Featured Actions + Campaigns

Photo: Shadia Fayne Wood

Supporting Youth Activism:

The Global Climate Strikes

Photo Highlights

Indonesia | Photo: Gilang Kharisma | Survival Media Agency

Kenya | Photo: Joel Lukhovi | Survival Media Agency

London | Photo: Kristian Buus | Survival Media Agency

NYC | Photo: Shadia Fayne Wood | Survival Media Agency

Greta in NYC | Photo: Shadia Fayne Wood | Survival Media Agency

Germany | 350 Europe

Canada | Photo: Abdul Malik

The Details

7.6+ mil people taking action across the world

6,136+ events taking place in 185 countries

3k+ companies participated

8,583 websites participated

820 organizations participated

73 Trade Unions participated

73K media hits in major outlets

23.5 mil reached on social media

$500K in direct support

More than 7.6 million people participated in the largest ever Global Climate Strike, which was also the largest mobilization in history. Between September 20th and 27th, 2019, millions of people led by the youth hit the streets all over the world to demand real action on the climate crisis. There were 1.4 million people striking in Germany; 330,000 in Australia; 250,000 in NYC; and millions more people of all ages and backgrounds took action in Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, Ukraine, France, the Pacific Islands, and more.

350.org spent more than $500,000 on direct support to climate strikes (i.e. on grants, direct contributions, security, sound, busses, art materials, etc.), as well as building and maintaining the Global Climate Strikes website, which served as a hub for local and regional organizers to post information about their events and for free resources like art, posters, and how-tos. We leveraged online platforms to organize a digital climate strike with more than 8,500 websites pointing over 1.1 million people towards their nearest strike.

350.org brought our decade of experience mobilizing people and organizing distributed actions to the coalition of partners. We facilitated strategy meetings and trainings; provided outreach, press, and communications support; supported actions and marches by providing A/V equipment, transportation for youth, and security. We supported and leveraged our platform to elevate the voices, stories, and leadership of Indigenous youth and youth from frontline communities.

We also worked closely with partners to coordinate and support climate activist Greta Thunberg’s tour of the U.S. and organized the Youth Climate Week in Washington, DC. We organized meetings with leaders and top level politicians during Greta’s visit to DC in September, planned strategic events for her in NYC, and connected her with climate justice and Indigenous leaders.

Lastly, we ensured the Global Climate Strikes and our demands for climate justice and an end to fossil fuels were heard around the world.

  • The strikes were an unprecedented media success, with over 73,000 media hits, including in major publications like The Guardian, Forbes, Vox, The Washington Post and USA Today and in 10 languages.
  • In our work with journalists, we also focused on making sure that a diversity of youth voices were heard: with the exception of Bill McKibben and May Boeve, the 10 most quoted spokespeople were all climate strikers from various parts of the world.
  • On social media, we reached a combined 23.5 million on various platforms, produced 80 videos in support of the strikes, and garnered 4.39 million video views.

Stopping Iconic Fossil Fuel Projects Worldwide

Photo Highlights

Brasil | 350 Brasil

Kenya | Photo: A24

Our Time | Photo: Alexis Fawn

UK Fracking

Promise to Protect

Blocking Pipelines in the U.s.

graphic of petitions, oil rig breaking and publication over a map of the US

29k signatures to the Promise to Protect

1.1k+ trained in nonviolent resistance

3 pipelines delayed

1 major research report

We continued to delay the Keystone XL from being built and trained thousands of activists as part of our Promise to Protect Tour. We worked closely with our coalition of Indigenous partners on our Promise to Protect their land and our climate from the Keystone XL pipeline by doing intensive trainings with over 1,100 people in nine cities. More than 29,000 people pledged to show up in nonviolent and peaceful resistance along the pipeline route when called by Indigenous leaders.

Line 3 is a massive tar sands oil pipeline slated for construction across the northern part of Minnesota, from Canada’s tar sands region to Wisconsin. The proposed pipeline would cross over 192 bodies of water, including the Mississippi River – threatening clean water supplies throughout the state. Partnering with MN350, we trained 250 activists during the Promise to Protect tour to deepen work on Line 3, put public pressure on Gov. Walz, and helped make stopping Line 3 a key part of the Climate Strikes in the state.

Lastly, we also won a victory with the delay of the Williams fracked gas pipeline in New York. In March, 350.org published a rigorous report on the proposed pipeline – False Demand: The Case Against the Williams Fracked Gas Pipeline. In May, after three years of fierce mobilization, activism, creative protest and lobbying on many fronts, the Williams pipeline was denied key water permits by New York Department of Environmental Conservation. In addition, we delivered 16,000 signatures calling on Gov. Cuomo to stop the pipeline, put in more than 2,000 official comments to the official project feedback, crafted a media and communications plan for the Stop Williams coalition, and organized a 1,000 person Green New Deal Forum in New York City.

