friendsoftheearth.uk

Friends of the Earth UK is a UK environmental organisation that describes itself as the UK's biggest grassroots network dedicated to protecting people and the planet. It covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland through more than 200 local action groups, and combines local organising, national campaigning and legal action. It is the right starting point if you want to understand what the organisation stands for, what it is currently campaigning on, or how to get involved locally.

What the organisation says it does

The group frames its purpose around the wellbeing and protection of the natural world and everyone in it. Its stated work falls into three broad areas:

• Local action — supporting local groups that protect local areas and make them more climate friendly.
• Legal action — taking government to court over projects that harm the environment.
• Global justice — fighting for environmental and social justice internationally, including stated solidarity with people facing oppression, human rights abuses and environmental injustice.

How it is organised

The local-group model is the distinctive part: rather than only running national campaigns, the organisation routes much of its activity through volunteer groups tied to specific places.

What it is campaigning on now

The homepage highlights several live campaigns, which give a useful picture of current priorities:

• Fossil fuels — opposing new oil, gas and coal development, including the government's approval of the Jackdaw North Sea gas field, and arguing for a move away from expensive, polluting fossil fuels.
• Airport expansion — a petition demanding no more airport expansion during a climate emergency, plus a separate piece setting out 15 reasons why Heathrow expansion is wrong, based on the government's own figures.
• Data centres — calling for a pause on data centre expansion until there is a clear plan and proper limits, framed around resource use.
• Water pollution — pressing polluters to clean up their act, linking contamination with rising bills and shareholder profits.
• International justice — a stated position that the UK must change direction on Palestine, framed as part of environmental and social justice work.

How to get involved

The site offers a few concrete routes in:

1. Join a local group — find one near you through the "Join a group near you" prompt; this is the most direct way to take part in local action.
2. Sign a petition — current petitions include airport expansion and data centre expansion.
3. Sign up for news — a form collects first name, last name and email to receive campaign updates, including whether you can help with a donation.
4. Read the campaign briefings — pages such as the Heathrow explainer and the water pollution campaign set out the arguments in more detail.

Note that the sign-up form asks for contact details and mentions donations as a possibility; the site does not state that membership or participation is free, so treat any cost as something to confirm directly.

What to expect if you are researching it

If your goal is a quick orientation, the homepage alone tells you the essentials: a national environmental organisation with a grassroots structure, a focus on climate, nature and pollution, and a working style that mixes petitions and public campaigns with litigation. If your goal is participation, the local group route is the most concrete next step; if your goal is to check a specific claim or campaign position, the individual campaign pages carry the detail, including the Heathrow piece built on government figures.

To join a local Friends of the Earth action group, start at friendsoftheearth.uk and use the site's "Join a local group" link to find a group near you; Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland says it has more than 200 local action groups. If no group is near you, you can still take part through national campaigns, petitions and news updates on the same site.

What local action groups do

Local groups are the grassroots layer of the network. According to the site, they work to protect local areas and make them more climate friendly, and they support national campaigns such as moving away from fossil fuels and opposing airport expansion. In practice, that means a mix of local environmental projects, petition drives and awareness-raising in the community.

How to find and join a group

1. Go to friendsoftheearth.uk.
2. Find the "Join a local group" link on the homepage.
3. Use it to look for a group in your area.
4. Contact the group through the details provided and ask about joining or coming to a meeting.

The site does not publish a full directory of group contacts on the homepage, so the "Join a local group" link is the entry point to use. If the link does not show a group near you, contact the national organisation and ask whether a nearby group covers your area.

What you can do once you join

If there is no group near you

You do not need a local group to get involved. The site offers several alternatives:

• Sign petitions. Current examples include the call to stop data centres draining resources and the demand that polluters clean up their act on water contamination.
• Subscribe to news. The sign-up form keeps you updated on campaigns and ways to get involved, including whether you can help with a donation.
• Take online action. The site describes ways to "make a difference from your sofa," which suits people who cannot attend in-person meetings.

What to expect

Joining a group is a volunteer commitment, and the site does not state membership fees or formal joining requirements. The homepage presents joining as open to anyone who wants to protect people and the planet. Before committing, ask the local group what meetings and activities look like and how much time they expect.

