Friends of the Earth

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Friends of the Earth International
AbbreviationFoEI
Formation1969 (56 years ago) (1969)
Founder
Focus
Area served
Global
Members75 national member groups
Key people
  • Karin Nansen
  • Jagoda Munić
  • Hemantha Withanage (chair)
  • Choony Kim
  • Asad Rehman
  • Godwin Uyi Ojo
  • Kwami Dodzi Kpondzo
  • Silvia Quiroa[1]
VolunteersSome 5,000 local activist groups
Websitewww.foei.org

Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of grassroots

environmental organizations in 73 countries. About half of the member groups call themselves "Friends of the Earth" in their own languages; the others use other names.[2] The organization was founded in 1969 in San Francisco by David Brower, Donald Aitken, and Gary Soucie after Brower's split with the Sierra Club[3] because of the latter's positive approach to nuclear energy. It became an international network of organizations in 1971 with a meeting of representatives from four countries: U.S., Sweden, the UK and France.[4]

FoEI currently has a secretariat (based in Amsterdam, Netherlands) which provides support for the network and its agreed major campaigns.[5] The executive committee of elected representatives from national groups sets policy and oversees the work of the secretariat. In 2016, Uruguayan activist Karin Nansen was elected to serve as chair of the organization. Sri Lankan activist Hemantha Withanage has served as chair of FoEI since 2021.[6]

Campaign issues

Friends of the Earth International is an international membership organisation, with members spread across the world. Its advocacy programs focus on environmental, economic and social issues, highlighting their political and human rights contexts.

As per its website, the current campaign priorities of Friends of the Earth International are:

consumption and intensive production of meat (Meat Atlas) by Friends of the Earth Europe.[10]

FOEI claims that it has been successful as it has eliminated billions in taxpayer subsidies to corporate polluters, reformed the World Bank to address environmental and human rights concerns, pushed the debate on global warming to pressure the U.S. and U.K. to attempt the best legislation possible, stopped more than 150 destructive dams and water projects worldwide, pressed and won landmark regulations of strip mines and oil tankers and banned international whaling.[11] Its critics claim that the organization tries only to obtain media attention (as by releasing the song "Love Song to the Earth"), but does not stay with locals to actually solve complicated problems, and that it prevents development in developing countries. They have also been critical of its policy to accept high levels of funding from companies and charities related to oil and gas.[12]

One of Friends of the Earth's most recent campaigns and legal battles was the "Shell Case", led by Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands). In 2021, a court in the Netherlands ruled in a landmark case that the oil giant Shell must reduce its emissions in 2030 by 45% compared to 2019 levels. This was the first time that a company had been legally obliged to align its policies with the Paris Agreement. This was later overturned in November 2024.[13]

In January 2025 when UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced plans to take on NIMBYs who block major infrastructure projects, such as nuclear power, roads, railway and wind farms, Friends of the Earth criticized Starmer, saying he was scapegoating people with "valid concerns about a project's impact".[14]

Structure of the network

The member organization in a particular country may name itself Friends of the Earth or an equivalent translated phrase in the national language, e.g.,

WALHI
(FOE Indonesia).

Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is supported by a secretariat based in

general meeting held every two years, and it is the ExCom which employs the secretariat.[16]
At the same general meeting, overall policies and priority activities are agreed.

In addition to work which is coordinated at the FoEI level, national member groups are free to carry out their own campaigns and to work bi- or multi-laterally as they see fit, as long as this does not go against agreed policy at the international level.

Publications

The Meat Atlas is an annual report on the methods and impact of industrial animal agriculture. The publication consists of 27 short essays and, with the help of graphs, visualises facts about the production and consumption of meat. The Meat Atlas is jointly published by Friends of the Earth and Heinrich Böll Foundation.[17]

Notable supporters

  • Rock musician George Harrison became associated with Friends of the Earth after attending their anti-nuclear demonstrations in London in 1980. He dedicated his 1989 greatest hits album, Best of Dark Horse, to Friends of the Earth, among other environmental organisations.[18]
  • Jay Kay, frontman of the funk and acid jazz group Jamiroquai, is known for donating a part of the profits earned from his album sales to Friends of the Earth and Oxfam, among other causes.[citation needed]
  • Thom Yorke, lead singer of Radiohead, has publicly supported a number of Friends of the Earth campaigns, including the Big Ask, which led the UK government to introduce the Climate Change Bill in the Queen's Speech on 15 November 2006. This was after 130,000 people across the country had asked their MP to support such a bill.[citation needed]
  • Proceeds from sales of the single "Love Song to the Earth" (2015), performed by Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, Fergie, Sean Paul, and Colbie Caillat among others, went to Friends of the Earth U.S. and the United Nations Foundation.[citation needed]

Member organizations

We are fed up
We are fed up!-protests: Friends of the Earth Germany is part of the coalition which organizes the demonstration.[19]

Asia

  • Friends of the Earth Japan
  • Indonesian Forum for Environment
    , Indonesia
  • Korean Federation for Environmental Movement
  • Friends of the Earth Middle East
  • Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center – Kasama sa Kalikasan
  • Centre for Environmental Justice, Sri Lanka
  • Sahabat Alam Malaysia

Europe

North America

Oceania

See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ "Excom". Friends of the Earth International. April 2014. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
  2. ^ Organisation
  3. ^ Thomson, Jennifer (2017). "Surviving the 1970s: The Case of Friends of the Earth", Environmental History. Vol. 22(2), p. 235
  4. ^ "History". April 2014. Archived from the original on 12 April 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  5. ^ "Friends of the Earth ticked off over claims in anti-fracking leaflet". The Guardian. 4 January 2017. Retrieved 16 October 2018.
  6. ^ "Executive committee - Friends of the Earth International". 4 March 2021. Retrieved 14 August 2023.
  7. ^ a b "Home - Friends of the earth international". Archived from the original on 25 March 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  8. doi:10.12759/hsr.39.2014.1.212-235
    . Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  9. ISSN 0261-3077
    .
  10. ^ "Home - Friends of the earth international". Archived from the original on 7 March 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  11. ^ "United States of America - Friends of the Earth International". foei.org. 8 November 2013. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
  12. ^ "Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth hit back over 'out-of-touch' criticism". The Guardian. 13 June 2011. Retrieved 16 October 2018.
  13. ^ van den Berg, Stephanie (12 November 2024). "Shell wins appeal against landmark Dutch climate ruling". Reuters.
  14. ^ "Starmer vows to curb 'Nimby' legal blocks on infrastructure schemes". BBC News. 2025-01-23.
  15. ^ "International secretariat". Archived from the original on 23 May 2010. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  16. ^ "Home - Friends of the earth international". Archived from the original on 9 April 2010. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  17. ^ Meat Atlas, Friends of the Earth, download Meat Atlas Archived 2016-07-29 at the Wayback Machine as pdf
  18. ISBN 978-0753508220
    .
  19. ^ "Friends of the Earth Europe, We are fed up: 30,000 march in Berlin, 19 January 2014".
  20. ^ http://www.priateliazeme.sk/ [bare URL]
  21. ^ "About NOAH | NOAH".

Bibliography

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