Hello! Just to let you know that we use non-essential cookies (including analytics and third party cookies) to help us understand if our website is working well and to learn what content is most useful to visitors. We also use some cookies which are essential for our platform to work and help us to provide you with the best experience possible. You can accept or reject our non-essential cookies and change your mind at any time. To learn more, please read our cookies policy.

Update cookie preferences
Skip to content

Friends of the Earth Charitable Trust

Friends of the Earth are dedicated to protecting the natural world and the wellbeing of everyone in it. We support community groups across the country to make their local areas more climate friendly, and we lobby government to take meaningful action on climate breakdown.

friendsoftheearth.uk/ Fundraise for us
fundraise@foe.co.uk

0207 490 1555

Registered charity no. 281681

Member since October 2017

Latest News

Stopping fossil fuels, one legal win at a time

Stopping fossil fuels, one legal win at a time

This year, thanks to the support of Work for Good businesses and hundreds of thousands of committed supporters around the UK, Friends of the Earth has successfully blocked 5 new fossil fuel developments in the UK.

The first case came in June, when the Supreme Court upheld Sarah Finch's climate change legal challenge against new oil production at Horse Hill in Surrey. It ruled that the local council acted unlawfully by granting planning permission because it didn’t consider the climate impact when the oil is inevitably burned.

The case set a legal precedent that be used in other court challenges against new UK fossil fuel developments. And that’s exactly what happened. In September, the High Court quashed planning permission for the proposed Whitehaven coal mine in Cumbria.

Alongside this, our team in Northern Ireland successfully intervened in 3 cases, blocking significant gas and oil developments.

These wins are incredible.

They reflect years of work from committed grassroots campaigners and volunteers who give so much of their time and energy to these cases. Friends of the Earth is proud to support these local groups with our legal expertise, media support, and campaigning tools and tactics – they all help to secure these wins.

We’re ready for more battles ahead. But for now, these stories demonstrate the power of community action and bring hope to many that we can pave the way for a fossil free future.

Is your area a pollution hotspot?

Is your area a pollution hotspot?

Our latest research shows a shocking 1 in 4 neighbourhoods classify as nature pollution hotspots.

These “hotspots” are areas where air, water, noise and light pollution are at levels that are threatening the future survival of a host of iconic British species, including pollinating bees and native bats.

We're calling for the right to a healthy environment to be enshrined in a new Environmental Rights Act. The law would empower communities to hold regulators and public bodies to account to reduce the multiple layers of pollution affecting their areas to better protect wildlife and people.

• Take a look at your area using the interactive map

• Add your name to support our call for an Environmental Rights Act