Questions:
What is Break Free?
Break Free is a movement, an idea, and a call for action. To help build this movement, this online platform has been created so people and organizations who share our Common Values can organize or participate in large-scale actions around the world. These actions will support ongoing campaigns and reinforce shared goals: the rapid, just transition from the fossil fuel economy of the past to the 100% renewable and clean energy future that climate justice demands. Click here to see the values that will define all Break Free actions.
Break Free from Fossil Fuels is not a legal entity and is not intended to create any formal established legal personality, network or coalition. It is a platform through which people can take and create actions anywhere across the globe, whilst adhering to the agreed Values.
What are you hoping to achieve?
Following the COP21 summit in Paris we are still left with these urgent needs: more action to keep fossil fuels in the ground and an acceleration in the just transition to 100% renewable energy. These mobilisations will shine a light on those needs, help spread information about crucial new and existing local campaigns to fight fossil fuels, and continue to shift political power away from the fossil fuel industry and towards grassroots groups who are at the frontlines of a great energy and economic transformation. We want to help open the doorway to more and more people willing to increase their own commitment and to demonstrate the moral urgency of ending the use of fossil fuels and choosing renewables.
Will there be civil disobedience?
Yes. 2015 was the hottest year ever recorded and the impacts of climate change are already hitting communities around the world. From rising sea levels to extreme storms, climate change is with us now and the need to act has never been more urgent. Our actions must reflect the scale and urgency of this crisis in a way that governments can no longer ignore.
What projects are being targeted?
Break Free from Fossil Fuels will be targeting some of the most iconic and dangerous fossil fuel projects all over the world. In Brazil, mobilisations are being organised as listed above. In a global level, actions are being planned in these countries.
The local and national organisers are currently developing the exact details of the mobilisations in coordination with regional and global partners. To find out more about mobilisation plans in your region and to help shape those plans sign up now and we will be in touch soon to tell you more.
Why mobilise in May?
May is our moment. Unlike previous mobilisations, this effort is not linked to any particular government summit, conference or legislation. This is a moment where we, the movement, set the terms. And quite simply, we picked May as a moment that worked for us to mobilise across a dozen or more countries across the globe.
What kind of support will be provided?
We are in the process of setting up international working groups to provide guidance and resources to each local/national organising team. These mobilisations will be designed so that people with all levels of experience can take part. The specific legal, security, and financial support for each location will vary and more detail will be available soon.
Do you want to know more?
Press release: “Break Free from Fossil Fuels” Global Movement to engage thousands of Brazilians in four states
As a direct response to the COP 21 outcomes, insufficient to stop climate changes, 350.org Brasil and its partners are going to organize the “Break Free from fossil fuels” global action in four Brazilian states. Those actions will take place from May 4 to 15, simultaneously in several countries to show to the fossil fuel industry that we want a renewable and clean water future.
Organized by the climate movement 350.org and partner organizations such as the COESUS – No Fracking Brazil and for the Sustainability Coalition, the campaign will be launched in order to mobilize millions of people in the world in order to put pressure on the hydrocarbon industry and local governments to keep fossil fuels underground and accelerate a just transition to 100% renewable energy and a sustainable future for us all.
“We are organizing with traditional communities a series of events in several states, supported by hundreds of organizations and volunteers to demonstrate that we, Brazilian citizens, we will fight for fossil fuels to remain underground,” said Nicole Figueiredo Oliveira, director of 350.org Brazil and Latin America.
Several countries are moving to break free from fossil fuels, including the United States, Canada, Spain, Germany, Indonesia, the Philippines and Nigeria. In Brazil, a program is being articulated in four regions: Javari Valley, Acre, Thermoelectric Power Plant, at Pecém in Ceará, Jurong Aracruz shipyard in Espirito Santo and in Londrina and Maringa, Paraná.
We hope that a never seen before number of people commit to participate in actions that destabilize the industry power, targeting the most dangerous and unnecessary fossil fuels linked projects on the planet and supporting the most ambitious climate solutions.
“Everyone is a key part in this process, and will be responsible for something great, that no other organization has done in the world: to mobilize thousands of people to say no to fossil at some big project,” says Nicole.
Climate Changes
The 350.org Brazil defends disinvestment in fossil fuels to contain climate change and show that renewables are essential to build a just and sustainable future we need.
Nicole recalls that 2015 was the hottest year on record, since emissions exceeded 400 shares per million (ppm) of CO² in the atmosphere. “We are going to be safe only if we can reduce to 350 ppm. To do that, we have to promote a historical and global change in our energy system, and it has to be now, “she warns.
No Fracking Brazil
A 350.org Brazil partner in the “Break Free from fossil fuels” action, the COESUS. – Coalition No Fracking Brazil and for the Sustainability coordinator, Mr. Dr. Juliano Bueno de Araujo, emphasizes the importance of the involvement of organized entities of society, parliamentarians and the people: “we want to be masters of our destiny and it’s time to say we will not admit that the hydrocarbon industry continue to put our lives at risk.”
COESUS founder, since 2013 Juliano develops in Brazil a campaign against hydraulic fracturing, also called FRACKING, a highly polluting technology for underground oil and shale gas extraction.
In addition to contaminating the water, making the soil a wasteland, polluting the air and causing cancer in people and animals, fracking is a major cause of climate change by the systematic methane emissions. Even more, hydraulic fracturing is now also associated with the occurrence of earthquakes.
