If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed by the state of the world lately, you’re not alone.

Every day seems to bring another crisis: rising costs, deepening inequality, escalating conflicts, and climate disasters arriving faster and harder than before. It can feel relentless.

But beyond the headlines, something else is happening too.

Across the world, ordinary people are building the future we’ve been fighting for – together, in their communities, with their own hands. They are organizing, installing solar panels, demanding accountability, and proving that another kind of future is not only possible, but already underway.

This week alone, we’ve seen powerful reminders of that.

1. The United Nations took a historic step on climate accountability

United Nations member states have adopted a landmark resolution affirming that governments have a legal responsibility to act on climate change. The move follows the groundbreaking advisory opinion issued earlier this year by the International Court of Justice.

More than two-thirds of UN member states, 141, voted in favour of the resolution on Wednesday, with eight voting No and 28 abstaining.

For years, climate movements around the world have pushed for accountability from the countries and corporations most responsible for the crisis. While this resolution does not solve everything overnight, it marks a significant shift: climate justice is becoming impossible to ignore at the highest levels of global power.

This is what sustained public pressure can achieve. Change rarely comes all at once, but movements create momentum, and momentum matters.

2. Pacific communities are building energy sovereignty

In Nadi, Fiji, community leaders from Fiji, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu are currently taking part in a hands-on Solar Scholars training led by 350 Pacific and the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities.

By the end of the training, participants will have assembled and installed two community-owned solar systems: one serving a village in Sigatoka and another powering a kindergarten in Lautoka.

That means children will be able to go to school with reliable electricity and communities will have greater control over their own energy future.

“One of the dreams has always been to learn how to reach out to communities and bring energy sovereignty in our communities,” said 350 Pacific Coordinator George Nacewa.
This is what a just energy transition looks like: communities building solutions for themselves, rooted in care, self-determination, and shared knowledge.

3. People around the world are demanding renewable energy

New polling across 13 countries, including Brazil, India, Colombia, Germany, the United Kingdom, and South Africa, shows something striking: people increasingly understand that fossil fuels are tied to conflict, instability, and rising living costs. They want something different.

Across political divides, majorities support investing in solar and wind energy, taxing excessive fossil fuel profits, reducing dependence on oil and gas, and treating energy as a public good rather than a source of corporate profit.

The message is clear. People want energy systems that are cleaner, fairer, more stable, and more affordable. Governments now need to catch up with the public.

4. Southeast Asia is embracing rooftop solar

As global fuel prices continue to rise, families and governments across Southeast Asia are increasingly turning to rooftop solar.

In the Philippines, solar installations have surged by 70%, while customer inquiries reportedly increased six-fold following the recent Iran conflict. Indonesia aims to expand rooftop solar capacity from 1.3 gigawatts today to 100 gigawatts by 2034. Vietnam and Thailand are also introducing new policies and targets to accelerate solar adoption on homes and public buildings. This is people power in action.

When renewable energy becomes accessible, people choose it, because it lowers costs, increases energy security, and offers a path away from dependence on volatile fossil fuels.

Every rooftop panel represents more than electricity. It represents a choice for a different future.

5. Africa is mobilizing for affordable, community-owned energy

Across the African continent this week, thousands of activists, young people, and community organizations are mobilizing as part of AfrikaVuka Week.

Their demand is simple but powerful: stop expanding fossil fuels and start investing in affordable, community-owned renewable energy.

For decades, fossil fuel expansion has been framed as development, even while millions of people continue to lack access to reliable and affordable electricity. Afrika Vuka Week challenges that narrative by calling for energy systems that prioritize people, not corporate profits.

Climate justice and energy justice are inseparable, and communities across Africa are making that connection impossible to ignore.

The transition is already happening

It is easy to believe that progress is too slow, or that powerful interests will always stand in the way of change.

But around the world, the transition is already underway.

Communities are organizing. Families are choosing renewable energy. Young people are demanding accountability. Movements are growing stronger across borders.

And together, they are proving something important: a safer, fairer, more affordable future is not a distant dream. It is already being built.

Across the world, people are proving that another energy future is possible. Join the Great Power Shift campaign and help build a future powered by the people, not fossil fuels.

The post 5 pieces of good climate news that you probably missed recently appeared first on 350.

This is a guest blog by Health Care Without Harm, a global movement working at the intersection of climate and health, grounded in a simple reality: more people are being made sick by the conditions around them, and while health care contributes to the problem, it holds a powerful responsibility and opportunity to lead change from within. 

If the global health care sector were a country, it would be the fifth largest source of pollution that is driving rising temperatures worldwide. Behind that number is a deeper reality: modern healthcare, like much of our economy, is still heavily dependent on fossil fuels. And that dependence comes with a cost that all of us are paying, in our health, in our wallets, and in our daily lives.

The health system runs on fossil fuels and so do the harms it treats

From the electricity that powers hospitals, to the production and transport of medicines, to the plastics used in packaging and everyday care, fossil fuels are embedded in nearly every step of the healthcare system. In fact, the vast majority of health care emissions come from fossil fuel use.

Plastics are a key part of this story. Today, around 99 percent of plastics are made from oil and gas. That means everything from gloves and gowns to syringes and packaging is directly tied to fossil fuel extraction and production. And plastics add another layer of harm: from start to finish, they release toxic chemicals and microplastics into the air, water, and even our bodies, linked to serious health risks including cancer, infertility, and respiratory illness.

Plastic is not just waste, it is an ongoing demand for fossil fuels, built into how our hospitals and clinics operate.

At the same time, burning fossil fuels is driving rising temperatures and extreme weather, and are a major source of air pollution. That pollution is responsible for millions of deaths each year. It contributes to asthma, heart disease, stroke, cancer, and complications during pregnancy. It worsens existing conditions and creates new ones.

In other words, the same fossil fueled system damages the air, water, and land we rely on and is also filling our hospital beds.

A patient with sickness sitting in hospital ward bed, waiting to receive treatment and medical assistance from doctor. Photo: magnific.com

We are paying for it twice

There is a hidden double cost to fossil fuels.

First, we pay through our health. Rising temperatures, extreme weather, polluted air, and unsafe water are already affecting communities around the world. Doctors and nurses are seeing it every day, from respiratory illness to the mental health impacts of disasters. Findings show that in 2024, heat-related mortality for people over 65 has increased by 85% compared to the early 2000s, with over 546,000 heat-related deaths occurring annually. In India alone, air pollution is linked to over 1.72 million deaths annually.

Rising temperatures and polluted air have also made India more vulnerable to disease. Photo: PTI

Then we pay again through the cost of care.

