Unleashing the Arsenal Against Fossil Fuels: A Battle Plan
Methods and Approaches to Limit Fossil Fuel Production
This battle report from the Social Change Basecamp sheds light on the current battle tactics confronting the expansion of fossil fuels, and it identifies what's really working. The key findings are there's more than one viable route in this fight, and the greatest victories often stem from a harmonious blend of diverse approaches.
Waging the war against fossil fuels is a multi-faceted battle, featuring everything from frontline blockades to courtroom battles. The report examines 16 different tactics, ranging from consumer boycotts to cultural interventions. Some methods are loud and disruptive; others are technical, slow-moving, and covert. Yet, all aim to exert pressure - financial, legal, social, or reputational - on the fossil fuel industry and its accomplices.
The variety of these tactics is an asset. It means that people with distinct skills, values, and risk profiles can fight. You don't need to be willing to get arrested. You may be a lawyer, an artist, a data analyst, a union organizer, a journalist, or a trustee.
Three Pivotal Battlefronts
Although the tactics currently being waged are diverse, they can be classified within one of three dominant theories of warfare:
- Draining the Resources Targeting the financial, insurance, and investing sectors to diminish the profitability of fossil fuels.
- Erratic Allies Attacking the legitimacy and cultural acceptance of the industry to sow discord.
- Legal Battle Cry Mobilizing the law and political frameworks to constrict the industry and safeguard those who challenge it.
These strategies don't compete; they complement one another. The most substantial wins typically occur when multiple tactics are deployed simultaneously, assaulting from multiple directions at once. In the report, we delve deeper into a notably promising approach: antagonizing insurance companies.
Battle Plan for Change Agents
This report is designed to empower both activists and funders by offering a comprehensive understanding of effective interventions. It provides a structured overview of methods, outcomes, and contextual factors, drawing on evidence from historical successes and similar campaigns against parallel targets.
This report does not prescribe a one-size-fits-all approach, but it does offer a strategic playbook based on evidence, analysis, and real-world campaigning experience.
For Activists, the assignment is choosing your weapons. Whether through launching legal challenges, creating communications strategies, or building local power, every skillset has a crucial role to play. The most effective campaigns are those that integrate across roles, share intelligence, and amplify one another.
For Funders, the message is investing resources where they count. That means targeting pressure points like insurance, regulation, and finance but also funding the resources that keep movements together. Finance the infrastructure. Fund the legal support, the conveners, the translators, the bail funds, the coordinators. Fund the work that isn't showy but makes everything else possible.
Key Messages
- Victories in the Past Determined, strategic actors have managed to dismantle harmful industries in the past, such as tobacco and apartheid. Those fighting the fossil fuel era can learn from history.
- Smartening Up New pressure points (like legal maneuvers) and bolder demands (like ad bans) are yielding dividends. However, there's still a lack of clear evidence about what truly works.
- Multi-dimensional Warfare Successful movements employ a mix of methods: protests, litigation, lobbying, financial pressure, and coalition-building. Nothing works alone. That's why we encourage campaigns that unite various frontline communities, lawyers, journalists, and NGOs. Given the importance of remaining committed, these unified efforts are likely to be impactful.
- The Insurance Front Appears robust enough to merit substantially increased backing.
Tactical Arsenal
The report offers an in-depth look at the various tactics, providing additional information for activists and their supporters, facilitating collaboration, and forging alliances. Each tactical profile offers:
- An overview of how each tactic operates, with its underlying theory of change
- Examples of past successes
- Groups currently utilizing this tactic
- A summary of pros and cons
- Conditions under which it's most likely to succeed
- Links to find out more about the tactic
Contents
- Introduction
- Three Core Battlefronts
- (i) Draining the Resources
- (ii) Erratic Allies
- (iii) Legal Battle Cry
- Tactical Profiles
- Litigation
- Public Shaming
- Worker Strikes and Pickets
- Consumer Boycotts
- Infrastructure Disruption
- Disruption of Daily Activities
- Art and Culture Actions
- Targeting Insurers
- Bank Pressure
- Targeting Financial Investors
- Institutional Divestment
- Regulatory Action
- Policy Lobbying
- Media Exposés
- Ad Bans
- Rights of Nature Laws
- Deep Dives
- (i) Could Insurance be a Vulnerable Ace Up the Fossil Fuel Industry's Sleeve?
- (ii) Strategic Unity: A Study of Collaboration - The Anti-Fracking Movement in England
- Conclusion
- About the Social Change Basecamp
- References
Collaboration Case Study: The English Anti-Fracking Movement
The anti-fracking movement in England (2011-2019) provides valuable insights for other movements seeking to oppose fossil fuel expansion. It evolved from isolated village protests against hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to a coordinated national movement that compelled the government to impose a fracking moratorium in 2019.
A diverse range of participants united to challenge the emergent shale gas industry in England: local residents, lifelong activists, the self-styled "anti-fracking nanas", celebrities, and NGOs. Their tools of warfare were just as disparate, including traditional protests, song and dance, petitions, submissions to planning committees, insider advocacy, strategic litigation, and civil disobedience and lawbreaking.
