Fossil Fuel Phase Out

The science is clear: we must transition away from fossil fuels at emergency speed and scale while also supporting communities most affected by climate change.

Coal Fired Power Plant in the Rhenish Lignite Mining Area. © Bernd Lauter / Greenpeace
Greenpeace US Court Case with Energy Transfer in North Dakota
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1.5°

Scientists warn more than 1.5 degrees of warming would be catastrophic1

75%

The amount of emissions attributed to the burning of fossil fuels2

#3

Australia is the 3rd largest exporter of fossil fuels in the world3

Greenpeace activists disrupt coal loading at the world's largest coal port. They highlight Australia's contribution to global climate change and to demand that Australia 'quit coal' and move to sustainable renewable energy.

The problem

Fossil fuel corporations have known for decades that burning coal, oil and gas causes climate change. The solution – clean renewable energy – exists and is ready to go. But the fossil fuel industry and its allies have prioritised their profits over our safety and done everything they can to delay the transition to clean energy. Now we’re in a climate emergency – and we can’t afford to wait any longer.

What does Greenpeace do?

At Greenpeace Australia Pacific we tackle the biggest issues that are standing in the way of a green and peaceful future. We use peaceful protest and creative confrontation to expose the biggest environmental threats in our region and around the globe. We promote solutions and advocate for climate justice.

Greenpeace Australia activists hold banners from a crane outside Woodside's headquarters in Perth.

Right now, Greenpeace is working to take on the biggest polluters and stop new coal, oil and gas projects in Australia. We’re holding corporations and governments to account, taking direct action and investigating and exposing them.

We still have time. What happens next is in our hands.


Sources

  1. Source: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
  2. Source: United Nations Climate Action
  3. Source: OCI Planet Wreckers Report 2023
  • BRIEFING: Woodside Investor Briefing 2022

    BRIEFING: Woodside Investor Briefing 2022

    Greenpeace is concerned about Woodside’s current production plans and has identified 12 key risks associated with them.

  • REPORT: Hero to Zero, uncovering the truth of corporate Australia’s climate action claims

    REPORT: Hero to Zero, uncovering the truth of corporate Australia’s climate action claims

    The world is experiencing an unprecedented climate crisis. To stabilise global temperatures, and prevent the situation getting even worse, emissions must reach net zero as soon as possible.

  • REPORT: Scenarios for the Replacement of the Liddell Power Station

    REPORT: Scenarios for the Replacement of the Liddell Power Station

    The cheapest and lowest emissions option to replace the Liddell coal-burning power station in the New South Wales Hunter Valley is clean energy backed up by batteries, according to a…

  • REPORT: Coal-faced, Exposing AGL as Australia’s biggest climate polluter

    REPORT: Coal-faced, Exposing AGL as Australia’s biggest climate polluter

    SYDNEY, 5 May 2021 – AGL, Australia’s biggest energy company, is holding back efforts by Australian businesses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report released today by Greenpeace Australia Pacific.

  • REPORT: Lethal Power, How coal is killing people in Australia

    REPORT: Lethal Power, How coal is killing people in Australia

    Air pollution from Australia’s ageing and increasingly unreliable coal-burning power stations is responsible for 800 premature deaths, 14,000 asthma symptoms among children and 850 cases of low birth weight in…

  • SUBMISSION: To the Independent Planning Commission: Santos’ Narrabri gas project risks farms, water, climate, and community.

    SUBMISSION: To the Independent Planning Commission: Santos’ Narrabri gas project risks farms, water, climate, and community.

    The destructive Narrabri fossil gas drilling proposal by Santos is one of the most controversial fossil fuel projects in Australia. Greenpeace contributed to the following submission to the Independent Planning…

  • REPORT: Recover & Prosper, Recharging the Australian Economy with Clean Energy

    REPORT: Recover & Prosper, Recharging the Australian Economy with Clean Energy

    We’re all feeling the effects of the COVID-19 health crisis and the economic hardship that it has brought about. Some of us are suffering more than others. The pandemic arrived at a time when Australia and our Pacific neighbours were already reeling from an unprecedented climate crisis.

  • REPORT: REenergising Australian business: the corporate race to renewable energy

    REPORT: REenergising Australian business: the corporate race to renewable energy

    A Greenpeace report analyses the sector-by-sector potential job and renewable energy benefits if 80 of Australia’s top companies moved to 100% renewable energy.

  • REPORT: The Dispersant Delusion – Equinor’s plan to poison the Great Australian Bight

    REPORT: The Dispersant Delusion – Equinor’s plan to poison the Great Australian Bight

    Our report shows that regulators plan to allow Equinor to respond to an oil spill in the Great Australian Bight by deploying a banned chemical cocktail that doesn’t work.

