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The Fossil Fuel Free Pledge Accelerates Climate Action

The initiative launched by leading climate organizations in San Diego cuts off the fossil fuel industry’s anti-climate influence.

The Fossil Fuel Free Pledge 

There are currently three pledge categories to help address the specific concerns and goals for each type of pledgee.

Pledge icon for Businesses and Nonprofit Organizations

Pledge for Businesses & Nonprofit Organizations

"We pledge to not take any money from the oil, gas, investor-owned utilities and coal industries, and we pledge to always prioritize the interests of equity, human health, our community, workers and the environment over interests of the fossil fuel and investor-owned utility profits."

Pledge icon for Philanthropists and Philanthropic Organizations

Pledge for Philanthropists & Philanthropic Organizations

"We pledge that we have divested our endowment from fossil fuels and are committed to avoiding any fossil fuel investments in the future. We also pledge to avoid granting and investing in climate programs that are also funded by fossil fuel companies and that enable greenwashing."

Pledge icon for Elected Officials and Candidates

Pledge for Elected Officials & Candidates

"We pledge to not take any money from the oil, gas, investor-owned utilities and coal industries, including political action committee contributions, and we pledge to always prioritize the interests of equity, human health, our community, workers and the environment over interests of the fossil fuel and investor-owned utility profits."

Launch Event
Image of launch event flyer
Image of launch event directions map
Image of launch event speaker Dr. Bhat-Patel
Image of launch event speaker Georgette Gomez
Image of launch event speaker Karinna Gonzalez

The Fossil Fuel Free Pledge launch event will be taking place on Thursday, August 11 at 10:30 a.m. in Mission Bay - that's right, IN the bay, showing parts of our community will be underwater due sea level rise among many other climate change impacts.

Please meet at 1258 E Mission Bay Dr, San Diego, CA 92109 (Fiesta Island dirt parking lot adjacent to the event location) and there will be directional signage which will lead you to the event. If you have any questions, please contact Maya at 858-215-3135.  See you there!

Learn More

About the Pledge

This initiative provides transparency to the community about which organizations and elected officials have pledged to not accept fossil fuel money as part of their commitment to a healthy, equitable, ethical, just transition and sustainable world.

We have witnessed how fossil fuel money given to elected officials and nonprofit organizations has eroded bold climate action for the sake of shareholder profits. This needs to stop. We need leaders and organizations to reject fossil fuel money, be held accountable and commit to real climate leadership.

How to Pledge

If your organization or if you are an elected official that would like to take the pledge, please fill in the sign-up form below to indicate interest and we will email you with confirmation and next steps.

"Our organization should be as carbon neutral as the bicycles we work so hard to promote as a healthy and sustainable mode of transportation."

San Diego Bike Coalition

"We believe in a healthier ocean and world for all! The fossil fuel industry directly impacts the communities we work with and we won't support this."

Paddle for Peace

"I'm a firm believer in people-powered campaigns, transparency, elections that are free from corporate influence, and electing candidates who are not beholden to the fossil fuel industry."

Helix Water District Division 2 Candidate Andrea Beth Damsky

"It’s time for our city to stand up for a climate action plan with teeth and that transitions San Diego from carbon quickly. The fossil fuel pledge provides the transparency and accountability we need from our elected leaders."

San Diego City Council District 2 Candidate Dr. Joel Day

“The fossil fuel industry has used its wealth and political power to mislead the public and stymie climate action and climate justice for over six decades. By signing this pledge, organizations and candidates are putting their money where their mouth is and showing the community that they are part of the solution – not part of the problem.”

SanDiego350

"Financial investment is the lifeblood of fossil fuel projects around the world. We must choke off the supply of funds to make headway in the fight against climate change."

Futures Unbound

"The only way to stop them [utilities] is to stop giving them our money and to stop taking theirs."

The Climate Reality Project

"It is time to transition away from fossil fuels and limiting the political influence of companies who profit from fossil fuels is an important part of that transition."

City of San Marcos Mayoral Candidate Randy Walton

"We only have a few short years to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50% if we are to avoid the worse consequences of climate change. As an organization we will not do anything that enables the fossil fuel industry to continue to endanger the lives of our children and grandchildren, including accepting any money from fossil fuel corporations."

North County Climate Change Alliance

"The political and “charitable” donations made by profit-driven fossil fuel companies corrupt every level of our political process. These profoundly anti-democratic donations allow big oil and gas to pollute frontline communities, expropriate Indigenous lands, block the transition to clean energy, and accelerate global warming during a climate emergency."

Democratic Socialists Of America – San Diego

"Our future, our only future, is a carbon-neutral future."

Carlsbad City Council Candidate Sam Ward

“The pollution and GHG emissions from fossil fuels pose a direct threat to our ocean, waves and beaches in San Diego County.”

Surfrider Foundation San Diego

"As we finally transition to a greener future, it’s essential that we as elected officials show our commitment by taking the fossil free pledge."

Carlsbad Council Member Priya Bhat-Patel

"We must act now to save our environment for future generations. This pledge is important to me because it shows commitment to climate action."

