Take Action

  • Pledge to hold the Dirty Dozen to account:

    Friends of the Earth and grassroots groups hand-delivered letters to the Dirty Dozen polluters in Narrm/Melbourne. They’ve called for polluters to pull their weight on climate. Sign up to hold the Dirty Dozen to account and organise a meeting with your local Labor MP?

  • Safeguard our Future:

    A strong Safeguard Mechanism would crack down on Australia’s biggest polluters and force them to actually cut emissions at their facilities, not on paper. With your urging, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese can be pushed to make the Safeguard Mechanism stronger. Email the Prime Minister.

  • Email your MP to stand up for people, not big polluters:

    The Federal Government has just released proposed details for Australia's climate policy to regulate big polluters and it needs to be much stronger. Call on your MP to fight for a fair climate policy, without loopholes that let big polluters off the hook while they trash our climate. Email your local MP now.

  • Safeguard our kids, not polluters:

    Australian Parents for Climate Action support climate policies that protect our children and grandchildren from climate harm.Make sure big polluters do their fair share to reduce climate pollution for a safe climate. Sign the petition.

  • Call on the Albanese govt to rein in Dirty Dozen emissions:

    Queensland Conservation Council delivered letters to Dirty Dozen companies in Brisbane, now they're calling on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to make the polluters do their fair share on climate. Will you email the government?

  • Call on the govt to crack down on the Dirty Dozen:

    The Climate Council is calling on Minister for Resources Madeleine King to force the Dirty Dozen to pull their weight on climate. Will you add your name to the call for strong emissions limits for the big polluters?

  • Supporting community campaigning:

    If you or your local climate action group would like to get involved in the campaign to clean up the Dirty Dozen polluters, then please email Leigh Ewbank. Solutions for Climate Australia can connect you with community members active in the campaign, provide support with public events, and help book meetings with local MPs.

  • Raise your voice on Social Media:

    Make sure the Labor government decision makers hear the community’s call for the Dirty Dozen polluters to pull their weight on climate. Join the debate on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by using the #DirtyDozenPolluters and #SafeguardOurClimate hashtags:

In late 2022, the climate movement kicked off a community campaign calling for Australia's Dirty Dozen polluters to pull their weight on climate. The campaign demonstrates strong community support for a Climate Safeguard Mechanism that delivers real emissions cuts, not loopholes you could drive a coal-truck through. A strengthened mechanism is essential for Australia beat its 2030 emissions reduction target and build momentum for ambitious actions that match the scale of the climate crisis. Will the Albanese government deliver? 

Campaign Timeline

December 2022

  • Climate Action Network Australia holds an online event on the emerging campaign to clean up Australia's Dirty Dozen polluters and secure strong reforms to the Climate Safeguard Mechanism.

  • Greenpeace Australia Pacific publish a full-page at in the Australian Financial Review to tell Woodside Energy–a Dirty Dozen company–that they have no place writing Australia's climate policy.

January 2023

Community members expressed their concern about Dirty Dozen polluters in letters to the editor published in The Australian and The Age. 

  • The climate movement united for a strong response to Minister Chris Bowen's proposed changes to the Climate Safeguard Mechanism: 

  • The movement's response was featured in The Australian, ABC News, The Guardian, and Renew Economy coverage of the government's announcement. 

  • After delivering the sign-on letter to Dirty Dozen polluters in Brisbane, the Queensland Conservation Council called for supporters to email Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Minister Chris Bowen, and Minister Madeleine King to urge them to strengthen the Safeguard Mechanism. 

  • The deadline for Dirty Dozen companies to respond to the climate movement's sign-on letter arrived. Just two companies responded: AngloAmerican and ExxonMobil. Both failed to address the substance of our correspondence. 

  • Climate Action Network Australia held a Brown Bag Lunch presentation to update the movement on the campaign to clean up Australia's Dirty Dozen polluters and outline next steps.

  • The Australian Conservation Foundation launch the MyClimate app that highlights local climate impacts and need for the government to hold polluters accountable: "We need a strong safeguard mechanism that rules out new coal and gas and starts to seriously hold big polluters to account," Gav McFadzean told The New Daily. "We can’t continue on this path."  

  • Climate Action Network Australia and Friends of the Earth Melbourne speak with Dirt Radio on 3CR 855AM about the burgeoning Dirty Dozen campaign.

February 2023

  • Climate Action Network Australia held a Brown Bag Lunch presentation to drill into the details of the Albanese government's proposed reforms to the Safeguard Mechanism.

  • Climate Council released a report profiling the Dirty Dozen polluters. The report found that between 2016 and 2021, aforementioned fossil fuel corporations spewed out carbon pollution equivalent to more than 50 percent of total Pacific Islands emissions over the same period. 

  • The Australian Conservation Foundation called on supporters to email the Prime Minister to make the Safeguard Mechanism stronger. The call to action is accompanies by billboard in major capital cities. 

  • The People's Climate Assembly and allies marked the first sitting day of Parliament with a creative action at the Canberra headquarters of the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA)—a major fossil fuel lobbyist. Community members hand delivered a letter to APPEA, calling for it to play a positive role in Australia's response to the climate crisis. 

