."
Mar 25, 2022
From Dhaka, Bangladesh to Turin, Italy and beyond, youth climate strikers took to the streets across the globe Friday to demand that political leaders stop ignoring the scientific community's deafening alarm bells and take action to slash carbon emissions before it's too late.
"The current system is widening the inequality gap--it has no place in our society."
Organized by the international Fridays For Future movement, the latest mass demonstrations stressed that worsening global class inequities and the climate emergency are deeply intertwined and must be tackled together--a message encapsulated in strikers' rallying cry of "People Not Profit."
"We live in a broken system, one where the richest 1% of the world population are responsible for more than twice the pollution as the poorest 50%," Iris Zhan, campaign coordinator for Fridays For Future Digital, said in a statement. "That's why we strike today to demand climate reparations to kickstart a transformative justice process in which political power returns to the people."
As Fridays For Future organizers put it in their preview of the new global strikes, "Climate struggle is class struggle."
On top of the in-person demonstrations worldwide, youth climate leaders on Friday also launched online campaigns urging ordinary people and political leaders to take three actions:
- Endorse the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty: As the main driver of the climate crisis, fossil fuels are threatening our ability to protect livelihoods, security, and the planet.
- Demand #PeopleNotProfit locally: Colonizers and capitalists are at the core of every system of oppression that has caused the climate crisis. We need people in every corner of the world to stand with local fights to stop new fossil fuel infrastructure and financing.
- Support climate disaster relief: The most vulnerable bear the cost of the damages to homes and communities, as well as the incalculable tool on life, culture, and connection to land.
"The wealthier countries that have had the greatest impact on climate change need to provide the necessary funding and aid," Chukwama Paul, communications lead for the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition, said Friday. "The estimated cost of loss and damage in developing countries will be 290 USD and 580 USD billion per year by 2030 and the current financial commitment to support developing countries is 100 billion USD annually."
"We are amplifying the need for the redistribution of wealth to help victims of loss and damage," said Paul.
The worldwide strikes come nearly a month after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest report warning that the continued burning of fossil fuels is driving a "dangerous and widespread disruption in nature," doing "irreversible" damage to marine and coastal ecosystems, and threatening the prospect of a livable planet for future generations.
"The facts are undeniable. This abdication of leadership is criminal," United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in response to the report. "The world's biggest polluters are guilty of arson of our only home."
A separate analysis published earlier this week by the United Kingdom-based Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research estimated that rich countries must cut off their oil and gas production entirely by 2034 to give the world a 50% chance of limiting warming to 1.5degC by the end of the century.
The report emphasized that "an equitable transition will require wealthy high-emitting nations make substantial and ongoing financial transfers to poorer nations to facilitate their low-carbon development, against a backdrop of dangerous and increasing climate impacts."
Farzana Faruk Jhumu, a climate activist with Fridays for Future in Bangladesh, wrote in an op-ed Friday that young people across the globe "are asking world leaders to put #PeopleNotProfit at the center of the planet's future."
"Bangladesh, where I am from, contributes to only 0.21% of global carbon emissions, but we are facing cyclones, floods, and droughts every year caused by global warming," Jhumu continued. "To ensure justice for the Global South, world leaders must understand their responsibility. The current system is widening the inequality gap--it has no place in our society."
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Groups Urge Biden to Invoke Defense Production Act to Counter Putin, Accelerate Green Transition
"A renewable energy future," the groups wrote, "is a peaceful and ultimately more prosperous one."
Mar 09, 2022
A coalition of over 200 groups on Wednesday called on President Joe Biden to leverage his authority under the Defense Production Act to simultaneously "produce alternatives to fossil fuels, fight the climate emergency, combat Putin's stranglehold on the world's energy economy, and support the transition to a renewable and just economy."
"With one fell swoop, you would reduce energy costs and move the world away from fossil fuel markets that are all too easily manipulated by bad actors."
The demand was delivered in a letter to Biden--signed by groups including the Center for Biological Diversity, Global Witness, and Stand.earth--and follows the administration's move Tuesday to ban U.S. imports of Russian fossil fuels in response to Russia's ongoing military attack on Ukraine.
The groups thank Biden for that immediate ban and say it must be followed not by "short-sighted policies" like ramping up domestic drilling, as the U.S. fossil fuel lobby and industry supporters like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) have called for, because that would worsen the climate emergency and "deepen our dependence on fuels that lead to global instability."
" Oil and gas constitute 40% of Russia's national revenue, meaning Russian exports of oil and gas are literally funding this invasion," the letter states.
Ramping up fossil fuel extraction and use would also worsen the climate crisis, the groups note, referencing the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released last week showing that "natural and human systems" are being driven "beyond their ability to adapt."
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What is needed instead, the letter states, is a massive surge in the deployment of renewable energy.
Biden can lead that effort by utilizing the Defense Production Act (DPA), with specific actions on three fronts, all of which should center communities most impacted by the current fossil fueled-based system. The letter calls on the president to:
- Rapidly scale up production, manufacturing, and deployment of renewable energy technologies, heat pumps, storage, and weatherization technologies here and abroad. These green technologies can be exported to Ukraine, the rest of Europe, and the Global South to help wean them off of their dependence on Russian fossil fuels. And they should be simultaneously deployed across the United States to jumpstart the renewable energy revolution and prioritize construction in climate-vulnerable communities. With one fell swoop, you would reduce energy costs and move the world away from fossil fuel markets that are all too easily manipulated by bad actors.
- Create millions of long-term, high-paying domestic jobs and position the U.S. to be a global leader in showcasing the economic benefits of the just and renewable energy transition. Investments by the federal government can create high-quality, family-supporting jobs; and build worker power by including high-road labor standards.
- Accelerate the transition to zero-emission public transportation, alternatives to car based transportation and related infrastructure domestically, and deploy it nationwide, prioritizing communities who are most vulnerable to the climate emergency. These steps will reduce the burden of higher gas prices at the pump for U.S. residents.
"A renewable energy future," the groups wrote, "is a peaceful and ultimately more prosperous one."
Climate advocates have previously linked Russia's military attack on Ukraine with reliance on fossil fuels.
American author and climate activist Bill McKibben, for example, wrote last month in his newsletter The Crucial Years that "it is a war underwritten by oil and gas" and urged Biden to invoke the DPA to produce "electric heat pumps in quantity, so we can ship them to Europe where they can be installed in time to dramatically lessen Putin's power. "
Fridays for Future youth activists also took to the streets of cities across the globe last week to #StandWithUkraine and heed a call from the Ukrainian arm of the global climate movement.
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In a series of tweets last Thursday, the day of the demonstrations, the global group called this "an eye-opening moment for humanity to see that the world is aflame with new and old wars caused by fossil fuels."
"We want to call out the era of fossil fuel, capitalism, and imperialism that allows these systemic oppressions," they said. "We demand a world where leaders prioritize #PeopleNotProfit."
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