Seven Civil Society Organizations Respond Jointly to the Fossil Fuel Industry’s Big Plans for Hydrogen Infrastructure

199 large-scale hydrogen infrastructure projects have been submitted as candidates for the sought-after EU PCI/PMI list, the priority list for “Projects of Common and Mutual Interest”.

Once included on the list, PCIs and PMIs receive priority status; streamlined Environmental Impact Assessments and permitting procedures; and eligibility to apply for EU tax funding.

The fossil fuel industry submitted a majority of the projects. Most aim to transport fossil fuel-based hydrogen (or don’t exclude it).

Together with Linha Vermelha, Climate Action Network Europe, PowerShift e.V., Deutsche Umwelthilfe, the Polish Green Network, Workshop of all Beings and NOAH – Foe Denmark, Food & Water Action Europe submitted a response to the public consultation on these hydrogen projects.

You can find the response here: https://www.foodandwatereurope.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Joint_submission_H2-PCIs2025-1.pdf.

March 2025: A Powerful Month of Action Against the Transatlantic LNG Frenzy*

*Make some popcorn, lean back and enjoy the show: Many of the links below lead to empowering mini-videos – have a look!

March 2025 saw two fossil fuel industry events happen simultaneously on both sides of the Atlantic. Both represented a ‘polluters party’, with oil and gas executives meeting to discuss expanding their dirty, deadly business model.

CERA week, often referred to as the ‘Super Bowl’ of fossil fuel conferences, happened in Houston, Texas; LNGCon, an exclusive conference uniting the LNG industry behind closed doors, took place in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

These conferences brought together the richest oil and gas companies and the worst extracting industries to shape our energy future – at the cost of a livable planet.

In a powerful show of connectivity and solidarity, groups and individuals from across the Americas and Europe united around these industry events to stand up against polluters’ plans that threaten our health, our economy and the livability of our planet..

It makes sense that Texas, home to a huge amount of fossil fuel infrastructure, and Europe, the primary market for U.S. LNG exports, became focal points of resistance against these fossil fuel gatherings. 

To show their disapproval, groups in Amsterdam held a full day of sessions on the dangers of gas, hosted a live-stream with a community member impacted by the U.S. fossil fuel industry, and projected a video featuring advocates voices on a giant wall. 

Simultaneously, Texas Campaign for the Environment helped organize a flurry of activities in Houston around CERA week, featuring powerful speeches, performances, and a long and colorful march with hundreds of people. These and further actions included exposing climate villains in many creative ways.

Mutual support through live-streams and solidarity videos showed that the fight against LNG and the need to protect our future spans across the Atlantic and the world.

Also in Texas, NRDC and Conexiones Climáticas held a panel at the famous South by Southwest (SXSW) festival, titled “Wall Street, Big Oil and their Planet-Destroying Love Affair.” The discussion highlighted the threat that LNG export infrastructure such as Saguaro LNG poses for marine life – especially whales.

Beyond Texas and Amsterdam, so much more happened with protectors in Germany, Belgium, Brazil, France and Spain – all saying NO to a dangerous LNG expansion. A few great examples:

  • Our own Food & Water Action Europe activities – jointly with Oil Change International and Fossil Free Politics – included an event in the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, as well as a mini film-festival on LNG.
  • Influencers, scientists and activists from Germany – the EU country most threatened by LNG build-out – spoke up against this costly, unneeded fossil fuel frenzy.
  • In Brazil, a big anti-gas rally took place during Carnival.
  • In France, screenings of LNG documentaries featured the impacts of the dirty fuel on communities in the U.S. Gulf South.
  • In Spain and Mexico, people reminded Santander Bank that it must not lend its financial support to a destructive LNG terminal in Mexico.

These ocean-spanning activities should be a wake-up call for everyone to stand up against greedy, reckless fossil fuel millionaires, and protect what we love: clean air, clean water, a healthy planet and a liveable future!

European LNG threat map – updated

We proudly present to you an updated version of our European LNG threat map.

What you can find on it:

  • Civil Society Groups across Europe and beyond opposing LNG build out
  • LNG import facilities and their status (operating, under construction, expansion, planned etc.)
  • Existing limitations and bans on fracking in Europe
  • ‘Threat categories’ i.e the many ways in which LNG infrastructure build-out is harming people, the environment and our only planet Earth
  • …and much more

Have a look!

Front side of the map (high definition)

Back side of the map (high definition)

[Status: February 2025]

European CSO statement responding to the DOE’s 2024 LNG Export Study: ‘Energy, Economic, and Environmental Assessment of U.S. LNG Exports’

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US LNG exports harm the environment and communities across the full supply chain while fueling devastating global warming. No envisaged LNG export and import capacity expansion is needed on either side of the Atlantic from an energy security point of view, nor does it contribute in a positive way to economic benefits for the people and the country. Instead of being in the public interest, they serve the orgiastic profit greed of polluting companies and reckless individuals. This needs to end!

We request the current and future US DOE to deny all (pending and future) authorizations for US LNG exports and lay out further reasoning for this in our letter.

