On February 3, 2023, a massive smoke plume darkened the sky when a Norfolk Southern train derailed near East Palestine, Ohio, spilling some of its toxic contents — including carcinogenic vinyl chloride — which were then intentionally set aflame. People living as far away as western Pennsylvania reported chemical smells and health issues. As the toxins spread into the land, air, and water, local residents had to fight for environmental monitoring, and officials are still only beginning to understand the impacts of this disaster.
The East Palestine disaster is not an isolated incident — it is one of dozens of such major occurrences so far in 2023. According to some estimates, the US is currently averaging a “chemical accident” in production and transportation every two days. Petrochemicals are largely made from fossil fuels, and they serve as the building blocks of many products, like plastics, pesticides, and fertilizers. In the US alone, there are plans for the construction of more than 120 new petrochemical plants, predominantly near communities of color and economically disadvantaged areas, particularly in the Gulf Coast and Appalachia. CIEL is proudly partnering to stop this buildout with groups like Beyond Petrochemicals, the People Over Petro and Permian Gulf Coast Coalitions, and the Break Free From Plastic movement.
We are also working to connect the dots to reveal a full picture of the harms to frontline communities. Together, we are exposing the human and environmental impacts of industrial addition to petrochemicals — especially how risky and toxic they are. Our campaigners are also building tools and resources with frontline communities to protect their rights and futures by halting this planned expansion in its tracks.
Just as the burning of fossil fuels for energy and transport accelerates the climate crisis, the use of oil and gas feedstocks in plastics, fertilizers, and other petrochemicals threatens human rights and ecosystems around the world while accelerating the climate emergency. To meet this challenge, CIEL opened a new program dedicated to uprooting the fossil economy. This new program works to transform the fossil economy by fighting the expansion of petrochemical production, confronting the overuse of plastics, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides (agrochemicals), and exposing false solutions like carbon capture and storage, carbon dioxide removal, and other geoengineering approaches.
By tackling the shared threats of fossil fuels, plastics, and agrochemicals, and by unmasking the speculative nature of unproven technofixes, we are accelerating the implementation of real solutions to the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity collapse, and toxic pollution. Lili Fuhr
In Anishinaabe territories surrounding the Great Lakes, a seventy-year-old pipeline carries oil and gas originating in Canada through Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ontario. Owned and operated by Enbridge, Line 5 was originally designed to last only fifty years. Its operation in the Great Lakes region has resulted in more than thirty documented spills to date, releasing an estimated 1.1 million gallons of petroleum into the environment.
Indigenous communities have long demanded the shutdown of Line 5. Every day that this pipeline remains operational increases the likelihood of further catastrophic oil spills, endangering Indigenous territories and cultures, the Great Lakes, and other essential sources of freshwater. While a US court has found that Line 5 is trespassing on Indigenous land — and Michigan’s governor revoked the company’s permission to run the pipeline — Canada continues to support its operation.
CIEL has been working with partners and affected Indigenous communities to demonstrate that Canada’s support for the Line 5 pipeline violates Indigenous Peoples’ territorial sovereignty and their right to a healthy environment, among other rights. With CIEL’s assistance, they secured a strong recommendation from the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, urging Canada and the US to uphold their human rights obligations and decommission Line 5. This recommendation was echoed by the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, who also pointed out that Canada’s efforts to extend the operation of the Line 5 oil pipeline contradicts its international commitment to phase out fossil fuels to mitigate climate change.
In Uganda and Tanzania, oil companies are rushing to construct a new 1,400- kilometer heated oil pipeline — the world’s longest — through Eastern Africa.
The proposed East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) has already harmed local populations through physical and economic displacement. If constructed, it would permanently deprive thousands of families of their lands and livelihoods, jeopardize water sources, and endanger protected habitats from Uganda to Tanzania. It would also generate millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
Together with local partners like the African Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO) and the global coalition to #StopEACOP, CIEL is amplifying concerns about the project’s impacts with UN human rights bodies, increasing international attention to human rights violations, environmental damages, and climate threats. This coalition is also pressuring financiers not to bankroll the destructive development. The global campaign has exposed the legal and financial risks of investing in EACOP, prompting over twenty-seven major banks and twenty-four insurers to rule out support for the project.