  • REPORT: Invisible killer – Toxic sulfur dioxide hotspots revealed in Australia

    REPORT: Invisible killer – Toxic sulfur dioxide hotspots revealed in Australia

    A new Greenpeace report has revealed that Australia is ranked 12th on the list of the top human-caused sulphur dioxide hotspots as tracked by NASA satellites.

  • REPORT: Dirty Power – Big Coal’s network of influence over the coalition government

    REPORT: Dirty Power – Big Coal’s network of influence over the coalition government

    We’ve uncovered the web of connections between the world’s biggest coal giants, industry groups, lobbyists and powerful media organisations that serves to halt action on climate change and stall the…

  • REPORT: Offshore petroleum drilling and risk – A study of proposed deep-sea exploration drilling in the Great Australian Bight

    REPORT: Offshore petroleum drilling and risk – A study of proposed deep-sea exploration drilling in the Great Australian Bight

    Professor Tina Soliman Hunter, Professor of Petroleum Law and Director of Aberdeen University Centre for Energy Law, outlines the risks of Norwegian oil giant Equinor’s plans to drill for oil…

  • REPORT: Boom and Bust 2019 – Tracking the Global Coal Plant Pipeline

    REPORT: Boom and Bust 2019 – Tracking the Global Coal Plant Pipeline

    For the third year in a row, the number of coal-fired power plants under development worldwide dropped steeply in 2018. Clean, renewable energy solutions like wind and solar continue to…

  • POLL: Global warming, Liberal’s plan for emissions unpopular

    POLL: Global warming, Liberal’s plan for emissions unpopular

    Greenpeace has commissioned independent polling that confirms climate change number one issue on voters minds

  • POLL: Pro-renewable policies emerge as vote-winners in Victorian election

    POLL: Pro-renewable policies emerge as vote-winners in Victorian election

    With the polls narrowing as Victorians prepare to cast their ballots in this weekend’s state election, renewable energy has emerged as a key battleground with the victor likely to be…

  • REPORT: Crude Intentions

    REPORT: Crude Intentions

    Greenpeace Australia Pacific worked with US oil spill consultant and marine biologist, Professor Richard Steiner, the leading ecologist involved in the cleanup and monitoring of the Exxon Valdez disaster in…

  • ANALYSIS: Electrifying Victoria – the impact of election policies on prices and the climate

    ANALYSIS: Electrifying Victoria – the impact of election policies on prices and the climate

    With the Victorian state election on a knife-edge, Greenpeace Australia Pacific has commissioned modelling on the impact the energy policies of the Victorian Labor party, Liberal/National Coalition, and Greens would have on electricity prices and carbon emissions to 2025.

  • POLL: Australians want renewable energy

    POLL: Australians want renewable energy

    More than 70% of Australians want ambitious renewable energy target to drive down electricity prices

  • POLL: Victorians want renewables

    POLL: Victorians want renewables

    Seventy-seven percent of Victorians want Australia to embrace a high renewable energy target, ramping up the pressure on Premier Daniel Andrews to vote against the Turnbull government’s National Energy Guarantee (NEG).

  • REPORT: More Expensive, More Pollution

    REPORT: More Expensive, More Pollution

    Greenpeace Australia Pacific has released Reputex modelling that shows that the government’s National Energy Guarantee fails on emissions and power prices.

  • REPORT: Done and Dusted?

    REPORT: Done and Dusted?

    February 2018: As Australia transitions away from coal-fired power, questions are raised about the safe management and disposal coal ash, one of the most significant forms of waste in the…

  • REPORT: The double threat to the Great Barrier Reef

    REPORT: The double threat to the Great Barrier Reef

    Climate change and the Australian Government

  • REPORT: Steeling the Future

    REPORT: Steeling the Future

    This report highlights the role that Australia’s metallurgical coal exports have played in the increasing global use of blast furnace/basic oxygen furnace-based steel production, the most greenhouse gas emission intensive process to produce steel

  • REPORT: Reality Check on Coal – Less value, more harm

    REPORT: Reality Check on Coal – Less value, more harm

    The Australian coal industry’s contribution to the economy is rapidly shrinking – even as its contribution towards global warming is spiralling out of control.

  • REPORT: Exporting climate change, killing the Reef

    REPORT: Exporting climate change, killing the Reef

    Australia, the world’s largest coal exporter, will export a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in its coal this year, erasing the few benefits of meeting its weak Paris target and worsening its contribution to global climate change, Greenpeace Australia Pacific analysis shows.

  • REPORT: Whitehaven Coal – No Future

    REPORT: Whitehaven Coal – No Future

    How a lack of social license is derailing Australia’s most controversial coal company

  • REPORT: The Dirty Three

    REPORT: The Dirty Three

    Origin Energy, EnergyAustralia and AGL’s attack on Australia’s Renewable Energy Target

  • More on fossil fuels

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