Treating these health problems is putting a growing strain on health systems. The costs are staggering: air pollution alone causes trillions of dollars in damage globally each year, while exposure to plastic-related chemicals adds more than $1.5 trillion annually through cancer, diabetes, respiratory illness, lost lives, and reduced productivity. In the US alone, plastic-related diseases cost $250 billion in a single year.These pressures don’t stop at treatment, they ripple through the system, increasing waste management costs, straining supply chains, and compounding operational and financial stress.

This is the price of a fossil fuel dependent system, and it is a price that is rising and that comes out of all of our pockets. Following India’s example, for 2023/24, Indian insurers collected $12.4 billion in health insurance premiums, an increase of about 20% over the previous year. 

As with most crises, the burden is not shared equally. Communities already facing inequality are often the most exposed to pollution, extreme heat, and disasters. They are also the least likely to have access to quality health care when they need it most. Around the world, hundreds of millions of people still lack reliable access to electricity. Many rely on burning charcoal or other fuels at home, exposing families to dangerous indoor air pollution. Women and children are especially affected.

Even within wealthier countries, frontline communities are often the first to feel the impacts and the last to receive support. When disasters hit, it becomes even clearer: health systems can be overwhelmed or disrupted, leaving gaps that communities themselves are forced to fill.

In May last year, for example, a powerful tornado tore through parts of St. Louis in the U.S., causing widespread damage. Homes were destroyed, power was cut, and thousands of people were left without basic support. Many families struggled  to access food, clear debris, or get the healthcare they needed. Community groups stepped in quickly, delivering supplies, checking on neighbors, and helping people replace medications and connect to care.

A drone view shows houses damaged after a tornado struck in St. Louis, Missouri, May 17. REUTERS/Lawrence Bryant

But while that response was essential, it also exposed a deeper problem. Communities should not have to carry this burden alone. Disasters like this show the urgent need for stronger systems, better preparedness, and policies that prioritize people’s health and safety before a crisis hits. This means investing in communities ahead of time, ensuring equitable access to care, and building systems that can respond when it matters most.

Healthcare can help lead the way

Healthcare has both the responsibility and the influence to drive change, grounded in a simple principle: do no harm. In a fossil fuel dependent world, that principle is harder to uphold, but it also creates a clear mandate for change.

Health workers, along with tens of thousands of hospitals and leading health ministries, are not only responding to the impacts of rising temperatures, they are actively redesigning the system itself. In practice, this means:

• Switching to decentralized renewable energy: Hospitals are investing in renewable energy to reduce their own pollution, to stay operational during disruptions and reduce exposure to volatile fuel prices.
• Transforming supply chains: Health systems are changing what they buy, choosing products that create less pollution and waste, while making their systems more reliable.
• Reducing reliance on plastics: Hospitals and clinics are cutting unnecessary single use plastics and shifting to safe, reusable alternatives, lowering costs while reducing dependence on fossil fuels.
• Reducing unnecessary waste: Improving efficiency – using less and wasting less – helps bring down costs and protects patients and workers.
• Clinicians driving change: Health professionals are spotting what works, cutting pollution, and using their knowledge and leadership to influence decisions.

These are not abstract ideas. They are real, working examples of what a just transition away from polluting fossil fuels can look like in practice. They show that it is possible to reduce reliance on fossil fuels while improving care and lowering costs: Renewable energy means cleaner air and fewer illnesses. Stronger systems mean fewer disruptions and more stable prices.

Health systems are both public and private, so leadership needs to come from across the sector – and beyond it. Hospitals and health workers can lead change, but they cannot do it alone. Transforming healthcare also means rethinking how medicines, devices, and supplies are made and delivered, reducing reliance on fossil fuels at every step. Scaling this shift will require political will. Governments and institutions need to align policies, finance, and incentives with a future that protects health rather than undermines it.

The choice in front of us

The connection between fossil fuels, health, and affordability is visible in our air, our hospitals, our bills and our daily lives.

We can continue to absorb the rising costs of a system that makes us sick, or we can build one that protects health at its core. That means governments putting people before pollution and polluters, accelerating a just transition to renewable energy, rethinking our dependence on plastics, and ending the prioritization of fossil fuel expansion over public health.

The post Out of Pocket: the real cost of fossil fuels on our health and healthcare systems appeared first on 350.

Written by: Ogie Atadero, Energy Transition Campaigner at 350 Pilipinas

There is a particular kind of disbelief that accompanies good news now, especially when it concerns the climate crisis. We have grown used to stories of loss: forests burning, coastlines drowning, heat arriving early and lingering too long. The future has so often been described to us as catastrophe that we forget another possibility exists, that change can sometimes arrive quietly, almost invisibly, carrying not only necessity but relief.

“Saving is happiness,” Ms. Mel Policario said, with the practical certainty of someone who has watched the numbers closely.

She is the Finance Officer of Dr. Yanga’s Colleges Inc. (DYCI), a school in Bulacan, a province located on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. DYCI, near the close of 2025, made what sounds at first like a technical decision: to shift to renewable energy through the Green Energy Option Program, or GEOP. But many of the most important transformations begin this way; not with spectacle, but with paperwork, conversations, signatures, and a willingness to imagine that the systems surrounding us are not fixed forever.

GEOP changes the story.

Through the program, qualified consumers can choose renewable energy suppliers directly, receiving clean energy through the same national grid that already powers their buildings and classrooms. No installation crews arrive. No roofs need rebuilding. The electricity travels invisibly, as electricity always has. What changes is the source: somewhere beyond sight, energy generated from renewable sources is fed into the grid and credited to institutions like DYCI.

Eligibility for GEOP is relatively straightforward and is often indicated in the electricity bill of large energy consumers. Initially set at a minimum monthly peak demand of 100 kW, the threshold has since been revised to 50 kW, enabling more institutions to qualify and access renewable energy options.

Eligibility for GEOP is relatively straightforward and is often indicated in the electricity bill of large energy consumers. Initially set at a minimum monthly peak demand of 100 kW, the threshold has since been revised to 50 kW, enabling more institutions to qualify and access renewable energy options.

In the Philippines, we are used to noticing energy only when something goes wrong: during brownouts, rising electricity bills, or the heavy heat of a classroom when the power suddenly cuts out. Electricity is something people feel very personally here.

The savings no one expected

Which is why DYCI’s transition to renewable energy feels quietly remarkable. Nothing about the school suddenly looked different. There were no giant machines built across the campus, no dramatic reconstruction. And yet something fundamental had changed beneath ordinary life itself: the source of the energy powering classrooms, offices, electric fans, and lights.

With nearly the same level of electricity consumption as the previous year, DYCI has already reduced its electricity costs significantly through renewable energy procurement. In only a matter of months, the school has saved more than one hundred thousand pesos – money that can now be redirected toward students, facilities, and the ordinary needs that sustain an educational institution.