Read the letter signed by 78 groups from Europe and beyond here.

Hundreds Talk Solutions at Anti-Summit as Fossil Industry meets at Dirty LNG Gathering in Berlin

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Mid-December this year saw a moment of powerful strengthening for the German movement against polluting fossil gas and liquified ‘natural’ gas (LNG): Around seven hundred of activists, climate protectors and campaigners met in Berlin to collaborate, strategize or support each other’s struggles. 

They were not the only ones gathering. Just next to Berlin’s famous ‘Brandenburger Tor,’ in a fancy luxury hotel, the world’s biggest polluters, government representatives and lobbyists met at the World LNG Summit to discuss how to prolong the future of one of the dirtiest fossil fuels. 

The Panels

Civil society united at a vibrant Counter Summit just as polluters schmoozed and conspired on how to forge further dirty deals: how to greenwash emissions-heavy fossil gas, and how to get away with disregarding blatant human rights violations linked to LNG.

One of the Counter Summit’s highlights was two international panels with some extraordinary panelists. They included: 

  • James Hiatt from ‘For a Better Bayou’ at the Texas-Louisiana border, a region heavily affected and polluted by fossil gas and petrochemical industries which supply Europe with gas and petrochemical products 
  • Mika Schachenmayr, from Fridays For Future Berlin, who reminded the audience that numerous concrete steps to finally start the ambitious gas phase-out are here and ready today 
  • Mima Holt, from the U.S.-based Natural Resources Defense Council, who highlighted that the American climate movement is ready to fight damaging LNG export plans despite a looming second Trump presidency 
  • Hereditary Chief Na’Moks from the Wet’suwet’en nation and Jesse Stoeppler, deputy chief of the Hagwilget First Nation and co–executive director of the Skeena Watershed Conservation, who warned about the extreme military brutality Indigenous tribes in what they call ‘so-called Canada’ are facing when protecting their land from fossil gas pipelines 
  • Svitlana Romanko, from the Ukrainian organization Razom We Stand, who illustrated how continued Russian LNG imports into Europe fill Putin’s war coffers
  • Sara Ribeiro, from the Brazilian NGO Arayara, who told the crowd about the threats and destruction the Amazon rainforest and our climate faces due to oil and gas plans in the region 
  • Claudia Campero, from Conexiones Climaticas, who described how LNG projects threaten whales and the ‘Aquarium of the World’ in the Gulf of California
  • and Sascha Müller-Kränner, managing director at German Environmental Action (DUH), one of the biggest German NGO fighting LNG build-out, who denounced Germany’s ‘LNG Acceleration Law’ which helps disregarding a proper Environmental Impact Assessment and permitting procedures, and leads to an unchecked, dangerous creation of LNG overcapacity in Germany. 

Also German State Secretary Stefan Wenzel was part of the panel and responded to quite a bit of criticism from the audience. Despite being part of the Green party in Germany, which is currently in the German government coalition, Wenzel has largely promoted the country’s reckless LNG infrastructure expansion.

While hot discussions in heated rooms took place, activists braved temperatures around the freezing point in different parts of Berlin, protesting peacefully with their presence and bodies against the fossil fuel industry summit which gambles with our future for the sole purpose of amassing corporate power and profit.

Actions and Marches

They gathered for sit-ins and covered the summit venue with green paint to show the unacceptable greenwashing of dirty fossil LNG that took place there. They organized banner-drops and projections with anti-gas slogans on the hotel facade. On 10 December, hundreds gathered close to the luxury Adlon Hotel to march against the Summit, together forming a yellow ‘X’ (a symbol of anti-nuclear, coal and fossil resistance in Germany) and booing the fossil fuel corporations TotalEnergies and Venture Global, who received an “anti-award” for being the worst participants of the summit (although the choice was a hard one).

You Can’t Steal Our Future!

The message was clear: Civil society has solutions for the climate crisis that are not only feasible, but a clear alternative to the industry’s false fossil solutions. It was also made clear that the people don’t accept dirty deal-making behind closed doors, deals that accelerate human rights violations and climate collapse. Heavily protected by police, passing thorough security checks and certainly following media reporting on the many civil disobedience actions all around them, the gas industry executives certainly heard what protesters were telling them: You and the fossil fuels you sell belong to the past. You are not welcome here. We’re here, we’re loud, and you can’t steal our future!

This Was the 2024 Beyond Gas Conference in Gdańsk, Poland

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MethaneLNGJusticeFossil FuelsClimate

Conference report
by Daniela Maksin

On the last weekend of October in Poland’s northern port city of Gdańsk, the 2024 Beyond Gas Conference brought together a vibrant network of activists, environmentalists, and campaigners. Representatives from across Europe and far beyond joined creative and analytical forces to discuss strategies for combating fossil gas expansion, and enabling a transition towards genuine sustainable energy solutions. The event, held over four days, featured skill-sharing sessions, storytelling exercises, open spaces, and a photo stunt. By emphasizing collaboration, and solidarity, the conference aimed to challenge systemic reliance on fossil fuels and advocate for truly just and equitable alternatives.

