About

A global movement to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all.

How does it work?

Fossil Free is about leveraging our power where it’s most effective — in our local communities. Small groups of people coming together are transforming their communities and the world. We join that power together in a connected global movement, that shares tools, tactics and an exciting vision for our world.

We campaign to take away everything the fossil fuel industry needs to grow and survive: their social licence, their political licence, and their money. We organise in our communities to stop or ban new coal, oil and gas infrastructure. 

We organise and focus the huge public support for renewable energy into actionable commitments by our local institutions for 100% renewable energy. Those commitments are not only transforming our energy system, but also support and retrain workers affected by the changes, and put the ownership of energy back with the people.

Principles


Principle #1:

Everyone is welcome.

Climate change isn’t just an environmental issue, or a social justice issue, or an economic issue — it’s all of those at once. It’s one of the biggest challenges humanity has ever faced, and we’re going to have to work together to solve it.

This movement actively welcomes the talents, energy & commitment of all individuals volunteering their time, regardless of their background, ethnicity, religious or spiritual belief, gender and sexual orientation. We react immediately against hate and discrimination.

 

Principle #2:

We’re all leaders.

Each group has the power to decide its own organising, facilitation, decision-making, communications, tactics and actions.  We’re all responsible collectively for making sure we live up to our values and shared organising principles.

 

Principle #3:

We take action.

Taking action is how we build public support behind our cause. And we recognise the importance of escalating those actions when our demands aren’t met.

We are committed to maintaining non-violent discipline in all of our actions. We support those who take direct action and respect those who are not in a position to take part. We encourage a wide range of tactics — it strengthens our movement.

History

Fossil Free started in 2012 as a campaign to push institutions to divest from fossil fuels, building on the work of student-led university divestment campaigns.

The campaign quickly spread to many parts of the world, and by 2015 thousands of divestment campaigns were underway, helping shift public opinion in favour of keeping fossil fuels in the ground and highlighting the moral urgency of climate action.

Divestment remains a key part of the Fossil Free campaign and you can learn more about the tactic and its many successes here.

With achingly slow progress at the national and international levels, Fossil Free entered a new phase of the campaign from early 2018, expanding beyond divestment to embrace new demands, tactics and tools, and the goal of stopping all new fossil fuel projects by 2020.

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