There is something quietly radical in this.

The dominant narrative around climate action has long framed it as sacrifice: consume less, pay more, expect hardship. Fossil fuel dependency, meanwhile, has been normalized as the practical and affordable choice, despite the immense social and environmental costs hidden beneath every coal plant and oil shipment. But moments like this reveal another reality. Renewable energy is not merely an ethical gesture toward the planet’s future. It is increasingly the smarter economic choice in the present.

How transitions really happen

Implemented as a mechanism under the Renewable Energy Act of 2008, GEOP opened a door that many institutions are only beginning to realize exists. Since its implementation in 2021, it has allowed schools, businesses, and organizations to participate in the energy transition without the enormous upfront costs that traditionally defined renewable energy projects.

Additionally, DYCI’s commitment to explore alternative energy options like GEOP, ultimately led to the securing of contracts under the Retail Competition and Open Access (RCOA) framework. Alongside GEOP, RCOA serves as a complementary mechanism that enables qualified consumers to directly engage with competitive electricity suppliers, further supporting the transition to more sustainable and cost-efficient energy sources.

And perhaps this is how transitions really happen: not all at once, not everywhere simultaneously, but through accumulating acts of practical imagination. A school changes providers. A finance officer notices the savings. A conversation begins. Someone else realizes they can do the same.

If larger institutions, including government agencies, are willing to transition to renewable energy and make the process accessible and straightforward, it can significantly encourage broader public adoption. When the transition is supported by accessible, reliable, and well-established mechanisms that are enabling rather than punitive, individuals are more likely to follow and adopt the shift quickly

The future often arrives long before we recognize it has already begun.

The post The future of energy is here, and it’s saving schools money appeared first on 350.

According to a European Environment Agency survey of 27,000 people across 27 European countries, published before the war in the Middle East in February, over 38% of respondents said they could not afford to keep their homes adequately cool in summer.

As temperatures continue to soar around the world, heatwaves are becoming more frequent and intense. But they’re not only uncomfortable; they can also pose serious health risks. It’s important to stay cool and protect ourselves while also looking out for those who might be more vulnerable in our communities.

Here are some practical tips to help you cool down during a heatwave.

1. Shield Your Home from the Sun’s Rays: It might be counterintuitive to keep your windows closed during heatwaves but as soon as it starts to feel hotter outside than it is in your home – it’s best to close all your windows and close your curtains or blinds when the sun is directly on them to keep the heat out. You can also put tin foil with the shiny side facing outward in your window to reflect heat away.
2. Let the Heat Out! In the evening, if it’s cooler outside open all your windows and doors for as long as possible to let the cooler air flow through your home and remember to close them again in the morning before it gets hotter.
3. Stay Hydrated: Freeze water bottles overnight so you have ice-cold water to drink throughout the day. Make yourself an electrolyte-infused hydration drink by mixing 100ml of lemon juice, 2 tbsp lime juice, 500ml of water, 2 tbsp of honey, 1/8 tsp sea salt.
4. Make Your Own Air Conditioner: Freeze a big bottle of water overnight and put it in front of a fan (on top of a towel to catch any condensation). Sit in front of the bottle and enjoy the cool breeze.
5. Cool Your Skin: Take cold showers or baths (and then dry off in front of your homemade air conditioner!). Keep a spray bottle of water in the fridge so you can mist yourself through the day. You can cool off fast by soaking your feet in a bucket of cold water.

Find out more ways to stay cool from the World Health Organisation – including what to do if you or someone you are assisting is suffering from heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

How can you help others?

We are facing an unprecedented severity and frequency of heatwaves and the impacts aren’t felt equally. It is the people with underlying medical conditions, people in unstable housing, and some of the same folks who were hailed as ‘essential workers’ during the height of the pandemic who are the most at risk from the impacts of these heat waves. Make sure to check in on people in your community, particularly elderly and unhoused folks. Consider distributing cold water bottles to folks who might need them.

Share these tips with your friends and family.

What else can you do about the climate and affordability crisis? 

Heatwaves are evidence that we’re already paying for a crisis we didn’t create. Meanwhile, those that did create the crisis – oil and gas companies – continue to profit, backed by billions in public subsidies. Our governments must choose to make a great power shift that will bring down energy costs and tackle the climate crisis at the same time.

Sign the petition calling on all governments to ensure affordable renewable energy for all, to tax polluters permanently and to stop fossil fuel subsidies.

True renewable, democratic, and just energy systems are possible. Check out the 350.org Hope Hub, which showcases projects worldwide that do just that.

The post 5 ways to stay cool in a heatwave appeared first on 350.

What happens when a geopolitical crisis strikes? When wars start over oil reserves, prices spike at the pump and on household bills, and the fragility of a fossil fuel-dependent world becomes impossible to ignore? And you ask ordinary people — not politicians, not lobbyists, not oil executives — what they think should happen next?

Well, the general public already has the answers. They understand why these crises keep happening. They understand who profits from them. And they understand what needs to change. Two major crises of 2026, the US seizure of Venezuelan President and the US-Israeli war in Iran, have etched into the public consciousness how fossil fuels drive conflict, inflate bills, and strip communities of stability over their own futures.

Crisis one: Venezuela. The moment people connected oil to instability and conflict.

The United States’ capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and threats to seize its natural resources in early 2026, and its threats to annex Greenland, uncovered a clear link: fossil fuels make countries and people more vulnerable to military aggression and conflict. Where there is oil and gas, there is instability — wars fought over reserves, and ordinary people left to pay the price in rising bills, broken communities, and lives lost to conflicts they never chose. None of this, it turns out, has been lost on the public.

In the immediate aftermath, Secure Energy Project commissioned market research agency Opinium to poll six countries — Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Canada, Germany, and India – on whether the public was drawing the same conclusions. They were:

• In India, the world’s most populous nation and third largest energy consumer, spending hundreds of billions on fossil fuel imports every year — 72% said India would be safer with more renewable energy, 67% said the transition is more important than ever, and 66% said India should prioritize clean energy over fossil fuel expansion
• In Brazil, 76% said the transition is more important than ever and 79% said Brazil should prioritise clean energy. 
• In Mexico, where approximately 70% of gas consumption came from US imports in 2025, 72% said oil and gas dependence increases the risk of international conflict, 70% said Mexico would be safer with more renewables.
• In Colombia, 69% said oil and gas dependence increases the risk of international conflict, 69% said Colombia would be safer with more renewables, and 61% said transitioning to domestic solar and wind would strengthen national security — with majorities holding across every political tradition.
• In Canada, 67% said oil and gas reliance increases the risk of international conflict, 59% said Canada would be safer with more renewables.
• In Germany, 72% said fossil fuel dependence increases the risk of international conflict, 57% said it weakens national security, and 58% said Germany should prioritize the energy transition.

