Our history Campaigning since 1971

Our first action was to return thousands of empty bottles to the London HQ of Cadbury Schweppes, to promote re-use and better use of the planet's resources. It set the tone for a peaceful and effective style of campaigning.

Friends of the Earth's first public meeting was held in the back room of a department store. Here, administrator Anfel Potter (centre) displays some of our first campaigning materials.

Demonstrators blockade a drilling team that plans to investigate whether Fulbeck airfield in Lincolnshire could be used for the shallow burial of nuclear waste in 1987. The plans were abandoned before the June General Election later that year.

Our grassroots groups fight planet-wrecking projects and protect their local environment in many ways. Here, members of Halton Friends of the Earth take samples of river water from the Mersey for pollution testing in 1991.

Roadbuilding through Twyford Down sparked a struggle over the right to protest. Tony Juniper, here at the Twyford Mass Trespass in 1993, went on to become Friends of the Earth's director from 2002-2008.

In 1994, we used a series of billboards to highlight the problem of acid rain. Leading the UK's first campaign on acid rain, we persuaded the government to accept the need to cut the emissions responsible.

Local communities campaigned together in 1996 to oppose the construction of the Newbury Bypass, a road that cut through five nationally important wild habitats. The campaign helped force a major rethink of government roadbuilding plans.

Comedian Ben Elton (centre) joins a 1997 rally to tackle the impacts of increased traffic. Drafted and promoted by Friends of the Earth, the Green Party and Plaid Cymru, the Road Traffic Reduction Act became law in 1997.

To mark our 25th year we helped launch "Art on the Buses", a moving exhibition aimed at raising awareness of the climate crisis. Poet Lemn Sissay (pictured) was one of the participating artists.

In the late 90s we worked with Age Concern and others to press for an end to poorly insulated homes. The Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act was passed in 2000.

In 2002 we worked with community groups across South Africa to create an installation outside the Johannesburg Earth Summit. The mixed-media sculpture highlighted the need to prioritise a healthy environment ahead of business profit.

Together with our incredible grassroots groups, we led the campaign to bring doorstep recycling to every home. MP Joan Ruddock introduced our House Waste and Recycling Bill to parliament, and it became law in 2003.

In 2003, we joined Kurdish human rights organisations to protest the use of UK taxpayers' money to fund a proposed pipeline from the Caspian Sea. The pipeline threatened to reignite conflicts, threaten pollution and accelerate global warming.

In the early 2000s we joined others in calling for GM-free food and farming. Our campaigning helped halt commercial planting of GM crops, keep GM foods off supermarket shelves and prompt local authorities to declare themselves GM free.

A lot of our work centres on highlighting global injustice and ensuring a safer, fairer world for all. In 2005, we united with thousands at the Make Poverty History rally where our calls for debt cancellation and more aid were met with global action.

Our grassroots network has helped protect multiple green spaces across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. After nearly two decades of campaigning, the South Downs was designated a National Park in 2009.

Campaigning tactics like the "commoote" in 2010 helped us highlight the link between rainforest destruction in South America and livestock feeds in the UK. Within months, the government acknowledged the need for action to make livestock farming more sustainable.

In 2012 we won our legal challenge against the government’s plans to close down most of the hugely successful feed-in tariff (FIT) schemes. Their plans threatened Britain’s booming new solar industry and put 30,000 recently-created jobs at risk. 

In June 2013 we parked a billboard in David Cameron's constituency of Witney, Oxfordshire in June 2013. It displayed the names of 10,000 people calling on the then-PM to save British bees by drawing up a National Bee Action Plan.

Exclusive footage of a mother and a baby beaver in 2014 helped us ramp up support to keep England's first wild beavers in centuries in the wild.

Stoneydown Park Primary School took gold in our national competition to win free solar panels with a video of solar-powered inventions by children. It was a message to ministers that every school should be given the resources to run on sun.

Our Clean Air Kits sold out in hours as hundreds took part in our national air pollution investigation. The kits, launched in September 2016, helped people all over the country research air pollution where they live.

After seven years of campaigning alongside groups and MPs like Glenda Jackson, new legislation was introduced making it illegal to rent out properties that don't meet a minimum energy efficiency standard – a win for people and planet.

In 2018, years of campaigning and public pressure was greeted by a permanent EU-wide ban (including the UK) on three neonicotinoids, a type of pesticide that harms bees and other wildlife.

The campaign to prevent a new coal mine in Nant Llesg ended in victory for the local community after the Planning Inspectorate ruled the mining company hadn't responded to appeal requests in time, paving the way for a fossil-free future for Wales.

In 2018, Oxford Friends of Earth worked with local group Save Otmoor to successfully protect Otmoor wetlands in Oxfordshire from a proposed expressway. It was the second time in 40 years the wetland had been saved from destruction. 

After 30 years of campaigning by Friends of the Earth Cymru and local groups, the M4 relief road was finally rejected. Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford ruled against the new road on cost and environmental grounds.

In 2020 with your support, we scored a huge victory for the planet alongside West London local groups when the Court of Appeal agreed that plans to build a third runway at Heathrow were illegal. But it's not over yet... read more.

Coal campaigners and Save Druridge local group secured a hard-fought win in 2020 after Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick refused planning permission  for a controversial opencast coal mine, deeming it "environmentally unacceptable". 

Thanks to tireless campaigning from our groups, by 2022 the majority of councils across England, Wales and Northern Ireland had adopted Climate Action Plans. This means climate is firmly on the agenda for most local authorities.

In 2022 Northern Ireland passed its Climate Change Act. In partnership with the Climate Coalition, we were pivotal in the creation of this new law. And it's one of the first climate laws in the world to specifically recognise the role that gender plays in climate justice. Watch our film about what happened behind the scenes.

In 2022 we successfully challenged the government in court over its climate plan. It had to revise its strategy to lay out a credible plan for meeting emissions targets. But it still wasn't good enough, so we took the government to court again... and won, again! In May 2024, we defeated the government in the High Court over its unlawful climate plan.

Ffos y Fran, the UK’s largest opencast coal mine, is set to close after councillors rejected the operator’s application to continue mining until March 2024. Local communities have been campaigning for decades and will continue to ensure the mining stops and the site is restored.