How would you measure our effectiveness?
Oct 9, 2017
A few weeks back, Matt Shardlow, CEO of Buglife, tweeted the chart underneath. It shows Platform apparently outstripping other UK environmental organisations in terms of our impact relative to our income. We were startled by this, and looked into the criteria and source. The data was collected for the Environmental Funders Network’s interesting 2017 report ‘What...
Boom! – Historic Union Vote for Climate Transition
Sep 13, 2017
A worker led movement for climate justice came one step closer to reality yesterday as the UK trade union movement unanimously passed a motion calling for a just climate transition for workers, divestment from fossil fuels and putting energy under public, democratic control. The motion was passed unanimously by the 5.7 million member TUC. What...
The River Resurfaces – reflecting on politically engaged art from the 1970s to today
Sep 12, 2017
I’m sitting talking with Caroline Tisdall, a friend who has known Platform since 1986. We first came into contact with her via the producer and curator Richard Demarco: along with him, she was among the first to champion artist Joseph Beuys in the English-speaking world. Beuys’ art and politics were critical influences in...
Bribes, bulldozers and BP: what makes a gas mega pipeline?
Sep 7, 2017
Earlier this week, the Guardian’s Azerbaijani Laundromat investigation uncovered thousands of covert payments totaling £2.2bn from Azerbaijan’s ruling elite to prominent Europeans through a network of opaque British companies. Today, Platform and other organisations had a letter published in the Guardian, filling in the blanks in the story. Azerbaijan is particularly keen to present a...
There is no magic money tree, except for handouts for BP
Jul 3, 2017
The UK government paid oil companies $312 million to drill in the North Sea during the fiscal year 2016-2017 according to a new report by the HMRC, The Times reports. Successive UK governments insist “there is no magic money tree” to fund public hospitals and schools, or to insulate cold homes. But apparently the magic...
Council workers’ largest trade union votes for divesting pensions
Jun 23, 2017
After two years of impressive mobilisation by UNISON grassroots members across England, Scotland and Wales, the trade union has officially taken on fossil fuel divestment policy. Yesterday the union’s National Delegate Conference voted unanimously to seek divestment of Local Government Pension Schemes from fossil fuels over five years giving due regard to fiduciary duty UNISON...
BP’s solution to the climate crisis: switch to gas
May 17, 2017
Gas will solve the climate crisis. This was the main message that BP’s CEO Bob Dudley wanted to get across at today’s annual general shareholder meeting. And it’s dangerous… Bob Dudley, BP chief, says if you closed all coal fired power plants tomorrow and replaced them with gas you would reach 2C warming scenario — Emily...
Conversations with Suzi Gablik – Living in wartime.
Apr 29, 2017
I’ve recently returned from a visit to my friend and mentor, Suzi Gablik, in Virginia, USA. She has been an inspiration to so many over the past 33 years since the publication of ‘Has Modernism Failed’, and later her book ‘Conversations Before The End of Time‘. Her work harnessed an ecological sensibility in the...
Argentinian community defies BP and Petrobras to ban fracking
Apr 3, 2017
The Argentinian municipality of Vista Alegre is fighting to keep in place a fracking ban on top of some of the biggest tight oil and gas fields in the country. The municipal council of Vista Alegre banned fracking by a unanimous decision in January. But right after the ban was officially published, the state attorney...
Azerbaijan suspended by extractive industries governance watchdog
Mar 16, 2017
On 9 March 2017, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), an initiative set up to promote transparency and good governance in oil, gas and mining industries, suspended Azerbaijan for failing to lift restrictions on civil society freedoms and address human rights concerns. The European Investment Bank (EIB) and The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development...
BP funds homophobia: an open letter
Feb 22, 2017
BP has built a reputation for itself as a LGBTQ-friendly employer, with Pride floats, a Stonewall top employer badge, and recruitment events for LGBTQ students. But BP’s donations and deals also keep in office notoriously homophobic politicians, from US Congressman John Culberson to Egyptian dictator Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. We started this open letter to call on...
UK-based and angry about #MuslimBan? Here’s 5 things to do.
Jan 30, 2017
UK people. Are you angry about Trump’s attempts to deport people from the US? Did you perhaps go to the Women’s March, or sign that oddly-worded petition about cancelling Trump’s visit? Well, we’ve got more work to do (join a protest against the #MuslimBan this week), and more importantly, more work to do at home. Muslim lives, the...