Across all six countries, across every point on the political spectrum, the same recognition emerged: fossil fuel dependence doesn’t just damage the climate. It fuels aggression, enables coercion, and makes entire nations vulnerable to the whims of the powerful few. Domestic solar and wind, in contrast, don’t come with geopolitical strings attached. They don’t spike when a president gets arrested or a strait gets blockaded. For the first time at this scale, energy security, international political stability and climate action were understood as the same thing.

Crisis two: Iran. When people demanded the polluters pay.

A few short weeks after, came the war in Iran. Oil and gas prices surged. Bills rose. 350.org’s analysis showed the price spikes could cost ordinary households and businesses up to US$1 trillion by year’s end. While BP posted US$3.2 billion in quarterly profits and TotalEnergies banked US$5.4 billion in the first three months of 2026 alone, families across the world suffered from the costs of a crisis they did not cause.

Oxfam’s polling, conducted in April across seven countries, cut straight to the accountability question: while families absorbed war-driven energy price spikes and oil and gas corporations banked record profits, what did people think governments should do about it? The answers, across every country surveyed, were unambiguous.

1. On government investment priorities, the verdict was overwhelming. Brazil and Turkey led the way, with 77% in each country saying their government should invest more in renewable energy rather than expanding fossil fuel extraction. Colombia followed at 72%. France at 64%, the UK at 62%, and the Netherlands at 61%. Even Australia — the country most resistant to the energy transition in the survey — still had 59% favouring renewables over fossil fuels, against only 29% who favoured expansion
2. On corporate accountability, majorities were clear too. The Netherlands led at 75% saying it is wrong for oil and gas corporations to make huge profits without taking responsibility for their climate pollution. France came in at 71%, the UK and Brazil both at 70%, Turkey at 67%, Colombia at 63%. Australia, again, showed the lowest — but still majority support at 57%.
3. On taxing fossil fuel profits, the findings were perhaps the most politically significant — and the most hopeful. France showed the strongest support, with 75% backing increased taxes on oil and gas profits to fund the transition, including 43% who strongly support it. The UK came in at 72%. Turkey at 70%. Colombia and Brazil both at 69%. The Netherlands at 63%. Australia at 60% — the lowest of all seven countries, yet still a clear majority.

And here is the detail that should make every government take notice: in six out of seven countries surveyed, there were more far-right respondents who supported taxing oil and gas profits than those who opposed it. This is not a left-wing policy position being imposed on a reluctant public. It is a majority position across the entire political spectrum – in every country, in every tradition, among voters that governments across the world claim to represent.

The public has connected the dots: fossil fuels mean conflict. Renewables mean security, stability and lower bills.

Together, these findings paint a picture of a public that has worked out what its governments have apparently not. The energy crisis, the geopolitical crisis, and the climate crisis are not three separate problems requiring three separate committees and three separate summits. They are one system – built on fossil fuel dependence, sustained by lobbying and political capture, and extracting its costs from the communities least responsible for any of it.

Whether the question was asked in the shadow of Venezuela or Iran, whether framed around national security or corporate accountability, whether put to voters in the Global South or the Global North – the answer is the same. Renewables mean stability. Fossil fuels mean vulnerability. And the corporations that profit from that vulnerability should fund the way out.

This is exactly what The Great Power Shift is fighting for. From activists urging taxes on Big Oil’s excess profits in Canada, to communities in Japan pushing back against fossil fuel subsidies, to families in South Africa organizing for free basic electricity, and more – people everywhere are calling for the future their governments have been too slow to deliver. The public mandate documented in these two polls isn’t a starting point. It is confirmation of something already underway.

No family should be priced out of heating their home because a war broke out over oil reserves. No government should feel compelled to wage one. Clean, affordable renewable energy ends both problems at once – and the public, across thirteen countries, already understands that. 

Energy is not a market commodity to be traded and speculated on, nor is it a geopolitical weapon. It is a right. And frankly, it’s time governments caught up with the people they claim to represent. It’s time for the Great Power Shift!

The post People are ready for the energy transition. Governments need to catch up. appeared first on 350.

This is a guest blog co-authored by Risalat Khan, Senior Strategist, Insurance and Finance at The Sunrise Project Inc and Kenny Stancil, Deputy Research Director at the Revolving Door Project.

If you’ve opened an insurance bill lately and felt your stomach drop, you’re not alone. For many of us, insurance is a core part of the financial safety net, but the cost of insuring our homes, our cars, our farms, and our health is climbing fast.

Insurance companies blame rising ‘natural’ disaster losses and rebuilding costs, but they’re leaving out a crucial part of the story: Fossil fuel pollution, which insurers continue to support (through practices like underwriting and investment), is supercharging the extreme weather that is driving up insurance prices.

We call it the pollution premium — the hidden surcharge that fossil fuels add to the cost of protecting the things we care about most.

In early 2024, the Global Week of Action (GWA) called on the insurance industry to end their role in driving the climate crisis through their insurance of fossil fuel projects. This action was in Nigeria by Voices of the Vulnerable on 29 Feb 2024. Photo: Voices of the Vulnerable

Climate disasters are getting more expensive

The costs of the climate crisis are rising, for the insured or uninsured alike. In 2024, global economic losses from tropical cyclones, floods, wildfires, and other extreme weather events made worse by planet-heating emissions reached USD 368 billion, well above the 21st century average. 

Only $145 billion of those $368 billion in losses were insured. The remaining $223 billion landed directly on families, communities, and governments with little safety net and grueling paths to recovery. This massive protection gap serves as a reminder that across much of the world, the costs of the climate crisis fall directly on people without insurance.

Behind those numbers are real human beings. Typhoon Yagi killed 816 people and caused $12.9 billion in losses across China and Southeast Asia. Hurricane Helene killed 243 people and caused $75 billion in losses across the US, Mexico, and Cuba. Spain’s flash floods in Valencia killed 231 people and caused $16.1 billion in damage. Of the $104 billion in damages unleashed by those three storms, just $22.1 billion was insured. That leaves households and government budgets to absorb the rest.

In a changed climate, nothing is just a random act of nature anymore. Estimates suggest that over a third of all weather-related insured losses since 2000 — roughly $600 billion — may have been caused by climate change. The climate share of losses rose from 31% to 38% over the past decade, growing at 6.5% per year — faster than the growth in overall insured losses. 

Even people with insurance are not spared. As climate disasters become more frequent and intense, insurers face more and more claims. To stay profitable, they raise premiums — the regular payments you make to stay covered. This is the extra amount that fossil fuel-driven climate change quietly adds to your insurance bill every month regardless of where you live.