You can stay updated with Friends of the Earth UK campaigns by signing up for its email news list. The sign-up form on its website asks for your first name, last name, and email address. The site says subscribers receive updates on campaigns and ways to get involved, including whether they can help with a donation. You can also follow campaign news through the organisation's website and join one of its more than 200 local action groups.

Signing Up for Campaign Emails

The newsletter sign-up appears on the Friends of the Earth homepage under the heading "Never miss a thing..." The form asks for:

• First name
• Last name
• Email address

The site describes the updates as covering "our campaigns and how you can get involved, including whether you can help with a donation." That means the email list is the main channel for campaign news and participation opportunities, and donation requests may be included in those messages.

The form includes a "Leave this field blank" field, which is a standard spam-prevention measure. Leave it empty when you sign up.

What to Expect After Subscribing

Based on the site's description, subscribers can expect:

• News about current campaigns
• Information on how to get involved
• Occasional mentions of donation opportunities

The site does not state how often emails are sent, so treat frequency as unknown until you receive them. You can unsubscribe using the link included in any email the organisation sends.

Following Campaigns Without Subscribing

If you prefer not to share your email, the Friends of the Earth website lists current campaigns directly. The homepage highlights several active areas:

Each campaign page includes a "Sign petition" or "Find out more" link, so you can act on a specific issue without joining the email list.

Joining a Local Action Group

Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland says it has more than 200 local action groups. The homepage includes a "Join a group near you" link. Local groups are a way to get campaign updates and take part in activities in your area. The site does not list group meeting times or membership requirements on the homepage, so use the group-finder link to see what is available near you.

Taking Action from Home

The site also offers a "Make a difference from your sofa" section, which points to online actions such as signing petitions. This is the lowest-commitment way to stay involved: you can check the campaign pages periodically and add your name to petitions that matter to you.

Choosing the Right Level of Involvement

• Just want updates: Sign up for the email list with your name and email.
• Want to act on specific issues: Use the campaign pages and petitions on the website.
• Want local involvement: Use the "Join a group near you" link to find a local action group.
• Want to support financially: The email sign-up mentions donation as an option; the site does not publish membership fees or payment details on the homepage, so check the donation pages for current information.

The site does not state whether email sign-up requires a donation or payment. Treat the news list as a free sign-up unless the form itself indicates otherwise.

Friends of the Earth UK describes its achievements as coming from three connected sources: campaigners and lawyers, local action groups, and supporters. On its own account, the organisation pushes for change by working with groups to protect local areas and make them more climate friendly, by taking the government to court over projects that harm the environment, and by fighting for environmental and social justice globally. These are the organisation's stated areas of achievement rather than independently audited outcomes, so treat them as a map of what it does and where it concentrates effort.

The three areas the organisation points to

1. Legal challenges to environmentally harmful projects

Friends of the Earth states that it takes the government to court over projects that harm the environment. This is the most concrete claim on its homepage: litigation is a specific, checkable activity, and it is presented as a core part of how the organisation pursues change rather than as a one-off.

For a reader trying to judge influence, the useful question is not whether the organisation says it litigates, but which projects and what the courts decided. The homepage does not list case outcomes, so if legal impact is your main interest, look for the organisation's own case pages or reporting on individual judgments before drawing conclusions.

2. Local groups and community-level work

Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland says it has more than 200 local action groups working to protect people and planet. It describes part of its achievement as working with those groups to protect local areas and make them more climate friendly.

This matters for how the organisation operates: the local groups are the delivery mechanism for community-level change, and the national body frames its role as supporting them. If you want to see what has actually changed on the ground, local group pages and local campaign reports are more informative than the national homepage.

3. Global environmental and social justice

The organisation says it fights for environmental and social justice globally, and states that it works in solidarity with people facing oppression, human rights abuses and environmental injustice. It also takes public positions on international issues, including a stated call for the UK to change direction on Palestine.

These are positions and commitments rather than measurable outcomes. They tell you what the organisation stands for and how it frames its international work; they do not by themselves demonstrate results.

What the current campaigns show about priorities

The live campaigns on the site indicate where effort is going now, which is a reasonable proxy for what the organisation counts as unfinished business:

The pattern is consistent: name a specific decision or project, argue it conflicts with climate or environmental commitments, and mobilise supporters through petitions and local groups.

