Fund Our Future: End the finance flows fueling the climate crisis
We are in a climate emergency.
The climate crisis threatens the lives of at least two out of five people globally (according to the IPCC’s 2023 Climate Change Report), with between 3.3 to 3.6 billion people living in areas that are highly vulnerable to climate change.
United Nations' Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has warned, “Half of humanity is in the danger zone.”
Industrial agriculture and fossil fuel projects funded by private and public finance are driving harmful emissions and local rights violations. These emissions are in turn fuelling climate-change induced emergencies across the world.
What can we do to turn the tide?
ActionAid has launched a global climate campaign, Fund Our Future, with more than 70 ActionAid offices – including ActionAid Arab Region (AAAR) – and hundreds of allies around the world. The movement calls for investors that are still piling money into fossil fuels and industrial agriculture in the Global South to divest from these harmful activities.
This youth-led movement demands that banks’ loans and financing stop doing harm, and for public money to be put to real good by investing in renewable energy and agroecological solutions that promote food security and social justice.
The escalating climate crisis is spreading further. We have a chance to join together to demand action for climate justice. Let's stop funding destruction, now. And begin to #FundOurFuture
Why is #FundOurFuture focused on banks?
The fossil fuels industry is the biggest contributor of global greenhouse gas emissions which are fuelling the climate crisis; industrial agriculture comes in second place.
What do banks have to do with this? They are accelerating the climate crisis by providing industrial agriculture and fossil fuel companies with finance for their expansion.
Phasing out fossil fuels and transitioning to clean energy is essential to meeting the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees, together with shifting away from destructive agricultural practices.
So what are the alternatives?
To create a more sustainable power system, the alternative to fossil fuels is renewable energy – but this transition is not without its challenges.
ActionAid demands a just transition, without harm to communities from land grabs or unsafe working conditions. To ensure that the shift to greener pathways avoids harming communities they must be guided by four key principles:
- They must address – and not exacerbate – inequality
- They must transform systems to work for people, nature and the climate
- They must ensure inclusiveness and participation
- They must develop comprehensive frameworks to support communities to make those shifts.
A sustainable alternative to industrial is agroecology – a way of farming and managing crops, livestock, forests and fisheries that is viable, long-lasting, resilient to climate change, and offers other environmental, social and cultural benefits such as addressing food and water scarcity, gender inequality and poverty.
While industrial agriculture looms large in our headlines, it’s encouraging to know that smallholder farmers produce around 70% of the food eaten by people. Fund Our Future demands that their voices are heard.
What can you do?
When faced with a global crisis, knowing that climate change is escalating while the world’s financing flows in the wrong direction, what can one person – perhaps the very person reading this article – do?
Join the growing community of people around the world already lending their voices, expertise, passion and cumulative power to this campaign.
- Banks must be told by the people to divest from the problems.
- We have solutions in renewables and agroecology that can turn the tide.
- We must support women and young people who are leading the call for a better future.
Sign the petition and join us as we demand action for climate justice. Let's stop funding destruction. And begin to #FundOurFuture.