The pollution premium, in other words, is escalating for all of us.

Activists protesting against insurance companies investing in fossil fuels. Photo: Leon Kunstenaar

Premiums are rising around the world

As climate disasters grow more costly, we can see the impact in how insurance companies charge policyholders across the world.  

In the United States, homeowner insurance premiums increased by 29% from January 2021 to January 2026, and personal auto insurance rose nearly 25% over the same period. These mounting costs are among the biggest contributors to overall inflation.

France raised its mandatory natural catastrophe surcharge on property insurance from 12% to 20%, effective January 2025. In northern Australia, premiums climbed more than 130% in real terms between 2007 and 2022, a 6% growth year on year.

Across most low- and middle-income countries, insurance coverage is usually less than 10%, and sometimes far less, leaving uninsured communities and businesses to bear most of the risks and losses from climate disasters.

This is a global problem. And it’s getting worse.

Insurers are dropping out, leaving ordinary people to  pick up the tab

Insurance companies aren’t just raising premiums; they’re abandoning some communities altogether. 

In the United States, nearly two million home insurance policies were not renewed between 2018 and 2023, and the national average nonrenewal rate increased by 32%. Some of the biggest insurers have stopped writing new policies altogether in certain places in recent years, citing extreme weather risks, including Allstate and State Farm in California, Farmers in Florida, and AIG in parts of more than a dozen states in the US.

Across much of the world, the situation is even bleaker. In Asia, only 17% of losses from climate disasters are covered by insurance and in Latin America, the rate is just 19%. In Africa, only 0.5% of climate-related losses had insurance coverage — leaving hundreds of millions of people entirely exposed when floods, droughts, and storms destroy their homes and harvests. When there is no insurance safety net, the costs land directly on families and governments, and sometimes a major disaster can cost an entire year’s GDP for a small country!

For communities accustomed to higher rates of insurance protection, the retreat of private insurers forces governments to step in as the insurer of last resort. In the US, these emergency backup programs have more than doubled since 2018 and now cover more than $1 trillion worth of property. Not only are there concerns about their ability to pay out claims in the event of major catastrophe, the costs are passed onto the public in the form of higher premiums.

People left without affordable options face hard choices. Some turn to smaller or less regulated insurers — companies that may not be able to pay out when disaster actually strikes. Others simply go without insurance entirely. In 2024, 6.1 million US households had no home insurance at all. In Europe, only around a quarter of weather-related losses are insured. Across Asia and Latin America, it is less than one in five.

Either way, ordinary people are left exposed and paying into a system that may not protect them, or taking on all the risk themselves.

The pattern is the same everywhere: as fossil fuel pollution turbocharges climate disasters, insurance becomes less affordable, less available, and less reliable. But when insurance disappears, the costs don’t. They land on strained families, communities, and government budgets instead.

Local climate activists, working with the Insure Our Future Network, gathered outside AIG Headquarters in Manhattan on May 12, 2021 during their annual shareholders meeting to demand that AIG take action on climate change. Photo: by Erik McGregor

They knew. We’re paying.

None of this is happening by surprise. As far back as the late 1970s, ExxonMobil’s own scientists accurately predicted the warming we’re now experiencing. The fossil fuel industry knew that its products cause planet-wrecking pollution, but spent decades funding doubt and delay instead.

The insurance industry also knew. As early as 1973, Munich Re warned about climate change impacts. Yet most insurance companies continue to insure and invest in fossil fuel expansion regardless, even though we have known since 2021 that such expansion is incompatible with limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C, beyond which destructive impacts grow exponentially worse.

As of 2024, just 32 companies were linked to over half of global fossil fuel emissions. Meanwhile, fossil fuel subsidies reached USD 7.4 trillion the same year. Put simply, governments are subsidizing the industry most responsible for unleashing climate chaos and forcing households to pay for the ensuing damages.

And the costs keep growing: beyond insurance, fossil fuels are driving up healthcare costs through air pollution, pushing up food prices through supply chain disruptions, and adding billions to public health budgets through heatwaves, vector-borne diseases, and more.

The fossil fuel industry profits while we pay the pollution premium.

This is a political choice — and we can change it 

Here’s the good news: the solutions exist, they are affordable, and the public wants them. We can bring down the pollution premium by replacing fossil fuels with clean energy and making polluters pay.

Make polluters pay. Every premium hike, every dropped policy, every government bailout is a cost that belongs on the balance sheets of the companies that caused this crisis. New York’s Climate Change Superfund Act is designed to collect $75 billion over 25 years from major oil and gas companies — money that goes directly back to communities bearing the costs of extreme weather. And the public is ready: 71% of US voters support requiring fossil fuel companies to pay their share of climate damages. Globally, 8 in 10 people agree.

Expand cheap renewable energy. In 2024, 91% of newly built renewable capacity produced electricity at a lower cost than the cheapest new fossil fuel alternative. The benefits are substantial; renewables helped avoid $467 billion in fossil fuel costs in 2024, supporting energy security, affordability, and resilience.

Build resilience. In Alabama, homes constructed to wind-resistant “Fortified” standards filed 55% to 74% fewer claims after Hurricane Sally. If every affected home in two counties had met those standards, insurers could have saved $112 million on payouts and policyholders $35 million in deductibles. We can prepare before a disaster strikes.

But pursuing resilience without decarbonization is like running on a treadmill that keeps speeding up. Real risk reduction requires adapting to climate change and reducing emissions.

We don’t have to keep paying the pollution premium. Governments can end fossil fuel subsidies, tax polluters, and accelerate the shift to clean, affordable renewable energy. The money is there. The technology is there. The public support is there. What’s missing is political will — and that’s something we can build together.

It’s an open question whether the insurance industry will become an ally in this fight or continue to prop up fossil fuels. Insurance companies and executives are still profiting from the status quo. Offloading liabilities while raising premiums — and investing our premiums into dirty industries — is padding their bottom line. The climate crisis is treated as someone else’s problem. 

Yet, there is precedent: health insurers took tobacco companies to court in the 1990s, and today, property insurers have the option of doing the same with the fossil fuel industry. Ultimately, our political representatives must safeguard our communities by making fossil fuel polluters pay, and forcing insurers to become part of the solution.

The post Out of Pocket: Pollution Premiums – the real cost of fossil fuels on our insurance bills appeared first on 350.

BP just posted US$3.2 billion in profits this quarter — more than double what it made in the same period last year. TotalEnergies? US$5.4 billion in the first quarter of 2026 alone — while our analysis shows that oil and gas price spikes will likely cost ordinary households and businesses up to US$ 1 trillion by the end of the year if the war in South West Asia (Middle East) continues.