Our Time in Canada

graphic of a debate and a person looking at a computer over a map of canada

6.8k+ Part of the campaign

50k demanded a climate debate

14 Our Time Hubs

154k website visits

In 2019 we also launched the Our Time campaign — a ground-breaking grassroots effort to provide a bold vision and a real action plan for tackling climate change and inequality at the same time. Our team got to work by supporting Powershift 2019, an intensive youth climate action training. During Powershift attendees collected over 5,000 pledges to support a Canadian Green New Deal.

Shortly after the Powershift training, 14 Our Time hubs were created across Canada and, working with 150 partner organizations, we helped host over 150 town halls to build agreement for a Green New Deal. This organizing lead to over 50,000 people engaging in our ‘Change the Debate’ action, demanding the CBC hold a first leaders’ debate on the climate crisis.

After the October election, we needed to ensure Canada acted on climate. 27 young people occupied the House of Commons and brought 338 mandate letters — one for every MP — demanding they support a Green New Deal for Canada.

In total, the Our Time campaign had over 6,800 people sign up to organize, sent out 59,000 texts to 17,000 people, and the website received over 150,000 unique visits in just five months.

AfrikaVuka: Ending Coal in Africa

map of africa with protestor, no coal, and bank icons

2 major victories against coal

60 actions in 20 countries

3 major banks withdrew support for coal

After years of grassroots campaigning, Kenya’s government cancelled the license granted to Amu Power, the developer of the controversial Lamu Coal Plant, citing the lack of effective public participation, and social and environmental risks. Since 2013, 350.org has worked closely with many local partners to escalate organizing actions that ultimately led to the project being cancelled. This win had far reaching consequences for the development of fossil fuels in the region.

This massive win was right after the AfrikaVuka campaign mobilized partners and activists for a regional day of 60 actions across 20 African countries that included:

  1. A march for communities affected by mining and fracking, calling for a national ban on fracking in Pretoria, South Africa
  2. A march in Nairobi against proposed coal-fired projects
  3. A gathering in Goma calling for an immediate end to oil exploration in sensitive ecosystems in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo,
  4. A march with hundreds of Nigerian students to the federal parliament asking their MPs to finally pass their climate bill and put the country on the path to climate justice

We also won a major victory when our campaign pressured the Development Bank of Southern Africa to commit not to fund the proposed Thabametsi coal-fired power plant. We’re happy to report that the DBSA mandate to fund the proposed coal-plant in Thabametsi expired, meaning any participation in the project requires an additional round of approval. In addition, Standard Bank, FirstRand Bank and Nedbank officially withdrew financial support for the Thabametsi and Khanyisa coal-fired power plants. Nedbank has gone one step further with a public commitment in April to never finance coal again.

Lastly, we also helped train and onboard 20 groups from across Africa in digital storytelling, digital strategy, and digital organising – the outcome being the #AfrikaVuka campaign trained up on a digital platform and digital tools that will help it meet its goals.

Stopping Drilling in Brazil

map of brazil with no fracking, city and no barrels icons

400+ municipalities banned fracking

2 Brazilian states banned fracking

21 Mil safe from fracking

671 Bil barrels of oil kept in the ground

350 Brazil, along with the Latin American Coalition Against Fracking (COESUS), celebrated two huge wins to halt fracking projects, keeping the largest shale reserve in the Global South in the ground. In June, the state of Paraná in Brazil banned fracking in its territory, and in August, the state of Santa Catarina banned fracking in its territory. These two state-wide bans, together with the over 400 municipalities across Brazil that have banned fracking, protect the health of more than 21 million people in Brazil from harmful fracking projects.

On October 10, the National Agency of Petroleum and Natural Gas (ANP) held an auction to grant the right to explore 36 oil offshore blocks. In at least four of these blocks, those located in the Camamu-Almada Basin, an eventual leak could cause serious damage to the Abrolhos National Marine Park, which is home to 1,300 marine species (45 of which are threatened with extinction.) Together with partners, we took action to end Fossil Auctions. Thanks to the pressure we built, only a third of the blocks were auctioned, and we kept the oil in Abrolhos and other regions in the ground!

During the devastating fires in the Amazon, our team disrupted the Brazilian Environment Minister, holding banners and shouting phrases such as “we want our forests alive” during one of his events to ensure that the movement was heard at the highest level of government.

Success Against Fossil Fuels in Europe

map of europe with no fracking, no coal and no pipeline icons

3 major victories

1 country banned fracking

40K+ against coal

1 major pipeline stopped

Fossil fuels are facing increasing resistance across Europe. And revisiting the key fights we identified just over a year ago, it’s astonishing to see how successful people-powered resistance is at stopping these projects in their tracks.