  • Friends of the Earth visited the Melbourne headquarters of the Minerals Council of Australia to call on it to support a strengthened Climate Safeguard Mechanism. The visit came days after the Australian Electoral Commission revealed revealed the Minerals Council of Australia donated $233,000 to the Labor and Liberal parties ahead of the 2022 federal election.

  • The People's Climate Assembly put the community campaign on the Parliament's agenda by welcoming MPs and Senators with banners and staging a creative action. ACT Attorney General Shane Rattenbury and Greens Ministers dropped by to support the community's call for a strong Safeguard Mechanism—one that rules out unfettered offsets and imposes tough restrictions on gas and coal projects. 

  • Lighter Footprints, Higgins Climate Action Network, Darebin Climate Action Now, and Ashwood Climate Action Network held a 'vigil' at BHP's Melbourne HQ to call on the company to pull its weight on climate. 

  • Friends of the Earth held a campaign info night at the Black Spark Cultural Centre in Northcote. 

  • Climate Action Network Australia announced a National Day of Action to Safeguard Our Climate on Friday 10 March. Community members were invited to raise their voice to call for the Albanese government to Safeguard our Climate, not polluter profits.

  • Climate Analytics released a new report investigating the efficacy of carbon offsets. The report, commissioned by the Australian Conservation Foundation and Solutions for Climate Australia, underscored the need for for the government to prioritise real emissions cuts in the reform of the Safeguard Mechanism. The report featured in ABC News, The Guardian, and Michael West Media.

  • The People's Climate Assembly continued to welcome politicians to Parliament with banners on Melbourne Avenue. Teal MP Kate Chaney supported the community's call for a strong Safeguard Mechanism.

  • Lighter Footprints, Higgins Climate Action Network, Darebin Climate Action Now, and Ashwood Climate Action Network held a second 'vigil' at BHP's Melbourne HQ. 

  • The Dirty Dozen Clean-Up Crew visited the Brisbane headquarters of coal company, Glencore. The creative action occurred a day after the Queensland Conservation Council publicly criticised the company for sending record profits overseas while Australia faces climate-fuelled bushfires and heatwaves. 

Learn more about our National Day of Action on March 10, 2023 here

March 2023

●     Friends of the Earth, Tomorrow Movement, and community members rally at Shell’s Melbourne headquarters to highlight the company's legacy of pollution.

●     School Strike for Climate hold rallies in Canberra, Perth, Sydney, Hobart, and Castlemaine. The call for governments to deliver "real carbon cuts, not offsets" is among the movement's demands.

●     Friends of the Earth and Climate Action Merri-bek hold a stall at the iconic Sydney Road Street Party in Brunswick, Victoria.

●     Friends of the Earth take the call to Safeguard Our Climate to the National Sustainable Living Festival's Great Local Picnic and Melbourne Girls College's annual Pedal-Powered Cinema event.

●     A delegation of community members from across the country visit Parliament House to advocate for a strong Safeguard Mechanism. Participants represent communities affected by climate-fuelled floods and bushfires as well as doctors, parents and constituents of inner city Labor electorates met with 18 MPs and Senators.

●     GetUp! and Climate Action Network Australia join forces to place a full-page ad in The Canberra Times to amplify the community advocacy trip to Parliament House. 

●     Peoples Climate Assembly continue to welcome politicians to Parliament House with banners demanding a strong Safeguard Mechanism with no new gas, no new coal, and no dodgy offsets.

●     Leigh Ewbank from Solutions for Climate Australia joins the Project Planet podcast to talk Safeguard Mechanism and provide an update on the campaign to clean up Australia's Dirty Dozen polluters.

●     Hundreds of community members join in a National Day of Action to #SafeguardOurClimate by posting photos on social media on Friday 10 March.

●     Grassroots group Wodonga-Albury Towards Climate Health hold an action at a local Shell petrol station and secure coverage in The Border Mail.  

●     Peoples Climate Assembly and Canberra-based climate groups hold actions at the electorate offices of Minister Katy Gallagher, Assistant Minister Andrew Leigh, Alicia Payne, and David Smith.

●     Friends of the Earth visit ExxonMobil's Melbourne HQ to make some additions to the memorabilia wall.

●     Queensland Conservation Council send the 'Dirty Dozen Clean Up Crew' to Shell's Brisbane HQ.

●     Australian Parents for Climate Action drop a banner and hold a demonstration in Barwon Heads to reach public-holiday visitors on the Labour Day long weekend. The group called for the Albanese government to 'safeguard our kids' climate, not big polluters'.

●     Australian Parents for Climate Action present Minister for Climate Chris Bowen with a position paper on the Safeguard Mechanism reforms.

●     Climate Action Merri-bek hold a snap action at Peter Khalil's electorate office on Sydney Road in Coburg. The group was disappointed by lack of engagement on the Safeguard Mechanism reforms.

●     Extinction Rebellion ACT join the Uni Students for Climate Action rally in Canberra to call for 'no new gas, no new coal, no dodgy offsets.'

●     Banner drops occur on major arterial roads in the seats of Cooper, Macnamara, Wills, and Higgins.

●     More to come…