Fossil fuel companies are increasingly threatened by climate advocacy yet more empowered by their own enormous profit margins. In this toxic environment, they have heightened their attacks against those who challenge the source of their extraordinary power. Oil and gas companies are increasingly weaponizing law and litigation against scientists, NGOs, activists, journalists and protestors alike.

Until those who fight for a safer future have lawyers to fight for them, the struggle for a 1.5 degree world will be lopsided, and the players with the best lawyers will win.

The Global Climate Defense Network (CliDef), which funds and deploys lawyers and legal strategies to support the climate movement, aims to level the playing field. No more will big oil and gas companies be able to intimidate climate defenders into silence by suing them, threatening them with steep civil and criminal penalties, or incentivizing police to arrest them with the expectation that they will be without legal resources.

While everyone who fights for the climate is potentially in the crosshairs of the fossil fuel industry, CliDef is specifically focused on those willing to risk the most. Given the climate youth movements’ higher risk tolerance and greater vulnerability, CliDef is prioritizing legal support to youth activists for the rest of the year.

Providing legal support to those who protect and defend the climate is not a luxury. And, with a cadre of lawyers ready to defend the climate movement and go toe-to-toe with industry attorneys, the financial support going to climate justice work can finally mitigate the risks of challenging the power of the oil and gas industry.

Since 2021, the Equation Campaign has funded lawyers for people fighting pipelines and other fossil fuel projects running through their farms and sacred lands in the US, in places like Nebraska, Minnesota, Virginia, Louisiana and Texas, and this legal support has enabled them to keep fighting.

It’s not enough. Oil and gas companies across the globe have realized how powerful law can be in neutralizing their opponents–by putting people in jail, by suing them for massive damages, by waging an unequal legal war against those without lawyers or legal defense funding. Thus, CliDef  was born.

CliDef steps in wherever climate defenders are at risk of legal action by the fossil fuel industry or by the state.

Led by lawyers from the Global South, CliDef uses lawyers and the law to

• Protect climate defenders from legal bullying and harassment
• Prevent the systematic policies and practices that stop the climate movement from doing its crucial work
• Reveal the misuse of corporate and state power in advancing climate injustice and
• Redress the harm done by the fossil fuel industry as it attacks climate defenders.

Working with other climate funders, CliDef is able to deploy resources exactly where they are needed most: Matching defenders with lawyers and legal organizations ready to defend them; mapping “hot spots” where repressive laws need to be challenged or where defenders face imminent threats; supporting affirmative suits challenging systemic injustices aimed at silencing the climate movement; and building the capacity of young lawyers willing to serve but need additional training and mentorship.

CliDef protects the investment of climate funders by paving the way for climate defenders to challenge the fossil fuel industry safely. When climate defenders face legal risks, CliDef has their backs.