Despite the diverse tactics, the campaign was widely praised for its collaborative character. Activists described a "perfect mixture of ingredients" , where different groups worked together towards a shared goal.
Common challenges in coalition-building - ideological divisions, competition for resources, localism ("Not In My Backyard") - were largely overcome by a strong sense of unity. As one participant put it, the movement avoided parochial mindsets by embracing a collective ethos: "We're all in this together". The result was a campaign that not only halted fracking but also served as a "watershed moment" for environmentalists and communities, demonstrating the power of collaboration-driven activism (Rowell, 2019).
Four Pivotal Strategies
We distill four pivotal strategies employed during the campaign:
1. Activists united around a clear adversary and a common goal
Unity around a common foe is a powerful catalyst (Corrigall‐Brown and Meyer, 2010). In the anti-fracking movement, the formidable external threat - government-backed shale gas development - generated a potent incentive for disparate groups to band together.
When the UK Government overturned Lancashire County Council's decision to reject local fracking applications, groups across the political spectrum - local residents, NGOs, national networks - united in protest. One campaigner recalled: "I think it always helps to have a common enemy... when you know that the government's not gonna cut you any favors...you may as well come out strong". The movement's narrative became one of everyday people against powerful interests, fostering solidarity across dividing lines.
The campaign also united around a tangible objective, a national fracking ban, which groups with varied ideologies could all endorse. Defining the stakes in clear, pressing terms galvanizes unusual allies.
After winning the immediate goal (pipeline halted, etc.), it's important to remain committed to the shared purpose. The anti-fracking coalition struggled to maintain unity, post-victory.
2. Campaigners invested in relationship-building across differences
Social movements today often bring together diverse constituencies - indigenous land defenders, rural landowners, urban climate strikers, scientists, etc. Bridging ideological, racial, or class divides can be essential. During the anti-fracking protests in Lancashire, the NGO Friends of the Earth spent time in communities, listening to their concerns, holding regular meetings, supporting residents to create campaign strategies, and becoming part of the community fabric.
Activists must also often address generational, racial, or class disparities. The anti-fracking coalition was primarily white and rural; newer movements have the opportunity to center equity and diversity.
Activists should also be prepared to support allies even when the concerns are not directly connected to their primary issue (e.g., climate activists supporting workers likely to be displaced by the net-zero transition). This helps to strengthen the coalition and prepare for future battles with fossil fuel interests.
3. Resource sharing and "stepping back"
In the anti-fracking campaign, well-funded green organizations provided resources - funding, legal aid, research, media support - to grassroots and frontline groups, trusting them to manage them, rather than taking control.
Trust-based funding with minimal strings attached can foster local activist empowerment and build goodwill. In practical terms, this can mean simplifying grant reporting requirements, affording core support for organizing efforts, and being willing to fund overlooked operational costs (travel expenses, meeting spaces, bail funds, coordination).
Some larger NGOs use their clout to amplify local voices, rather than dominating them. During the anti-fracking protests in Lancashire, NGOs were credited with providing resources - legal support, funding, media training - without trying to direct the movement. A local activist said NGOs had "done wonders...but they haven't stepped in to claim credit." By letting grassroots organizations reap credit for their victories, the coalition remains robust.
4. Activists prepared for the long haul and guarded against burnout
The anti-fracking fight lasted years. Contemporary fossil fuel battles (such as blocking major pipelines) are similarly protracted. NGOs play a critical role in sustaining movements over the long term, offering financial resources, staff backup, and institutional stability to grassroots groups, enabling them to keep engaged even during periods of exhaustion.
Maintaining coalition unity over extended periods also demands attention to morale and burnout. A division of labor helps prevent any one group or individual from burning out - tasks can rotate, and different groups can step in when others need a break. Activists are increasingly adopting self-care and collective care practices, including debrief circles, counseling for trauma after heavy policing, and rotating spokesperson duties. Celebrating interim wins is also important to sustain momentum.
The campaign's ability to re-mobilize quickly in 2022, when fracking was briefly reintroduced, was partly thanks to the infrastructure built over time - including long-standing personal relationships.
The English anti-fracking movement highlights the potential of sustained, broad-based collaboration in resisting fossil fuel development. Its success stemmed not from a singular tactic or constituency but from the ability of diverse actors to work together, share resources, and maintain commitment over the long term.
This prompts the question of how more efficient coordination might be achieved among actors challenging fossil fuel interests.
- The battle plan for combating climate-change and fossil fuels involves a blend of diverse tactics, such as draining the financial resources of the industry, erratic allies who attack its legitimacy, legal battles, and various forms of activism like protests and consumer boycotts.
- The English anti-fracking movement, a study in the report, provides insights into successful collaboration among activists, demonstrating that a union of local residents, NGOs, and even celebrities can halt harmful industries.
- Activism can involve various roles - not just protests but also legal challenges, communications strategies, and local power-building. Effective campaigns are those that integrate across roles, share intelligence, and amplify one another.
- The report highlights the insurance industry as a potential vulnerability for the fossil fuel industry, suggesting substantial backing for tactics targeting them.
- For funders, the report emphasizes investing resources where they count - targeting pressure points like insurance, regulation, and finance, but also funding the infrastructure, legal support, and coordinators that keep movements together.