These companies didn’t earn this. They extracted it — from a war, from a broken system, from us. While people are being killed in Iran, Lebanon, Palestine and beyond, and families across the world choose between heating and eating, oil executives are doing just fine.

But this is no surprise, it’s how a fossil fuel dependent system is supposed to work. The industry spends billions lobbying, buying political influence, and funding disinformation to keep us locked in. And it’s working… for them.

Oil, gas and coal prices swing wildly with every war, every supply shock, every act of market speculation. And every time they rise, we all pay more. The knock-on effects touch everything. And when the climate crisis strikes — driven by the very same fossil fuels — it’s communities and governments that foot the bill for emergency response, rebuilding homes, overstretched hospitals. Those costs don’t appear on any company’s balance sheet.

We pay, they profit. We can’t afford this anymore.

Right now, people all around the world are dealing with sky-high energy bills and the growing devastation of extreme weather — floods, droughts, wildfires, heatwaves — at the same time. These are not separate crises. They share a common root: our dependence on fossil fuels. But we have a way out!

“The lesson is clear: the less reliant we are on fossil fuels, the more protected ordinary people are from price shocks. Renewables have surged ahead as the cheapest option available, while fossil fuels have become a shock-prone liability. It’s time to make Big Oil pay and shift power back to the people.”  – Savio Carvalho, 350.org Head of Campaigns and Networks

Renewable energy is now the cheapest source of electricity in history. The sun and the wind are free. Once built, they produce energy without fuel costs or sudden price spikes. In 2024 alone, renewables helped the world avoid US$467 billion in fossil fuel costs. What’s missing isn’t the technology — it’s the political will to choose people over polluters.

That’s what The Great Power Shift is here to change.

Today, we’re launching a flagship global campaign to end fossil fuel dependence and ensure affordable clean energy for all. We’re demanding that governments shift public money away from fossil fuels and into renewables, make fossil fuel companies pay their fair share through a permanent windfall tax, and invest in energy systems that deliver affordable, clean power for everyone. No family left in the dark. No community priced out of the clean energy future.

Clean, affordable energy is not a privilege. It’s a right. And people aren’t waiting. From Tokyo to Brasília, from Paris to Nairobi, they’re already in the streets.

The world is rising — here’s what’s happening:

France — Activists took to the streets outside a TotalEnergies gas station in Paris with fake pumps pouring money straight into corporate pockets. The launch of Nos factures, leurs profits was timed to coincide with TotalEnergies’ Q1 results, demanding a permanent windfall tax, now.

Action in a TotalEnergies petrol station in Paris (Photo credit: Rémy El Sibaïe/ 350.org)

Japan — Activists gathered at the National Diet Building demanding the government end fossil fuel and nuclear subsidies and invest in energy efficiency and renewables. Japan’s clean energy future can’t wait.

Action led by 350.org Japan in front the National Diet Building in Tokyo (Photo credit: 350.org Japan)

Indonesia — A joint press conference and actions across three cities under the rallying cry Yang merusak, yang bayar — make them pay. Stop hiding the true cost of fossil fuels. Tax the windfall. Give the money back to the people.

Action in front of an oil terminal in Lombok, Indonesia (Photo credit: Climate Rangers Nusa Tenggara Barat)

Brazil — A giant electricity bill will land in front of the National Congress with a message that couldn’t be clearer: this is where your expensive and dirty electricity bill begins. The campaign: Isso é da Sua Conta demands cleaner, cheaper energy from every candidate this election.

Activists protested in front of Congress with a big “expensive and dirty” electricity bill in front of the National Congress in Brazil, demanding cleaner, cheaper energy from candidates (Photo credit: Jhaimes Sousa)

South Africa — We launched the call for Free Basic Electricity Now, with webinar mobilizing communities ahead of local elections. The demand is clear: a guaranteed minimum so that no household is left in the dark simply because they can’t pay. Electricity is a right, not a luxury.

Pacific & Caribbean — Communities gathered outside fossil fuel company HQs with banners reading They Profit = We Pay, demanding Australia stop extracting and start paying its fair share for a fossil-free Pacific future.

Action in front of the Melbourne headquarters of BHP & Mitsubishi Alliance (Photo credit: Jacynta Fa’amau / 350.org)

Türkiye —  In Antalya, the host city of the COP31 UN climate talks, campaigners highlighted that the surge in oil and gas prices during the first 60 days of the Iran war has already cost ordinary households and businesses in the country an additional US$3 billion. The Geleceğe Güç Kat campaign is building a movement around community energy — because a just and affordable energy system is not a dream, it’s a plan.

350.org activists in Antalya calling on Türkiye, host of COP31, to lead on global climate action. (Photo credit: 350.org Türkiye)

Canada — A digital action and webinar brought together powerhouse speakers and three concrete ways to demand that oil windfall profits get taxed and returned to Canadian families and communities. Earlier this month, we delivered a petition to authorities demanding a East West grid for clean energy access.

Delivery of 350.org Canada petition with 34,000 signatures demanding public funds for the East West Grid in Ottawa (Photo credit: Kashmiri Kage)

East Africa — A press conference demanding local governments ring-fence budgets for decentralized, affordable clean energy. Because Mustakabali wetu, mikononi mwetu — our future is in our hands.

350.org and partners held a press conference in Nairobi, Kenya.

2026 must be the year of The Great Power Shift.

From fossil fuel corporations to people. From prices that keep rising to clean energy that is stable and affordable. From a system built for the few to one that works for all of us.

The technology is ready. The economics are clear. The justice behind it couldn’t be more obvious. All we need now is the political will — and enough people demanding it loud enough that governments can’t look away.

Sign the petition. Join the movement.

Shift the power →

The post It’s time for The Great Power Shift! appeared first on 350.

Two months ago, everyone was still wondering whether the First Conference for Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels would carry the relevance it promised in Brazil. Would governments around the world care enough to show up after the excitement of COP30 had faded? In a world that seemed to be sinking into new wars with global consequences?

Paradoxically, the escalating aggressions by the United States and Israel in Southwest Asia (Middle East) have shown the world exactly why we need to leave behind our dependence on fossil fuels. Entire communities have been destroyed, families buried under rubble, children killed, livelihoods erased, all in a region whose political fate has been shaped for over a century by the control of oil and gas. People in Palestine, Lebanon, and across the region are paying with their own lives for the world’s thirst for fossil fuels.

These are not abstract arguments. They are the bombs that fall, the blockades that starve, the occupations that endure, all because fossil fuel wealth concentrates power in the hands of those willing to use violence to protect it. Not only do fossil fuels poison our planet, they fuel instability, deepen inequality, and tie our futures to volatile and unjust energy systems. Moving beyond fossil fuels is no longer a distant goal. It is a shared necessity.

The response? Fifty-seven countries representing roughly a third of the global economy came together, signaling that the transition is not only possible but already underway.

