In 2018 Greenpeace worked diligently to find ways to make rapid changes in these urgent times. We continued to focus more deeply on disrupting the systems, power dynamics and mindsets propping up a failed and destructive energy and agricultural industries.

Time for disruption

The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report makes it clear that we must fundamentally change the way we live and work, in order to prevent a climate disaster.

In short – we are in a fight for life on this planet.

The world needs a replacement of the power structures that have allowed our climate and biodiversity to be driven to the point where one million species are at risk of extinction.

With only a decade ahead of us to avert catastrophic warming, in the last year we focused externally on addressing drivers of climate change, at corporate and governance level. Internally we continued to shape the way we work, in order to deliver the most impact and give more to the wider environment and social justice movement. The Greenpeace Framework, created in 2016 as a organisational, continues to be the touchstone of decision-making and development.

This has meant opening up the organisation to develop a deeper and more collaborative connection with with our allies, social movements, and communities around the world. It has meant looking beyond only symptoms of environmental destruction and aiming to change systems and mindsets that justify and maintain the status quo. Our goal has been to identify the key opportunities that will inspire a movement.

The approach has enabled us to work more closely with indigenous peoples, as well as other non-governmental organisations (NGOs), in addition to our traditional and loyal supporter base of tens of millions of people worldwide. Together we achieved significant victories in the last year.

Our Global Strategy

Greenpeace strives for a green and peaceful world — a powerful vision that is still at the centre of our work after four decades. But we realise change can’t come in incremental steps anymore. The crises our planet is facing are urgent and existential — the speed of action is critical and we must find ways to make fundamental change.

Our goals represent the most important “boundaries” for a healthy environment, and they reflect the most powerful ways to change the system for the long term. Therefore, all our campaigns seek to deliver as much as possible on all of the goals.

We acknowledge Greenpeace will never be big or powerful enough to reach these goals alone, but we can contribute to them by focusing our efforts in three ways:

• Using disruption: we seek to be fast and flexible so as to leverage events that fundamentally shift big parts of the system
• Putting culture and storytelling at the heart of our work, to influence and help shift power dynamics and change mindsets: with the use of “mind bombs” and unwavering optimism, make people look at the world in a new way, and spark them into action.

Placing the “billion acts of courage” and people power at the core of our work.

Our Global Goals: Shifting to a green and peaceful future

• Setting goals for environmental boundaries that can’t be crossed, particularly to protect biodiversity and control climate change as they are potentially irreversible.
• Changing mindsets that support unsustainable systems & shifting what people accept as normal.
• Changing power dynamics that hold us back, including who gets to decide rules and priorities, who influences key players in our systems, & who benefits.

Report by Greenpeace