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While July saw the hottest day of the year ever recorded on Earth, it has also been an incredibly eventful month for us!
We have been busy launching three BIG Campaigns in Africa, Europe and the Pacific.
You’ll read more about them later in the newsletter, but first, let me share with you what we are hoping to achieve with these campaigns and why I’m so excited for what’s to come.
We are working to speed up the shift away from fossil fuels to community-owned renewable energy. And how are we doing that, you ask? Let me tell you:
- Community resilience & empowerment – We are empowering local communities by working directly with them to improve access to affordable, clean, and community-centered energy.
- Policy change & a just transition – We are seeking support from global leaders, including the newly elected governments in the UK and France (who do have climate solutions high-up on their agenda) in securing money and prioritizing investments for those at the forefront of the climate crisis.
- Collaborative action & global solidarity – Our fight for climate justice is bridging the gap between the Global North and South, ensuring a worldwide green transition.
We cannot wait to join hands with more and more communities, partners, allies and supporters like you to move forward with our actions!
Why don’t you join our Fossil Free mailing list for all the latest stories on climate organizing from around the world? Stories that matter. Campaigns that inspire. All delivered directly to you every month!
REPowering Afrika
In Uganda and Tanzania, a hundred communities are being threatened by the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). Ecosystems will be destroyed, communities will be displaced, and climate disasters will only get worse. Not just in Africa, but around the world.
Which is why we launched our first campaign, REPower Afrika to switch off fossil fuels and turn on renewable energy across Africa. Our goal: equitable access to renewable energy across the continent, starting in Uganda and Tanzania, where EACOP endangers over 100,000 people.
We’ve gathered African climate activists, civil society groups and communities along this destructive mega-pipeline’s route to lead the fight for a sustainable, renewable energy future. REPowerAfrika will light up 100 villages in communities across Africa, paving the way for resilient, sustainable communities to thrive.
So far, this month, we have organized ten community rallies, installed renewable energy systems and protested against fossil fuels across various cities and villages in Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Benin and the Democratic Republic of Congo. We called on African nations to commit to a just energy transition and demanded funding from G7 and G20 countries to support this transition.
We are revolutionizing energy production, expanding access to electricity, and redefining Africa’s energy future. Togethering, we are REPowering Afrika!
Locals in Tanzania inaugurate solar panel installations, marking the beginning of REPower Afrika Campaign on 18 July 2024: Photo credit: Desouza Nelson
Taxing Their Billions In Europe
We have said it before, and we are saying it now – the richest people in the world are causing major harm to our climate, with the top 1% emitting as much pollution as two-thirds of humanity. Amid record high temperatures, energy prices, and a cost of living crisis, billionaires and fossil fuel companies are profiting while ordinary people suffer.
So we are taking it upon ourselves to push governments to tax the wealth of the super rich and fossil fuel giants in France, Germany, the UK and at a global level through our second climate campaign called Tax Their Billions.
Over the coming months, we will host several powerful actions including protests and demonstrations to demand that decision-makers deliver a minimum wealth tax on the mega-rich, impose new taxes on polluting fossil fuel giants and use this additional finance to fund the transition to renewable energy.
We know that by taxing these mega-rich polluters, we can get affordable energy, electrify public transport, insulate homes, and accelerate a just transition to a low carbon economy in Europe and worldwide. This will lower costs, reduce emissions, and ensure a liveable planet. So let’s all call on our governments to make the rich pay their fair share of taxes:
350.org, along with seven other organisations, delivers over 1.5 million signatures calling for the taxation of the super-rich to the Brazilian Finance Minister, Fernando Haddad in Rio de Janeiro on 24 July 2024. Photo credit: Zô Guimarães | Oxfam Brasil
Taking Back Our Pawa
Our third campaign, the Our Pawa Campaign, led by our Pacific activists, has already ignited a wave of excitement and action across the Pacific and Australia. Our demands are clear: an accelerated, just phase out of fossil fuels that prioritizes Pacific peoples. Through this campaign, we want to create the conditions necessary for Pacific Islanders to survive and thrive in the face of the climate crisis.
We began last week by calling on Australia to support a just energy transition for Pacific Islanders and will continue to pressure Global Leaders to live up to their climate commitments. Our impactful digital actions from social media and email content to community surveys and calls, showed that there is a public demand for community-led renewable energy and a rejection of fossil fuels.
With widespread media coverage and a groundswell of public support, Our Pawa is building a culture that demands renewable energy in the Pacific. Stay tuned for more actions in the upcoming months!
Pacific youth call for renewable energy commitments outside the Australian Parliament. Photo credit: Eremasi Rova
Actions against Vanguard in the US
We joined our Earth Quaker Action partners, clients and activists, urging Vanguard, a major finance firm to stop investments in fossil fuel expansion, in a protest outside of Vanguard’s Headquarters last week in Pennsylvania, US. Vanguard holds the unfortunate record as the world’s largest fossil fuel investor, managing $413 billion in coal, oil, and gas assets. After abandoning its “net-zero” promise, Vanguard, along with BlackRock, has become the top fossil fuel investor for the second year in a row. Sadly, Vanguard keeps giving money to companies that pollute and harm the planet. Learn more about Vanguard’s dirty deeds in here.
Activists and clients protest against the company’s fossil fuel expansion policies, outside the Vanguard Headquarters in Malvern, Pennsylvania on 10 July 2024. Photo: Daniel Hunter
I am thrilled to share our newly-released documentary on community-centered renewable energy solutions – Kijumba Solar: Empowering Women Farmers in Uganda.
This powerful film takes us to the village of Kijumba in Uganda, where women are transforming their community by learning to operate and maintain solar energy systems. Under the guidance of the Centre for Citizens Conserving Environment (CECIC), they are installing solar lights and systems in their homes, countering the negative impacts of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). This initiative is part of the REPower Afrika campaign that you read about earlier, which aims to transition from fossil fuels to community-owned renewable energy.
Watch the short film and I hope you are as much in awe of the remarkable resilience and determination of these women as I am!
We are eagerly looking forward to the upcoming months where we will launch many collaborative actions to empower communities, set up renewable energy projects, demand fair taxation and a just energy transition.
Our success hinges on organizing impactful events, and our ability to proactively recruit people to join our events and actions. If you too are looking for people and partners to support your actions, and want to step outside social media for a change, we have the perfect resource for you!
Our experts at 350 have put together an amazing guide to help you with public outreach so you can grow your strength in numbers that will create the impact we all need and get the chance to build long-lasting, personal connections.
Quote of the month
“As civil society, we will continue to defend our planet, our future, human rights, and our democracy, ensuring that the promise of stronger climate action translates into tangible results for both people and the planet.”
– Soraya Fettih, France Campaigner at 350.org
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