2024 wins: 10 reasons to celebrate people power

We can’t really talk about 2024 without acknowledging how difficult it was. We faced far-right riots here in the UK, and the imminent return of a climate crisis denier to the White House in the US. And in Gaza, people continue to face bombardment and displacement, including our colleagues at PENGON/ Friends of the Earth Palestine.

But with the help of our supporters, partners, communities and network of local action groups, we’ve achieved some amazing wins.

1. Incredible legal wins

One thing that sets us apart is our unwavering fight to protect the planet. In 2024 we demonstrated the power of persistence, showing decision-makers that we won’t give up without a fight. And we saw some incredible successes, winning legal battle after legal battle in courts across the country.

Helped stop oil drilling in Surrey

We went to the highest court in the country, the Supreme Court, to support community campaigners the Weald Action Group in their challenge to Surrey County Council's decision to allow drilling for oil at Horse Hill. The Supreme Court delivered a landmark judgment that the council acted unlawfully by granting planning permission for oil production without considering the climate impacts from when the oil is inevitably burnt. The victory has big implications for other proposed new fossil fuel sites, as the full climate consequences can no longer be ignored.

Quashed planning permission for a new coal mine

The victory in Surrey helped us win another case: overturning planning permission for a new deep coal mine in Whitehaven, Cumbria. In a stunning victory, our legal challenge opposing the mine was successful on all grounds. What’s more, the company behind the plans to build the new coal mine didn’t lodge an appeal against the decision.

Helped ban all new coal mine developments

And in November, it seems the government sealed the fate of any future development by announcing that the UK would become one of the first countries in the world to ban new coal mines.

Demanded a stronger and fairer climate plan

For the second time, we proved the government’s climate plan to cut emissions wasn’t good enough, meaning it must now write a stronger, fairer plan.

We took the previous government to court in 2022 because its original climate plan was weak. The court ruled in our favour and ordered the government to produce a new plan by March 2023. But this was still inadequate, so we went to court for a second time – and won again in May 2024. This most recent court victory means that the new UK government is legally obliged to write a new climate plan by May 2025.

2. Campaigns with lasting impact, backed by research

Our campaign, Release our wind, highlighted the huge potential to release the immense power of the sun and wind at onshore sites across England. This would generate 13 times more renewable energy than we do currently from onshore wind and solar. 

We showed decision-makers the evidence through our research, and many of you backed our call to ramp up renewables, with tens of thousands of you signing our petition. We made clear that expanding our use of renewables should be a priority, and that measures need to be put in place to ensure new generating capacity is built, including lifting planning restrictions. In 2024 the new government announced that it would lift restrictions on onshore wind farms – something we demanded with our campaign.

3. Representing communities most vulnerable to climate change

We worked alongside disability rights activists and coastal communities to challenge the government’s inadequate national adaptation plan at the High Court.

4. Transforming communities into nature havens

Our Postcode Gardeners worked with communities across 14 projects around the country to green our streets and bring back nature. Postcode Gardeners bring communities together, transforming streets and front gardens into vibrant spaces for flowers, food and wildlife, while also sharing skills to create greener, more connected neighbourhoods.

5. Fighting fossil fuels in Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland, communities fought off 3 new fossil fuel projects with Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland, the only NGO standing alongside them.

One of these campaigns, backed by crowdfunding from supporters like you, was No Gas Caverns and Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland's legal action to stop massive gas storage caverns being built under the sea bed in Larne Lough. We went to the High Court and then to the Court of Appeal, with the support of thousands of people across these islands.

In June 2024 the Court of Appeal handed down its judgment over the plans to construct these damaging caverns. The outcome was a unanimous decision made by 3 judges to stop the development, and the marine licences were quashed.

6. Celebrating 40 years of climate and nature action in Wales

Friends of the Earth Cymru celebrated 40 years of fighting for climate and nature in Wales.

Over the past 40 years, Friends of the Earth Cymru has helped make Wales a greener and a fairer place, thanks to local groups, supporters and everyone else we’ve worked with.

7. Our local action and youth groups mobilising time and time again

As ever, our network of local action groups has been the backbone of our campaigning and wins. Highlights include taking part in a nationwide Day of Action demanding a strong and fair climate plan, lobbying MPs to ensure climate and nature were priorities in the election and beyond, and taking local action with huge global impact – like Sarah Finch, local action group member, who led the landmark Horse Hill oil case.

Our youth activists were also incredible this year. A highlight includes young activists from Milieudefensie/ Friends of the Earth Netherlands and our Climate. Youth. Society. programme attending Unilever's AGM to demand answers from the board about environmental and human rights abuses in the company's global supply chains.

8. Taking to the streets to demand climate justice

Over and over again, we took to the streets demanding climate justice, clean rivers and seas, a ceasefire in Gaza and justice for Indigenous communities, and to stand up to racism. We remain united against fear, division and hatred and will continue to stand up for climate and social justice.

9. An end to fracking in Northern Ireland

Hot off the press! In a dramatic shift for climate policy and climate law, the Northen Ireland Executive has just announced that it’ll introduce legislation in 2025 to put an end to fracking in Northern Ireland.

This victory is thanks to community power, including a rally by 10,000 farmers, fishers and the wider local community against fracking in Fermanagh, and thousands of people lobbying politicians with legal and policy evidence. Local people demonstrated they’d go to enormous lengths to protect the places where they live.

10. Challenging unjust climate protest sentences

To give you a taster of what we’ve got in store for 2025, we’ve just announced we'll support the sentencing appeal of 5 climate protesters jailed for up to 5 years, as we seek to overturn their sentences alongside Greenpeace UK.

Peaceful, non-violent protest has long been a powerful tool for change, driving movements from women’s suffrage to civil rights. We’re urging the Labour government to repeal the raft of regressive anti-protest legislation ushered in by the former administration and restore the UK’s proud tradition of supporting peaceful activism.

2025 will be a crucial year in our fight for the future. Want to help support us?