Day 1: Addressing Root Causes

The discussion began with a focus on understanding the root causes of the climate crisis through an intersectional lens, acknowledging the interconnectedness of racism, capitalism, patriarchy, colonialism, and imperialism. Conversations emphasized that meaningful climate action must address these systemic inequities, not continue to work within their constraints.

A powerful storytelling session illustrated the strength of building bridges between diverse activist communities, from Azeri political prisoner advocates to cultural leaders like artists and theater directors. Using this example of one campaign against oil and gas companies as a starting point, participants were able to reflect on the challenges of broadening campaign narratives, including the importance of addressing localized struggles rather than only abstract global warming concepts. Reflective exercises encouraged attendees to identify affected groups and potential allies outside their usual networks, fostering opportunities for future collaborations.

After hearing about participants’ experiences on the ground in Europe, the US, and Africa, we discussed the challenges posed by the current political situation, particularly when it comes to gas. We also raised some tough questions in the room, like how we should deal with the growing number of opponents, conservatives, and far-right decision-makers. 

Day 2: Collaboration and Campaign Strategies

Participants were further introduced to some more personal accounts from their peers, with powerful campaign presentations from Texas, Zimbabwe, Canada and several European countries, inspiring both confidence and reflection. One speaker detailed impactful efforts against major fossil fuel financiers, including lawsuits targeting greenwashing and campaigns challenging bank involvement in dangerous LNG projects. Another shed light on the threatening social dimensions of militarized construction of LNG terminals in Canada, particularly in an Indigenous context, stressing the need for international pressure to hold perceived climate leaders accountable.

Interactive sessions encouraged attendees to envision the outcomes of their efforts in 2025, focusing on political opportunities, coalition building, and shifting the narratives on gas and hydrogen. Breakout groups delved even deeper into critical issues such as LNG, gas infrastructure decommissioning, green and blue hydrogen project critiques, and alliances with gas workers and unions. By proposing an open format for these discussions, all participants were encouraged to move freely between topics that interested them.

Day 3: Building a Joint Direction

The third day highlighted the intersectionality of energy struggles with broader social justice issues. More success stories, looking closely at current global events and international tensions, underscored the potential for reciprocal solidarity between climate movements and social justice causes. Collectively, the cohort thought about strategies to overcome divisions within anti-gas forces and leverage international coalitions to create systemic change.

Timeline creation exercises emphasized the importance of structured planning while accommodating the realities of life’s unpredictability. Attendees also discussed upcoming global events, including the 2025 European Gas Conference in Bucharest, the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the counter World LNG Summit in Berlin, and preparations for important elections in 2025.

Closing Action: Solidarity Against the planned Gdańsk LNG facility

The conference culminated in a powerful collective photo stunt on the beach at Górki Zachodnie, a location reflecting the pressing environmental issues at stake. Activists gathered to oppose the proposed construction of a Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) in the Gulf of Gdańsk, an project seen as a threat to local ecosystems, communities, and our global climate. Residents and activists of the surrounding districts have long voiced concerns about the terminal’s potential to devastate nature, disrupt recreational access, and exacerbate pollution in the region. By staging the action on this contested ground, participants sought to amplify the voices of these affected communities and draw national and international attention to the urgent need for alternative solutions.

The demonstration was organized by key environmental groups, including Greenpeace Polska, Food & Water Action Europe, Friends of the Earth Europe, Polska Zielona Sieć and Pracownia na rzecz Wszystkich Istot, who collaborated to make the protest both impactful and visually striking. Participants formed a massive “Stop Gas” sign visible from the air, with drone footage capturing the moment to spread their message to a broader audience. By leveraging such imagery, organizers hoped to not only influence public opinion but also pressure decision-makers to reconsider their support for the terminal.

Speakers at the action highlighted the terminal’s implications for Poland’s energy future, emphasizing that 80% of the country’s gas is imported, much of which is fracked gas from the U.S. . This dependence on external suppliers, they argued, undermines Poland’s energy security and locks the nation into a fossil fuel paradigm at a time when an urgent transition to renewables is needed. They called for redirecting resources toward truly clean, sustainable energy solutions, such as 100% clean energy and storage systems, efficiency improvements, and demand reductions. This encapsulated the conference’s core message: meaningful change begins when diverse voices unite to challenge the status quo and envision a better future.

Day 4: Key Takeaways and Next Steps

The final day of the conference allowed everyone to shape the space to meet their individual needs, whether that was a chance to relax and soak up the beauty of Gdańsk, revisit meaningful conversations, or deepen the discussions they had  throughout the previous days.

The 2024 Beyond Gas Conference reaffirmed the critical need for intersectional, transnational efforts to address the climate crisis. By focusing on root causes and fostering collaboration across diverse movements, participants left equipped with actionable insights and renewed resolve. Looking ahead, the conference set the stage for continued mobilization against LNG expansion, hydrogen greenwashing, and extractivist energy projects, while amplifying the voices of frontline communities most impacted by these issues.