The last year has demanded more from all of us — more resilience, more innovation, more courage, more solidarity. In 2017, your support helped us…
Tackle Plastic Pollution at its Source
Our newly launched Fueling Plastics initiative is highlighting the deep links between plastics and fossil fuels, the primary chemical feedstock in over 99% of plastics. We are working to expose the nearly invisible role of fossil fuel companies in the plastics crisis — and stop the lock-in of investment in new plastic production before it’s too late. Read more.
Advance Climate Justice Worldwide
Climate litigation is no longer on the horizon. It is here. CIEL is supporting climate accountability cases across the country and around the world. From the youth plaintiffs in Juliana v. United States, to communities in the Philippines, to activists questioning Norway’s Arctic drilling, to indigenous activists and campesinos fighting shale gas in Argentina, accountability is coming for actors in the fossil fuel industry who bear the most responsibility for the climate crisis. Read more.
Curb the Amazon’s Illegal Timber Trade
CIEL has helped connect evidence of rampant illegal logging collected by Peruvian forest inspectors with legal tools to stop Peru’s illegal timber exports, which are driving deforestation. The resulting seizures and destruction of Peruvian timber imports, as well as the recent exclusion of a major Peruvian timber exporter from the US, are shrinking the market for Peru’s logging mafia worldwide. Read more.
Fight Toxic Discrimination
Dutch and Belgian companies are selling toxic fuel to West Africa with levels of sulfur and benzene well over the legal limit in Europe. CIEL’s research equipped campaigners with legal arguments demonstrating these exports violate international law and proving why both countries should immediately end this illegal and discriminatory trade. Read more.
Hold Corporations Accountable
This year, negotiations began on a new binding treaty to hold transnational corporations accountable for their human rights and environmental abuses, no matter where they occur. CIEL is working to ensure the treaty requires governments and corporations alike to respect human rights. Read more.
Defend Colombians’ Right to Water
After the highest court in Colombia upheld a mining ban in the country’s páramo ecosystems, Eco Oro mining company announced that it would sue Colombia using a secretive investment tribunal. On the eve of an important shareholder vote, CIEL and Colombian partners staged binational protests outside the offices of the IFC (the World Bank’s private lending arm) in Bogotá and Washington, DC. In an important victory, the IFC divested from the project. Read more.
Shift Trillions in Investment Away From Fossil Fuels
Our Trillion Dollar Transformation initiative, which exposes the financial and legal reasons for pension fund trustees to consider climate risk, has reached money managers with over $9 trillion in assets under management; pushed local and state pension funds to consider climate risk and openly report on it; and provided grassroots groups with new and powerful tools to convince decision makers to divest. Read more.
Dismantle a Flawed Chilean Hydro Project
After exposing the banks responsible for a destructive hydroelectric power project on Chile’s Maipo River, CIEL supported local groups in filing complaints on the global stage. Now, with massive public opposition, repeated cost overruns, withdrawals by principal investors, and the deaths of two workers, the project is floundering and banks are scrambling to do damage control. Read more.
Make Trade Deals Safer
CIEL has helped inform, equip, and mobilize people to oppose trade deals that prioritize corporate interests and threaten our health and environment. Last year, we helped stop the US-EU trade deal (known as TTIP) and halted the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Read more.
Close Loopholes for Toxics
When the European Commission proposed new rules that would undermine Europe’s ban on toxic endocrine disrupting chemicals, CIEL’s team undertook a series of analyses to prove the loopholes were illegal. Our work convinced the EU Parliament to vote against the proposal and defend the rule of law, public health, and the environment. Read more.
To learn more about this year’s accomplishments, read our 2017 Impact Report.
This last year is evidence that we cannot back down now; the stakes are far too high. CIEL is a vital partner in this fight. And so are you. Together, we will use the power of the law to hold corporations accountable, defend human rights, and protect the health of people and the planet in the upcoming year.
Please consider making a tax-deductible end-of-year donation to CIEL. Your gift makes you an essential part of this effort and an indispensable part of our community. Your support allows us to continue this important work. And it is through your generosity, power, and resilience that we will continue to move forward, together.