The ‘war’ between climate activists and fossil fuel lobbyists has intensified over the past few years and is heating up ahead of the annual United Nations climate summit.

Climate activism involves a wide range of diverse actions aimed at raising awareness, advocating for policy changes, and promoting individual and collective efforts to address the climate crisis confronting nature and humanity.

Climate activists are the offspring of the climate movement, a global social movement focused on pressuring governments and industry to take action (also called climate action), to address the causes and impacts of climate change.

Nations are gearing up for the landmark UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) to be held this November in the Amazon Forest city of Belém in Brazil, as this war turns out to be the hottest political issue across the globe amid the climate crisis.

Though not a literal war, this is a rather prolonged struggle where climate activists are calling out the influence of fossil fuel-producing countries, companies and their representatives, while these groups defend their interests and often seek to undermine climate action.

Legal warfare

Nearly 40 years of human effort have failed even to slow climate change, let alone reverse it. In his classic book Climate Insurgency, on the war between climate activists and fossil fuel lobbyists, Jeremy Beecher lays out a strategy for protecting the earth’s climate – a global nonviolent constitutional insurgency.

Beecher, a historian and longtime climate activist, starts his book on a strategy for survival with a brief history of official climate protection efforts “from above”, and non-governmental ones “from below” that explains why climate protection has failed so far.

Then, it proposes a global nonviolent insurgency for climate protection to overcome that failure. Beecher, who has been writing about climate protection strategy since 1988, presents a public trust doctrine that can legitimise global climate insurgency in national and international law.

He shows how to make national economies climate-safe and points the way toward justly distributing the global costs and benefits of climate protection. More importantly, he lays out a new strategy to make governments and economies meet their obligations towards protection of the climate.

The war between climate activists and fossil fuel lobbyists has also opened a critical legal battlefront. After years of indefatigable campaigning for environmental justice, some of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations finally had their day in court.

Countries and key stakeholders in the climate arena are eagerly awaiting the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) after hearings on the obligations of states in respect of climate change that started last December. Litigants want the ICJ to clarify what countries must do to address climate change, and what legal repercussions they should face if they don’t and “significant harm” is caused.

Vulnerable countries took their battle to The Hague, fed up with zig-zagging the world to get justice from climate summits (COPs), usually coming away bitterly disappointed. At the ICJ, high-emitting rich nations shield behind the very same climate treaties underpinning those talks to quash pressure to step up their climate actions,

Recent years have seen an increase in not only climate-related court cases, but also a deeper engagement of legal scholars and judicial bodies with matters related to the environment more generally. Children, elderly women, and non-governmental organizations have gone to court to bring cases about enhanced climate action.

What is environmental justice (EJ)? The UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council recognised the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable development in 2022 and 2021, respectively. UNDP has developed a global strategy for EJ to increase accountability and protection of environmental rights.

Environmental justice is a social movement and a set of principles that aim to ensure all people have access to a healthy environment and equal protection from environmental hazards.

Four-legged push

Climate activists have filed lawsuits against fossil fuel companies, arguing that they are liable for the damage caused by climate change. In essence, the conflict is about who gets to shape the future of our planet, and whether fossil fuel companies’ interests will continue to outweigh the need for urgent climate action

The climate activists have four distinct positions. First, they demand for fossil fuel phase-out, advocating for a rapid and complete transition away from fossil fuels and arguing that they are the primary cause of climate change and its devastating impacts.

Second, by targeting lobbying efforts, they aim to expose and counter the influence of fossil fuel companies and their lobbyists working to block or delay climate action. Third, they highlight corporate greenwashing by criticising companies for engaging in deceptive practices to project a positive image while continuing to invest in fossil fuels.

Fourth, climate activists mobilise public support by organising protests, campaigns and other forms of activism to raise awareness and pressure governments to take stronger action on climate change.

Fossil fuel lobbyists’ positions are diametrically opposed to those of the climate activists. Principally, they involve the defence of the status quo. They often argue that fossil fuels are still necessary for energy security and economic development, particularly for developing countries. The fossil fuel lobbyists advocate for gradual transition.

They may support gradual steps towards cleaner energy, but resist calls for a complete phase-out of fossil fuels. By questioning the science of climate change, some groups deny or downplay the severity of climate change, or question the effectiveness of climate action.

Inclusive activism

In seeking government support, lobbyists work to influence government policies and regulations that favour fossil fuel industries, such as through tax breaks and subsidies.

Examples of the “war” or conflict between climate activists and fossil fuel lobbyists intensify at annual UN climate summits, as happened in 2022 at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, 2023 at COP28 in Dubai, UAE, and last year’s COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, heading to this year’s COP30 in Brazil.

Activists often target these COPs, where governments negotiate climate agreements, to expose fossil fuel lobbying and pressure governments to take stronger action. Through corporate activism, groups also target companies that invest in fossil fuels, demanding that they divest or change their policies.

Citizens and environmental non-profits have engaged in significant climate activism from the 1980s and 1990s, as they sought to influence the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). Climate activism has become increasingly prominent since the 2009 Copenhagen Summit and the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2016.

Environmental organisations take various actions, including People’s Climate Marches, and the global climate strike in September 2019 organised by Fridays For Future and Earth Strike, to influence the UN-organised climate action summit. Four million people participated in the strike.

Youth activism and involvement have played an important part in the evolution of the movement after the strikes started by Greta Thunberg in 2019, when Extinction Rebellion organised large protests demanding to “reduce carbon emissions to zero by 2025 and create a citizens’ assembly to oversee progress”, including blocking roads.

The activism encompasses various strategies, from grassroots movements and protests, to legal challenges and technological innovations, all striving to compel governments and corporations to take action.