Researchers have found that taking action goes a long way to alleviating climate anxiety, and can even “transform feelings into optimism and determination”. Young people who take action “feel optimistic, calmer and in control,” one of several studies found.

We’re launching a “community journey” for the rest of 2026, designed to bring you all a little closer to our work and to each other. Sign up, take part in our activities when you can, and we’ll note all your contributions. At the end, we’ll acknowledge those who complete the journey as our “climate champions”.

Last week, we launched our first Conscious Capital course on the links between personal finance, social justice, and environmental security, at UCT. Conscious Capital is exploring how to manage our money and become more financially secure in ways that also support the prosperity of others.

Our fellow NPO The Green Connection has developed a South African variant “doughnut economics” called “koeksister economics”, which is empowering a host of West Coast communities

After 10 years of lobbying – supported largely by high-school students – Fossil Free California succeeded in persuading a major college savings plan to divest its enormous $16.5 billion in assets from coal, oil, and gas companies.

At Fossil Free SA, we support a truly just and inclusive transition to renewable energy. Our role is not to build energy projects ourselves, but to help shape the social, financial, and political conditions that make such a transition possible.

One of the most beneficial elements of South Africa’s JET is the emergence of Socially Owned Renewable Energy (SORE) — renewable energy projects that are owned, governed, or meaningfully shared by communities and workers.

Socially owned and community-benefiting renewable projects remain rare. Oxpeckers’ #PowerTracker reveals that only 15% of all renewable energy projects in South Africa offer any form of community benefit.

There are several ways you can support and amplify the work of Fossil Free SA and our fellow NPOs advocating for climate justice and the JET.

Looking back at 2025, it’s not our achievements that stand out but our sense that we are part of a still growing and unstoppable movement for climate justice – with you, our supporters and partners. Very little of our work was done alone. Most of it was planned and grew wings within a large community of fellow activists and citizens.

A special drum roll goes to our many volunteers and supporters. Your passion for our work inspires us to keep on going, and your generous contributions have grown our organisation into a community. You regularly attend our events, champion us on social media, volunteer your time and efforts, and donate to our organisation – in no particular order of importance. Thank you!

The University of Cape Town’s Convocation, the body representing alumni and academics, has again backed our call for the university to divest from all fossil fuels by 2029, the deadline it set three years ago. The motion was passed at the Convocation meeting of 4 December 2025 to resounding applause.

In our first legal case, Fossil Free South Africa is joining shareholder activist organisation Just Share and asset manager Aeon Investment Management in court action against coal company Thungela Resources. The outcome could set a precedent for all South African companies’ accountability to their shareholders on issues including climate.

Fossil Free SA has just launched a campaign called Climate Hope to share a host of little-known truths about the best ways of ensuring a stable climate and a future in which we can all flourish.

The facts of Climate Hope, all backed by reputable research, are that a cleaner, greener future is well within reach.

“We can’t close down the coal industry, or jobs will be lost. In fact, we need more coal.”

This myth has been promoted for years by politicians including our Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe and the coal industry.

‍But the consensus from energy experts is that renewable energy creates far more jobs than coal, oil and gas – almost three times as many, one study finds.

Clean air to breathe and safe drinking water are surely the most basic of human needs.

But members of the KwaZuka coal-facing community in Mpumalanga told our Fossil Ad Ban (FAB) campaigners at recent workshops how acid mine drainage is seeping into their drinking water and the areas where their children play.

Are South African parliamentarians investing through their pension funds in coal, oil, and gas companies, the primary drivers of climate breakdown?

Are they investing in companies that supply arms and commodities to regimes known to be abusing human rights? Fossil Free SA and Open Secrets are seeking answers to these questions.

Alkemi Collective has become Africa’s first creative agency to endorse the Fossil Ad Ban (FAB) campaign, which calls for a nationwide ban on all coal, oil and gas advertisements in a bid to help address the climate crisis by shifting public perception.  

What does it mean to rub shoulders with Al Gore − and join the 67 000-strong group of activists in his Climate Reality Project? Two of our campaigners, Sandrine Mpazayabo and Steph Cookson (pictured bottom far right, and left of Al Gore respectively), found out when they trained as mentors for the project recently.

Fossil Free SA is often challenged about our emphasis on reining in fossil fuel companies to stop climate breakdown. Here is our response − which you, too, can use when speaking to people who insist that we all need coal, oil and gas.