Amidst escalating retaliation against environmental and human rights defenders, including intimidation and criminalization, CIEL has provided rapid response communications to raise awareness of breaking developments, alert members of the diplomatic corps, and ensure safety for individuals under attack.
At a time when fossil fuel phaseout is paramount, oil and gas pipelines exacerbate the climate crisis and directly threaten local communities and ecosystems. CIEL supports local partners to defend their rights, develops legal strategies to hold companies accountable, and works to stop money from flowing into polluting projects.
Defending the Defenders Confronting the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline
In Uganda and Tanzania, oil companies are rushing to construct a new 1,400- kilometer heated oil pipeline — the world’s longest — through Eastern Africa.
The proposed East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) has already harmed local populations through physical and economic displacement. If constructed, it would permanently deprive thousands of families of their lands and livelihoods, jeopardize water sources, and endanger protected habitats from Uganda to Tanzania. It would also generate millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
Together with local partners like the African Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO) and the global coalition to #StopEACOP, CIEL is amplifying concerns about the project’s impacts with UN human rights bodies, increasing international attention to human rights violations, environmental damages, and climate threats. This coalition is also pressuring financiers not to bankroll the destructive development. The global campaign has exposed the legal and financial risks of investing in EACOP, prompting over twenty-seven major banks and twenty-four insurers to rule out support for the project.
Amidst escalating retaliation against environmental and human rights defenders, including intimidation and criminalization, CIEL has provided rapid response communications to raise awareness of breaking developments, alert members of the diplomatic corps, and ensure safety for individuals under attack.
Protecting Indigenous Sovereignty Against Line 5
In Anishinaabe territories surrounding the Great Lakes, a seventy-year-old pipeline carries oil and gas originating in Canada through Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ontario. Owned and operated by Enbridge, Line 5 was originally designed to last only fifty years. Its operation in the Great Lakes region has resulted in more than thirty documented spills to date, releasing an estimated 1.1 million gallons of petroleum into the environment.
Indigenous communities have long demanded the shutdown of Line 5. Every day that this pipeline remains operational increases the likelihood of further catastrophic oil spills, endangering Indigenous territories and cultures, the Great Lakes, and other essential sources of freshwater. While a US court has found that Line 5 is trespassing on Indigenous land — and Michigan’s governor revoked the company’s permission to run the pipeline — Canada continues to support its operation.
CIEL has been working with partners and affected Indigenous communities to demonstrate that Canada’s support for the Line 5 pipeline violates Indigenous Peoples’ territorial sovereignty and their right to a healthy environment, among other rights. With CIEL’s assistance, they secured a strong recommendation from the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, urging Canada and the US to uphold their human rights obligations and decommission Line 5. This recommendation was echoed by the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, who also pointed out that Canada’s efforts to extend the operation of the Line 5 oil pipeline contradicts its international commitment to phase out fossil fuels to mitigate climate change.
This year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest report, synthesizing the best available science on climate change gathered from its six prior reports published since 2014. The 6th Assessment Report warns that exceeding 1.5°C warming (“overshoot”) would have dangerous and irreversible consequences. It reinforces the fact that every fraction of a degree matters to avoid climate “tipping points” and self-reinforcing feedback loops, such as permafrost thawing and the collapse of forest ecosystems. What is undeniably evident is that we are not doing enough to avoid a 1.5°C overshoot. We urgently require substantial emission reductions across all sectors, starting with an immediate phaseout of coal, oil, and gas.
CIEL’s team dedicated a week in Interlaken, Switzerland, engaging with representatives of the IPCC’s 195 member governments and the scientists who drafted the Synthesis Report as they reached consensus on every aspect of the final text of its Summary for Policymakers — a document intended to guide political action. CIEL and partners engaged with delegates to ensure that political pressure did not compromise the scientific integrity of the IPCC’s reports. Their objective was to ensure the report’s focus remain rooted in human rights-based approaches and real solutions, not speculative, dangerous, and mostly ineffective technofixes like carbon capture, carbon removal, and solar geoengineering.
CIEL’s work around the IPCC secured significant media coverage, ensuring that journalists, policymakers, and the public understand the science, focus on immediate solutions and a rapid fossil fuel phaseout, and are not distracted by dangerous false solutions.