Thanks to years of intense grassroots organizing by 350.org and partner organizations, the UK government banned all fracking, also warning shale gas companies that no future projects would be accepted. This moratorium represents a tremendous victory for climate activists that have been working for years to press for this moment.

Moreover, in early 2019 local communities celebrated as the French and Spanish energy regulator announced that they won’t support the controversial the MidCat/STEP gas pipeline between France and Spain. Elsewhere in Sweden, the government decided to deny the EU-backed Gothenburg gas terminal its final permit on climate grounds, following years of local opposition including a mass blockade just weeks before the decision.

Lastly, to keep up the pressure on Germany to phase out coal, 350.org worked with partners to mobilize a mass public action in the country’s coal mining region. More than 40,000 activists from across Europe came together to demand climate justice. For more than 48 hours, thousands of activists used their bodies as a barrier between the threatened villages and the mine project.

Pushing Back Coal In Turkey

map of turkey with camera, paris agreement, and no-factory icons.

24 cities in support of the Paris Agreement

1 major powerplant canceled

1 feature documentary

In a major victory, Turkey’s Supreme Administrative Court decided to overturn the decision of the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, and to reject the construction of the Hema Thermal Power Plant. The project was supposed to be built in the region of Amasra in Bartin province, a historic city that figures in the list of UNESCO’s Temporary World Heritage sites. A study indicated that if Turkey adopts Paris-compliant measures, it would save $23 million, prevent 35,000 air pollution-related deaths and create 64,000 new jobs in the green energy sector.

Turkey’s cities are taking notice — 24 cities, including 3 out of 5 largest in the country — announced a “Cities for Climate Action” declaration and proclaimed “we are in” on Paris Agreement. This comes after we organized a three-day meeting in March with 34 attendees focused on running climate focused campaigns.

Lastly, we highlighted the impacts of coal on communities across the country in The Curse of Coal documentary. We have a role to play in lifting up the stories of those who defend their lands, their hometowns at all costs like in Muğla, where we held several workshops on how to push back against coal development.

Halting The Funding for Fossil Fuels

Photo Highlights

Pikachus | AC Dimatatac

Japan | 350 Japan

EIB | 350 Europe

350 Ukraine

Divestment & Financing the Future

graph showing trillions divested from fossil fuels by year. 2016 - 5T, 2017 - 6T, 2018 - 8T, 2019 - 14T

Together with hundreds of global groups, we have secured divestment commitments totaling $14.09 trillion in managed assets. Through distributed organizing and campaigns, the climate movement is now pushing for no new fossil fuel financing anywhere. Commitments include pledges from more than 1,184 institutions and nearly 60,000 individuals, 40 nations and 40 faith institutions, including 50% of UK universities, the city of Cape Town, South Africa, the Republic of Ireland, and Norway.

Additionally, in September we convened hundreds of activists and leaders in South Africa to discuss divestment strategies. We organized the first Financing The Future Summit in Cape Town. More than 26 global organizations signed the Cape Town Declaration that demands a rapid phaseout of fossil fuel production globally, with no new exploration for reserves and new expansion of refining and pipeline capacity.

Halting Fossil Fuel Finance in Japan

map of japan with protestors, no coal, and bank icons

10k people mobilized

1 interactive map

80k demanded an end to coal in Japan

22k called on banks to stop funding fossil fuels

In East Asia, we developed an online interactive coal finance map to track financing and projects in the region.

In Japan, since launching the ‘My Bank My Future’ campaign and the ‘Let’s Divest’ campaign, more than 10,000 people have signed petitions calling on banks to stop investing in coal, fossil fuels and nuclear. As a result, 13 organizations and more than 170 individuals have divested their bank accounts to choose “Cool Banks” that do not fund fossil fuels or nuclear energy.

Ahead of Japan hosting the G20 meeting, more than 80,000 people from around the world demanded that Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, show climate leadership by ending finance for coal and other fossil fuels. Actions took place at coal plant sites, in the streets, and at Japanese embassies in cities across Asia. The message was even projected on the historic Osaka Castle.

Additionally, more than 22,000 signatures were submitted to Japan’s major banking groups: Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho, Sumitomo Mitsui and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust. Japan’s banks are facing heightened reputational risks as stakeholders worldwide pressurize them to stop funding coal and align their business with the Paris Agreement.

The European Investment Bank Victory

map of europe with climate-bank icon

€555 Bil out of fossil fuels

1 world’s first ‘climate bank’

The European Investment Bank (EIB), the world’s largest public lender and the €555bn lending arm of the EU, adopted a new policy that will end its finance to all fossil fuel projects by the end of 2021, as it tries to become the world’s first ‘climate bank’ – a decision that is believed to have long-lasting impacts on financial markets.

350.org played a key role over the last few years in increasing public pressure on the EIB through impactful petitions, innovative digital actions, incisive media work, effective partnerships with NGOs and grassroots groups, and disruptive mobilisations across Europe.

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