OMNI UN COP26 Glasgow Countdown, #6, 11-10/ 11-11

We’re now more than halfway through the UN climate negotiations in Glasgow, Scotland. I’ve been on the ground representing Oil Change and wanted to send you a quick update about what we’ve been up to and some of the exciting developments from the past week.

Every day is packed with activity, but four things from last week stand out: 

1.    On Monday, November 1st, we organized a demonstration to allow grassroots communities impacted by fossil fuels across the United States and Canada to tell their stories. This came shortly before U.S. President Joe Biden spoke at the conference, and helped shape media coverage of continued U.S. extraction, despite some important progress under Biden. Later in the week, we took out a full-page ad in Scotland’s biggest paper urging Biden to take bold executive action to stop fossil fuel projects and confront oil, gas, and coal.

Read more about the action and see photos from the streets here

2.    On Wednesday, November 3rd, we launched Canada’s Big Oil Reality Check, a new report showing that the major oil companies operating in Canada have no interest in taking climate change seriously. Canada’s government loves to present itself as a climate champion at these UN climate talks, but this report is helping to pull the curtain back on the reality of oil & gas development in the country.

Read more about Canada’s Big Oil Reality check in Canada’s National Observer

This one is particularly big — on Thursday, November 4th, we had a MASSIVE campaign win: more than 20 countries and institutions, including the US, UK, Canada, and Germany, committed to end international public finance for unabated oil, gas, and coal by the end of 2022 and fully prioritize support for the clean energy transition. And new signatories are still coming in as we speak — the number is at least 30 already!

Together they are responsible for at least USD 23.6 BILLION in public finance for oil, gas, and coal every year. After a wave of commitments focused on ending coal finance, this is the first international political commitment that also addresses oil and gas.

The impact of this is huge and is a sign things are truly beginning to shift in big ways thanks to our relentless pressure over the years. This type of victory would not be possible without our wonderful OCI supporters like you!

Read more about this massive step forward in The Washington Post, Reuters, The Guardian

3.    Also on Thursday the 4th, we helped support a brilliant Pikachu action outside the negotiations drawing attention to Japan’s continued support for fossil fuels both at home and abroad. Japan has taken important steps over the past couple years, but there’s still a long way to go – and we’ll be there pushing them every step of the way.


Read more about the Pikachu action (and see some video) in the Evening Standard

Outside of COP, we launched the second chapter of The Permian Climate Bomb report series, which you can check out here.

These annual UN climate talks can often be frustrating — these negotiations have been going on for decades, yet they still aren’t directly addressing the problem: fossil fuels. That’s why I’m so thankful for the work we’ve been able to do this past week and the work of so many others who are making sure the world leaves Glasgow with something meaningful, rather than more empty promises. 

We have even more exciting work rolling out over the coming days, including the new Beyond Oil & Gas Alliance made up of countries ready to take real action to end fossil fuel development. We’ll be telling you all about it soon, so keep an eye out. 

Thanks again for all you do to support our work and the fight for climate justice. 

Aneesa Khan
Oil Change International

Oil Change International campaigns to expose the true costs of fossil fuels and facilitate the coming transition towards clean energy. We are dedicated to identifying and overcoming barriers to that transition.

Want to support our work further? Click here to donate.

Dear Dick,
This year’s international climate negotiations are still under way and the message from my colleagues there on the ground has been clear: current plans to cut emissions are still falling short of the kind of investment science tells us we need to limit the worst effects of climate change. Here in the United States, Congress is still working to pass our biggest investment in climate action ever—the Build Back Better Act. Even as we continue to push hard to pass this critical investment, it’s hard not to think about the obstacles that prevented us from acting earlier, at a time when we could have prevented the devastation we’ve seen in recent years. The fossil fuel industry has spent decades—and billions of dollars—to prevent climate action from happening. And while the industry has long been able to avoid accountability for its actions, the tide is beginning to turn. States and municipalities across the country are bringing lawsuits against fossil fuel corporations to make them pay their fair share of the costs of addressing climate change. And just last month, top fossil fuel industry executives were called before Congress to answer for their decades of climate deception. We must continue to hold these corporations accountable and ensure they don’t continue to stand in the way of the further investments we need to close the gap between our current climate commitments  and what’s needed to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. —Katy

Science in Action

Congress must expose Big Oil's climate deception

For the first time in history, major fossil fuel executives recently appeared before Congress to answer for their companies’ climate disinformation. The more we know about Big Oil’s ongoing climate deception, the better we can hold fossil fuel companies accountable for their harms. That’s why it’s crucial that this hearing be just the first step. Congress must continue to investigate the industry’s history of climate disinformation and ongoing anti-climate campaigns. Tell your US representative to keep the heat on and investigate Big Oil’s climate disinformation

Ask a Scientist

As the climate negotiations continue in Glasgow, Dr. Delta Merner, the lead for our Science Hub for Climate Litigation, talks about the role of climate litigation on the national and international stage.

For decades, Big Oil has known that burning fossil fuels would lead to irreversible global climate change. Instead of acting on that knowledge, these companies and their surrogates launched—and continue to design and fund—deceptive greenwashing campaigns to manufacture doubt about the reality and seriousness of climate change. Litigation is one tool that communities are now using to try push the levers of power and help ensure that we can meet standards set by the Paris agreement and limit the worst impacts of climate change. During my 10 days [in Glasgow], I met with dozens of brilliant public officials, lawyers, community activists, and scientists from around the globe who are trying to strategically address climate change through the law. Read More.

Follow Delta's blog.
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Climate Deception Harms Communities’ Health and Safety
We’ve long known that fossil fuel corporations have engaged in a concerted campaign of deception to water down, delay, and block congressional action to slash global warming emissions and advance a transition to clean, renewable energy. But what happens on a more local level? Our analysts took a look at fossil fuel companies’ deceptive tactics—and the massive amount of funding behind them—in a single state to find out. They found that oil and gas companies worked in Colorado to sideline science-based decisions, which not only threatens public health and the environment, but drives intensifying and costly climate impacts. Read More.