2024 was the hottest year on record, one that saw the grip of the climate crisis – powered by the fossil fuel industry – strengthening. And yet, while it became even more obvious that the industry has no intention of changing its climate-wrecking business model, fossil fuel representatives have continued to be allowed to influence climate and energy policy both nationally and internationally.
Fossil Free Parliament, in collaboration with so many others, worked throughout 2024 to undermine the fossil fuel industry’s political influence. We organised the first ever debate on fossil fuel lobbying in Parliament; challenged fossil fuel industry-sponsored events targeting policy makers; called out polluter influence at the Labour Conference and COP29; and continued to grow MP support for the Fossil Free Parliament pledge, gathering 21 signatures before the end of the year.
As 2025 begins wreathed in the flames of the unprecedented, devastating wildfires in California, our movement must go from strength to strength – until we have cut the influence of the climate-wrecking fossil fuel industry out of our politics for good.
In 2025, we will work together to shine an ever-brighter light on the fossil fuel industry’s efforts to delay climate action; we’ll create more opportunities to formally challenge the fossil fuel lobby in Parliament; and we’ll mount greater public pressure to end the injustice of the industry’s special access to policy making, pushing to make heard the demands of communities on the frontline of the climate and energy crises instead.
For now, here is a round up of everything that we achieved together in 2024. If you had any part in these actions, no matter how small, thank you! We couldn’t do this without you.
If you are not already, please sign up to our mailing list to find out about more ways to take action this year – and if you’re keen to be involved further still, fill out this form to find out about volunteering with us.
2024’s highlights
We organised the first ever adjournment debate on fossil fuel lobbying with Caroline Lucas MP
Our adjournment debate in January on fossil fuel lobbying with Caroline Lucas MP was the first time the subject has been formally debated in Parliament. From the personal investments of MPs and Peers, to the industry’s privileged access to meetings with Ministers, the debate considered the deep entanglement between the fossil fuel industry and the UK’s politics.
“… we have to ask ourselves why this Government, and others before them, have presided over, and colluded in, the frankly criminal decisions that have seen yet more oil, gas and coal continue to be explored and exploited. The answer to that question can be traced back to one consistent factor: the role of the fossil fuel industry in our politics.”
Caroline Lucas MP, fossil fuels and political lobbying adjournment debate, 30 Jan 2024
To read about the debate in more detail, see our blog post about it here.
To watch the debate, click here (from 17.58). To read the transcript of the debate, click here.
We called for MPs to boycott fossil fuel-sponsored events – and they did
On 16th May in London, Politico hosted its Energy & Climate UK Summit in partnership with Norwegian oil giant Equinor -the same Equinor that is pushing ahead with the development of the Rosebank oil and gas field in the North Sea, which will emit over 200 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. That’s more than the 28 lowest income countries combined produce in a year.
Six politicians – Alex Sobel MP, Barry Gardiner MP, Kerry McCarthy MP, Philip Dunne MP, Andrew Bowie MP and Lord Callanan – were due to speak at the event. At very short notice, hundreds of people used our email tool to politely urge these politicians to drop out.
Brilliantly, by the time the summit took place, five of the politicians had pulled out. Alex Sobel MP made his decision to withdraw public, stating:
“I have decided to withdraw from the Politico energy and climate summit next week, due to the involvement of Equinor. It was unclear that they were sponsors and I would not have accepted the invitation had their sponsorship been known.”
See Novara Media’s article about Sobel withdrawing here.
We asked General Election candidates to cut oily influence out of our politics
In response to the snap election announcement, we set up a tool allowing people to email their MP candidates, asking them to commit to two things:
- To reject all offers of donations, gifts and other benefits from the fossil fuel industry and its representatives
- To work to cut fossil fuel industry influence out of our politics, should they be elected
In just a few weeks, more than 1500 emails were sent, and more than 140 candidates signed the pledge.
14 of those candidates became MPs, with seven more signing the Fossil Free Parliament pledge by the end of the year
That’s 21 MPs who will forever say “no” to the offer of oily donations and gifts from the fossil fuel industry, and who have committed to work towards restricting the fossil fuel industry’s influence within our politics.
See the full list of signatories of the Fossil Free Parliament pledge here. Don’t see your MP on the list? You can ask them to sign via that same link!
We published a briefing for all MPs and Peers to explain the impact of fossil fuel lobbying on climate and energy policy
Full of accessible but detail-rich case studies – from fossil fuel donations leading to oily policies, and lobbying meetings resulting in windfall tax loopholes – the briefing is also helpful for Fossil Free Parliament supporters as evidence for why we need to restrict the fossil fuel industry’s access to policy making. You can read and download the briefing here.
We worked with allies to challenge fossil fuel industry and Carbon Capture and Storage lobbying at the Labour Party conference
We worked with Global Witness to highlight the proportion of climate events at the conference that had the fossil fuel industry’s oily fingers all over them. At the conference itself, we observed the lobbying taking place on the ground, documenting the dominant presence of the fossil fuel-backed Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) industry, and distributed a leaflet with Oil Change International to cut through the dangerous myths about CCS as a climate solution.
We coordinated a letter to Ed Miliband with 140+ civil society groups, calling on him to lock fossil fuel lobbyists out of COP29
Over 140 civil society organisations, including Friends of the Earth, War on Want, Global Justice Now and Fuel Poverty Action, signed the letter to Ed Miliband urging him to tackle the fossil fuel industry’s dangerous influence over climate policy by leaving lobbyists out of the UK’s delegation to COP29.
The letter was part of a pushback from campaign groups across Europe against the growing dominance of the fossil fuel industry over the world’s most important climate summit.
Shamefully, the letter received no reply, and the UK’s COP29 delegation featured representatives from a number of big polluter companies. There were also more than 1700 fossil fuel lobbyists at COP29, outnumbering the delegates of almost every country.
See our press release about the letter here, and our who’s who post about the polluters in the UK’s delegation on Instagram here or Twitter/X here.