Climate change and the global energy crisis threaten the lives of billions worldwide, and hit the poorest hardest. We have the solutions to these crises, but we must act with urgency, equity and justice. 

Tackling the climate crisis

Climate scientists agree that human activities produce greenhouse gases that are heating the planet. The main sources are burning fossil fuels for energy, industry and transport, industrial agriculture, and deforestation.

Global warming is having a devastating effect on our planet, causing sea level rise and increasingly extreme weather events, which hit the poorest and most vulnerable the hardest. A storm, drought or flood is 15 times more likely to kill people in climate-vulnerable regions, which are historically least responsible for emissions.

There are solutions to the climate crisis, and if we act now, we can keep average global temperature rise below 1.5°c. We need governments to pursue policies based on equity and justice, doing their fair share to reduce emissions and support vulnerable regions. 

Find out more about our call for climate justice at the UN climate talks

Fighting dirty energy

775 million people live without access to electricity, mostly in Africa and Asia. This global energy crisis is driven by a corporate model of dirty energy, based on fossil fuels and other destructive sources, and the concentration of power over energy goods and services in the hands of the wealthy few. 

Friends of the Earth International is part of a growing global movement which resists dirty energy, at the grassroots and in international fora. 

Read our manifesto for an energy system based on people power and energy sovereignty

Opposing the status quo

Rich countries and corporations continue to extract and burn fossil fuels, and push dirty energy projects in the global South. They use concepts like ‘Net Zero’ and ‘Nature Based Solutions’ to try and greenwash their activities. 

But ‘Net Zero’ is not a real zero, and distracts from the urgent and drastic emissions cuts we need. ‘Net Zero’ emissions pledges rely on risky, unproven geoengineering techniques, like BECCS, and on carbon markets and offsetting. They lead to land grabbing and harm communities and Indigenous Peoples in the global South.

Friends of the Earth International works to expose the corporate agenda and denounce false solutions like these.

Learn about how people are also challenging governments and corporations in the courts

Towards energy transformation

Tackling the climate crisis entails system change, including a transformation of the energy system. This means a total departure from fossil fuel reliance and corporate control, towards energy sovereignty. 

Friends of the Earth International and member groups are working towards a feminist just transition. This is not only about changing technologies and renewable energy, but about public and community ownership and control, addressing the root problems of a system that turns energy into a commodity and denies the right to energy for all.

Join us in the movement for climate justice!