Annual and financial reports 2022

At Friends of the Earth International, we wholeheartedly believe in People Power. In our 2022 annual and financial reports, we highlight some of our main achievements in the fight for environmental and social justice.

There is no easy way to say this: time is running out. In my own country, Sri Lanka, the impacts of climate change are being felt today; people are dying and the environment is suffering. Nonetheless, the solutions to our planetary crisis are straightforward and achievable, and there is still plenty of room for hope.

– Hemantha Withanage, Friends of the Earth International Chair, 2022

Transforming our hopes

In 2022, Friends of the Earth International focused on transforming our hopes into reality by making our voices heard. We were at the UN negotiations for a Binding Treaty for Transnational Corporations in Geneva, and we opposed the EU-Mercosur trade negotiations, the UN Climate Summit, the UN Committee on World Food Security and the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) among others.
The role of Friends of the Earth International in these fora is crucial: highlighting the powerful and self-serving role of multinational corporations and neoliberal governments and policies, and the devastating impacts on the ground for peoples and communities as they struggle against corporate impunity, hunger,
deforestation, biodiversity loss, climate change and the violation of their rights, including criminalisation and assassination.

Building on Friends of the Earth Netherlands’ landmark victory in 2021 that forced Shell to drastically reduce its emissions, we also supported fights for justice and accountability in various court cases around the world, including the climate damages lawsuit by Indonesian islanders against Swiss company Holcim.

What continues to give me hope in today’s unpredictable world are the people and organisations we work together with. They are actively creating system change: beautiful and resilient alternatives that continue to inspire others. To name just a few: Friends of the Earth Togo is lobbying for the prioritization of food sovereignty in the country’s agricultural strategy; young people in the Philippines are reviving indigenous, agroecological farming practices; and CESTA – Friends of the Earth El Salvador is training families to be self-reliant through agroecological practices. We will continue
to work for convergence of movement to build a just society.

Please read on for more inspiring and hopeful news from our campaigners and our communities – download our annual report for 2022. Thank you for being part of the change!