How the grassroots network fits in

The homepage is explicit that the network is the organisation's base: it calls itself the UK's biggest grassroots network dedicated to protecting people and planet, and it invites people to join a local group, sign petitions, and sign up for campaign news. Supporters are asked to act — signing, joining, donating — rather than only to read.

That structure explains the shape of the achievement claims. Success is presented as collective: campaigners and lawyers, local groups, and supporters together. It also means the organisation's visible output is weighted toward mobilisation and public pressure, with legal action as the sharpest tool.

How to verify the claims yourself

If you need more than the organisation's own summary, use these checks:

1. For legal impact — search for the specific project or policy plus "Friends of the Earth" and "court" or "judicial review," and read the judgment or reputable reporting rather than the campaign page alone.
2. For local change — find your nearest local action group through the site's group finder and ask what it has worked on locally; local campaigns usually have a visible paper trail.
3. For campaign traction — check whether a petition or consultation the organisation promoted led to a stated decision, and whether the decision is attributed to public pressure.
4. For international positions — read the full statement rather than the headline, since these are commitments rather than outcomes.

The short answer

Friends of the Earth UK presents its achievements in three areas: court challenges to environmentally harmful government projects, support for more than 200 local groups working on community-level climate and environmental improvements, and advocacy for global environmental and social justice. The homepage gives the categories and current campaign examples but not case-by-case results, so the claims are best treated as a description of where the organisation concentrates its effort — verifiable through its legal cases, local groups, and campaign outcomes rather than through the summary alone.

Friends of the Earth UK is campaigning to end UK reliance on oil, gas and coal, block new fossil fuel extraction such as the Jackdaw North Sea gas field, oppose airport expansion including Heathrow, and push for a "fossil free future." The organisation frames these as connected fights — extraction, aviation and energy costs — and invites the public to act through petitions, local action groups and donations. This applies to anyone who wants to understand the group's current climate positions before deciding whether to support, join or simply follow its work.

The core position: no more oil, gas or coal

The homepage slogan is explicit: "No more oil, gas or coal." Friends of the Earth describes itself as "the UK's biggest grassroots network dedicated to protecting people and planet," and its climate messaging centres on moving away from what it calls "expensive, polluting fossil fuels."

A concrete example on the site is the Jackdaw North Sea gas field. The group states that "the government has given the controversial Jackdaw North Sea gas field the green light" and uses that decision as a hook to argue for a faster transition to a "fossil free future." In other words, the campaign is not only about long-term targets but about opposing specific approvals as they happen.

Opposing airport expansion

Aviation is treated as a separate but linked front. The site carries a petition demand: "no more airport expansion while we're in a climate emergency," framed as "Don't put plane profits before planet."

The group also publishes supporting arguments, including "15 reasons why Heathrow airport expansion is wrong," which it says draws on "the government's own figures." That detail matters if you want to check the reasoning: the case is presented as evidence-based rather than purely values-based, so you can read the stated figures and judge them yourself.

Beyond fossil fuels: the wider campaign set

The climate and fossil fuel work sits alongside other campaigns listed on the site:

These show how the organisation links environmental issues to social justice and consumer costs — a framing worth knowing if you are deciding whether its approach matches your own priorities.

How the campaigning actually works

The site describes three methods:

• Local organising — more than 200 local action groups across England, Wales and Northern Ireland "working to protect people and planet."
• Legal action — "taking government to court over projects that harm our environment."
• Public pressure — petitions, supporter sign-ups and donations to fund campaigns.

If you want to get involved rather than just read, the practical entry points are joining a group near you, signing a current petition, or signing up for campaign news. Note that the site asks for a donation as part of its sign-up messaging; the pages reviewed do not state that any of these actions are free of cost or login requirements, so check each form as you use it.

What this means if you are deciding whether to engage

Support the group's direction if you agree that new North Sea gas approvals like Jackdaw should be opposed, that airport expansion should halt during a climate emergency, and that environmental work should include social justice. Look elsewhere, or engage critically, if you prioritise energy security arguments for domestic gas or view aviation growth differently — the group's material is advocacy, not a neutral briefing, and its Heathrow case is built on selected government figures.

A quick way to test fit: read the Jackdaw and Heathrow pages first, since they show the group's method most clearly — pick a specific decision, argue against it with official data, and convert that into a petition or legal challenge.