The fossil fuel industry’s toxic tendrils ensnare businesses, public policy, and supply chains worldwide in a web that keeps the world dependent on fossil fuels. For years, CIEL, along with partners, has worked to identify and address the myriad shapes and forms that fossil fuels take that undergird the “fossil economy.”
Only by uprooting the fossil economy that drives the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and toxic pollution can we transition to an equitable and healthy future for all.
Identification: The fossil economy is all around us —from the extraction, transport, and combustion of coal, oil, and gas to the production and use of petrochemicals, plastics, and synthetic fertilizers and pesticides (agrochemicals) to the treatment of toxic waste. CIEL has been instrumental in fostering and supporting the creation of an integrated global movement that recognizes the intersecting risks posed by the toxic reach of the fossil economy. Our research and communications campaigns are connecting the dots between fossil fuel feedstocks in plastics and fertilizers and their impacts on human rights, ecosystems, and the climate crisis.
Partnerships: CIEL is leading efforts to mobilize a global effort to address the full scope of the fossil economy. Our goal is to gain a broader understanding of how ongoing efforts intersect with those of partner organizations and use our collective knowledge to organize effectively for a fossil-free future on a global scale.
Movement building: In 2023, we organized a first-of-its-kind gathering focused on agrochemicals. This meeting brought together experts from various fields — climate, fossil fuels, chemicals, agriculture, and food systems — to develop strategies that address both the supply and demand sides of petrochemicals and sever their connection with our food system. Building on the success of this first gathering, CIEL campaigners organized a second, larger event: Uprooting the Fossil Economy Gathering to connect and build synergies between movements and experts working to fight fossil fuel expansion and its supply chain. The gathering marks the beginning of a strategic effort to identify the building blocks of a fossil-free economy rooted in equity and justice.
Integrated strategies: Together with partners, we facilitated a “big tent” umbrella framework for civil society and rights holders engaged in ending the fossil economy. This forum allowed participants to identify current threats and opportunities on both the supply and demand sides of fossil fuels, deepen our understanding of the system we are working to uproot, and discuss — and challenge — solutions and transition strategies within each area of expertise.
CIEL is now working to fill specific research and knowledge gaps; facilitate connections and education to develop cross-movement strategies; craft legal analyses, arguments, and campaigns; and raise media awareness about the links between agrochemicals and fossil fuels.
At a time of surging oil and gas demand — against the backdrop of escalating climate, biodiversity, and pollution crises — the urgency of transitioning away from fossil fuels and fossil feedstocks has never been more critical.