But what truly defined this conference was not just who showed up at the governmental level. It was who was finally let in.

Indigenous peoples from around the world, trade unions, youth groups, academics, Afro-descendant communities, peasant associations, women and diverse identities, activists and NGOs, among others, engaged for the first time in a participation mechanism that actually listens to their voices and puts their demands on the table.

And beyond the high-level spaces, communities were building, not just speaking. During both days of the Peoples Summit, 350.org with 32 organizations across Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and the Caribbean Islands a Fair of Alternatives, showing that futures beyond fossil fuels are already here. Community leaders hosted a panel within the Peoples Summit space, and their voices fed into the final declaration.

Frontline communities from all around the world had a voice on the Santa Marta conference

It was no small thing to see Indigenous women leaders from Putumayo and Bolivia connecting over their shared concern about an energy transition being carried out without consultation in their territories, one that threatens to bring extractive models for copper and lithium that would gravely affect their environments and communities. But ready, too, to share models of community energy generation through biodigesters they have built themselves. Because communities around the world have not sat around waiting for their governments to act. They have thought of solutions and carried them out.

That same spirit drove the Popular Assemblies we co-organized in three territories in Colombia and Ecuador, where affected communities named the crisis in their own terms. Two of the communities that led these Assemblies — Cesar sin Fracking and Alianza Libre de Fracking — attended the high-level Conference, including Yuvelis Morales Blanco, now a winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize. 350.org also held an organizing space toward a common Latin American campaign against fracking and LNG with leaders from Colombia, Argentina and Mexico.

These connections between communities were perhaps the most powerful thread running through the conference. Activists from across the world linked militarization and the climate crisis in a country with more than 60 years of armed conflict, where multinationals like Glencore and Drummond have used armed groups to displace and kill local communities, seize their lands and waters, and leave surrounding populations in misery and fear. The Climate Justice Flotilla traveled across Caribbean islands still under Dutch colonial rule to bring their voices to this space — possibly the first time Aruba and Curacao had representation at a conference like this, even as the Netherlands, their colonial power, co-hosted while opposing a fossil fuel transition treaty.

During the Santa Marta conference, activists and local communities blocked the entrance of one of the main coal ports in Latin America.

It was also no small thing to see these same activists blockade one of the largest coal ports in Latin America with solar panels — Drummond’s port in Ciénaga. The action put the demands of affected communities front and centre: making polluters pay for the loss of land, biodiversity and life, and the need for a just transition. For local communities, doing something like this would mean enormous security risks — just weeks earlier, armed groups had kidnapped 25 fishermen from the community most affected by Drummond. But these young people from around the world used their foreign origins as a kind of shield, standing in solidarity with the communities of Ciénaga, Santa Marta, and all of Colombia affected by this multinational. Those same solar panels used in this action will now go to the communities most harmed by that coal port.

So what did governments actually deliver?

Let’s be clear: they could have been far more ambitious. The world is on fire, sometimes literally, and the political outcomes of this conference reflect cautious, small steps that do not match the urgency communities are living every day.

Governments from 57 countries meet at the First Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels Conference, in Colombia

That said, the fact that this conference happened at all, that it finally named fossil fuels as the root cause of climate chaos and created a dedicated space to address them outside of the pressures of formal COP negotiations, is itself a significant victory. Five concrete outcomes came out of the high-level segment:

1. Continuity. A second conference has been announced for 2027, co-hosted by Tuvalu and Ireland, with the main event taking place in Tuvalu. And who better than our brothers and sisters from the Pacific nations, on the frontlines of climate chaos, to carry forward what started in Santa Marta and remind the world of the urgency?
2. A coordination group has been established to ensure continuity between conferences, bringing together countries leading different alliances and initiatives on the fossil fuel transition, including the co-hosts of the first and second conferences.
3. The outcomes will be handed over to the COP30 Presidency, shared ahead of the intersessional meetings in Bonn this June and formally presented at London Climate Action Week, with plans to bring them to the UN Secretary-General during New York Climate Week. The intention is to feed these results into the second Global Stocktake, making sure this process does not live in isolation from the UNFCCC.
4. Three workstreams have been launched to identify concrete opportunities for cooperation: one focused on national roadmaps guided by the Science Panel, another on economic dependencies and financial architecture, and a third on aligning fossil fuel producers and consumers toward trade systems free of fossil fuels. These workstreams will remain open for countries to join or lead.
5. A Science Panel for the Global Energy Transition will anchor the entire process in evidence rather than politics. Academics and scientists from around the world joined forces to ensure that science guides the process of leaving fossil fuels behind, and to help countries develop roadmaps aligned with the 1.5°C trajectory and to dismantle the legal, financial, and political barriers standing in the way.

Are these outcomes enough? No. Are they the kind of bold, binding commitments that the scale of the crisis demands? Not even close. But in a world where the largest historical emitter has abandoned climate action entirely, where wars rage over the very resources we need to leave behind, the fact that 57 countries sat down, opened the doors to movements and communities, and committed to a sustained process is not nothing. It is the floor, not the ceiling, and it is up to all of us to push it higher.

Communities everywhere will keep building the solutions their governments have been too slow to deliver. And the rest of us? We stay loud, stay connected, and keep showing up, because the transition has already begun, and it was never going to be led from the top.

Because if this conference showed anything, it is that the transition is not only about energy systems. It is about power. The power of who gets to decide. Who benefits. Who is heard. And for perhaps the first time at this scale, the answer is beginning to shift.

The Great Power Shift has started. Join us!

The post Santa Marta was just the beginning appeared first on 350.

This is a guest blog by Nicole Pita, Programme Manager at IPES-Food, the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, a global think tank and expert group guiding action for sustainable food systems around the world.

If you’ve been feeling like your grocery bills keep climbing, you’re not alone. In the United States, families are paying nearly 25% more for food than they did in 2020. In Germany, food costs 43% more than five years ago, while in Mexico and Brazil prices have jumped 42% and 50%. Now experts are warning of a looming food price crisis as a result of the global energy price spikes triggered by the US and Israeli war on Iran. 

Why is this happening? Ultimately, it’s because our food systems run on fossil fuels, and every time there’s a crisis – a pandemic, a war, a drought – we all pay the price. At the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) we have outlined this in our report, Fuel to Fork. 

Food systems consume 15% of global fossil fuels. Source: Global Alliance for the Future of Food. (2023). Power shift: Why we need to wean industrial food systems off fossil fuel.

How is our food connected to fossil fuels?

Food systems consume 15% of all fossil fuels globally. From chemical fertilizers and diesel tractors to long-distance transport and cooking gas, fossil fuels power every step of producing, processing, and consuming food. When oil and gas prices spike, food prices follow. 

Food, fertilizer and fossil energy prices are deeply interlinked.
Source: Levi, IMF Primary Commodity Price Index.

This fossil fuel dependence creates a triple threat. First, it makes food vulnerable to oil price spikes. Second, it drives climate breakdown, causing droughts and floods that destroy harvests. Third, a handful of corporations control the system and profit enormously every time there’s a crisis. 

This isn’t a new problem, but it’s getting worse. During the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions pushed food prices up. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, energy, fertilizer, and wheat prices soared, driving grocery bills higher. Each time, pushing millions of people into hunger, especially in the world’s poorest and most vulnerable regions.

Now, as war erupts in the Persian Gulf, it’s happening again. Global oil and fertilizer prices have increased by 50% since the war began. Food prices haven’t spiked yet – but they will. One-third of crude oil and one-third of fertilizers all normally pass through shipping routes now blocked by the conflict. Even if the war ended tomorrow, it would take months for supply chains to recover. 

The shocks of COVID and the Ukraine war accounted for nearly half of all grocery price increases in the US and 35% of price increases in the EU over the past five years. During 2021-2022 alone, 45 million more people went hungry because they couldn’t afford food.

There’s another reason food keeps getting more expensive: the fossil-fueled climate crisis. Droughts in the US Midwest and Canada destroyed harvests in 2022. Floods in India and South Asia pushed up rice prices in 2023 and 2025. The climate crisis is affecting crop production itself, making food harder to grow. The irony is that food systems produce one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions, making them both a victim and a driver of the crisis.

A carefully designed system built to stay dependent on fossil fuels

Fossil fuel dependence in food systems didn’t happen by accident. Governments and funding institutions pushed farmers toward growing commodity crops for export using chemical fertilizers made from fossil fuels. Today, governments spend close to $800 billion per year supporting this chemical-intensive agriculture, while sustainable farming gets only a fraction of that support. 

And corporate lobbyists are spending hundreds of millions to keep it that way. In Europe alone they spend at least €343 million per year on lobbying – with fossil fuel and agribusiness firms increasing their spending since 2020. Companies like Shell and Bayer follow the same playbook: delay action, weaken regulations, protect profits. 

This fossil fuel-dependent system ends up being incredibly profitable for a few corporations. Just a handful of corporations control how food is produced, transported, and sold. They set the prices and we have no choice but to pay them. And when crises hit, they exploit the chaos.

During COVID and the Ukraine war, the largest fertilizer companies hiked prices far beyond their actual costs. Grain traders, food manufacturers, and retailers did the same. In the US, corporate profiteering accounted for 54% of food price increases between 2020 and 2021. During a food price crisis, while families struggled to afford food, these corporations posted record earnings.

These three problems feed each other. Fossil fuel dependence creates vulnerability to shocks. Climate chaos makes food scarce. And corporate concentration lets companies exploit both for profit. Breaking this cycle means completely reconfiguring the way we grow, process, and consume food.

A better, more affordable food system is already taking root

Another food system is possible – one that’s resilient to shocks, protects the climate, and works for people instead of corporate profits. Across the world – from Cuba to India to France – millions of farmers have already transitioned to agroecology, sustainable farming that doesn’t depend on fossil fuels or chemical inputs. These farmers build fertility naturally by planting beans that enrich soil, rotating crops, and composting waste instead of buying chemicals. Studies show these farms match or exceed conventional yields, can be profitable for farmers, and feed communities better. 

The transition takes time and farmers need support, but it makes farming systems more resilient rather than vulnerable to price shocks. It’s also clearly needed as part of the fight to tackle the climate crisis. 

The solutions exist, what’s missing is the political will. Governments have the tools to make food affordable right now while building a better food system for the future. Here’s what must happen:

• Tax the corporations that profit from crises. Windfall taxes on fossil fuel and agribusiness firms could immediately bring down costs for consumers and farmers.
• End the subsidies that keep us locked into dependence. Stop giving billions to fossil fuel corporations and chemical-intensive agriculture. Redirect that money to renewable energy and sustainable farming.
• Invest in local and regional food systems that don’t depend on long, fragile supply chains vulnerable to shocks, as outlined in our IPES-Food report Food from Somewhere. 

If we want to stabilize food prices, we have to break food’s dependence on fossil fuels. Otherwise, every new crisis will keep showing up at the checkout.

Ending fossil fuel addiction isn’t just about climate – it’s about making food affordable.

Governments won’t change course unless we demand it. Tell your leaders: End fossil fuel subsidies and tax polluters. Invest in renewable energy and sustainable, chemical-free farming. 

The post Out of Pocket: the real cost of fossil fuels on our groceries appeared first on 350.

The wars being waged right now in Iran, Lebanon, Palestine and Ukraine are not abstract. They are children pulled from collapsed buildings. They are families who fled their homes carrying nothing. They are entire neighborhoods reduced to dust by weapons manufactured far away, financed by governments that call themselves defenders of democracy. 

Ceasefires come and go, are announced and broken. But ceasefires are not peace – they are pauses in the same ongoing violence. What we are demanding is something far more urgent, far more real: a complete and permanent end to these wars.

As someone born and raised in Puerto Rico, an island that knows what it means to live under the shadow of militarization, colonial extraction, and disaster without accountability, I feel a deep, bone-level solidarity with the people of Palestine, Lebanon, Iran and Ukraine. We may be separated by oceans and languages, but we share the same wound: the wound of being considered expendable by empires that never asked for our consent.

The people of Iran, Lebanon, Palestine, Ukraine and other war zones are not symbols or numbers. They are neighbors, parents, scientists, teachers, humans with lives and dreams. Their suffering demands that governments act, that arms supplies stop, and that the international community treat civilian life as non-negotiable – wherever those lives are lived.

Here in Puerto Rico, I learned that when the hurricane comes, whether it is María or military occupation or economic austerity, it is always the women, the children, and the poor who suffer most. The same is true in all of Palestine, in southern Lebanon, in Iranian cities and Ukrainian villages. And when the fighting drives up food prices and energy costs worldwide, it is working people, families already in debt, communities already stretched thin, who absorb that blow. 

This is the deal we were never asked about. That’s enough. Governments must stop hiding behind strategic interests and geopolitical calculations and start protecting the people whose lives hang in the balance. A permanent end to these wars is not a radical demand. It is the bare minimum of human decency.

Solidarity is not sympathy from a distance. It is the recognition that our struggles are connected, that no one is free while others are bombed into hunger and displacement. From Bayamón to Beirut, from San Juan to Kyiv, we stand together in demanding what should never have been in question: peace, dignity, and the right to a future.

Join the global call at https://350.org/they-profit-we-pay-fix-it-now/

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