San Diego City Council President pro Tem Monica Montgomery Steppe

"The pledge is important to our organization because our primary purpose is decarbonization."

Center for Community Energy

"The BQuest Foundation believes that any organization that is committed to fighting the climate crisis should divest from companies that are perpetuating the use of fossil fuels. Profiting off of fossil fuel-related investments while also donating to climate-related causes is a fundamental misalignment of an organization's mission and investments and undermines their purpose. We also believe that philanthropic organizations should strive to avoid commingling their funding with fossil fuel-related businesses in ways that enable greenwashing. When a company whose primary business model is based on fossil fuels then donates to climate-related causes, they are greenwashing their reputation as a business that "cares" about climate change."

Bquest Foundation

"I fear for my 8 year old daughter's future. Climate change is an existential threat and we need to act immediately and decisively to prevent its most disastrous impacts."

Solana Beach City Council District 2 Candidate Kristin Brinner

"The fossil fuel industry is clearly not shifting to renewables with anything like the speed required to avoid the worst aspects of climate change.  Instead they use their enormous profits to buy influence with politicians and to paper over their culpability with charitable donations.  Either way their money is tainted and all organizations and all electeds must refuse it.  For the sake of our cliimate we can do nothing less."

Interfaith Coalition for Earth Justice

"This pledge is important for my grandchildren's quality of life."

San Diego Urban Sustainability Coalition

"I serve on SDCP as CCA CAC representative for Imperial Beach. We are bringing green energy to IB, Chula Vista, La Mesa, San Diego, Encinitas and National City and incorporated SD County. I have been pleased to serve the past 2 1/2 years as Secretary of the Community Advisory Committee and continue to strive to bring 100% renewable energy to Imperial Beach."

Imperial Beach City Council District 3 Candidate Anna Webb

"Taking the Fossil Fuel Free Pledge is another step in our commitment to advocate for a cleaner, greener future. We cannot continue to let monied interest dictate our environmental policies. Change starts with the people demanding fossil fuel money out of politics."

Change Begins With Me

"We are in a climate emergency. We can’t wait for a top-down approach. Local action is needed to take the lead."

Solana Beach Councilmember Kristi Becker

"It’s critical to live more sustainably and we need to show it as individuals."

CA Assembly District 80 Candidate Georgette Gómez

"Our Mission is to protect and enhance the natural environment throughout San Diego. Fossil fuel extraction does not protect or enhance our natural environment."

Environmental Center of San Diego

“The Fossil Fuel Free Pledge campaign sheds light on what nonprofit organizations and elected officials truly stand for and believe in. This pledge also gives the public, voters, donors and philanthropists a greater sense of security knowing that the nonprofits and elected officials they choose to support do not stand behind greenwashing and won’t be compromised by a fossil fuel agenda that erodes climate action.” 

Hammond Climate Solutions Foundation

"Caring for the earth is a matter of faith.  We believe that we must strive to be ethical at all levels of the organization, especially in how we deal with finances.  We appreciate this important call to divest from fossil fuels and focus on ensuring that our earth is sustainable for future generations."

University Christian Church

“We want to lead by example and send a message to fossil fuel companies who think they can buy their way into continuing to pollute our environment.”

San Diego Coast Keeper

"The goal of SD-SEQUEL (San Diegans for Sustainable, Equitable & Quiet Equipment in Landscaping) is to transition away from gas-powered lawn maintenance equipment to electric. Small off-road engines produce more smog forming emissions than all of the cars in California."

SD-SEQUEL

"I am fiercely determined to do everything in my power to shift us to zero carbon, and freeing our democratic institutions from the grip of the fossil fuel industry is essential that work."

San Diego Unified School District School Board Candidate Dr. Cody Petterson

"We must do better to preserve our Mother Earth and address the Climate Crisis we are currently facing, our future generations are depending on us."

La Mesa City Council Candidate Mejgan Afshan

"Fossil fuel use is a significant contributor to climate change. As a candidate who is committed to fighting climate change, from rising sea levels on the coast, to wildfire and extreme temperatures in the desert, I believe it is vital that we are focused on alternatives that are renewable, create policies to reduce current consumption, and stop the influence of fossil fuel money in government."

San Diego County District 5 Supervisor Dr. Tiffany Boyd-Hodgson

"We refuse to be bought by corporations that don't care about their impact on our climate or communities. We're signing this pledge to stand, firmly, with San Diegans fighting for a better, more sustainable future."

BikeSD

"When the responsibility of our climate crisis is shared we are more likely to work together towards the future that we all need."

Ivey Ranch Park Association

"Greenhouse gasses are contributing to climate change and will end up making our planet uninhabitable. Burning fossil fuels needs to stop."

City of Encinitas Mayoral Candidate Tony Kranz

"Climate change is real and communities need to take action now for a sustainable future."

South Bay Sustainable Communities

"Financial investment is the lifeblood of fossil fuel projects around the world. We must choke off the supply of funds to make headway in the fight against climate change."

Futures Unbound

"When the responsibility of our climate crisis is shared we are more likely to work together towards the future that we all need."

Ivey Ranch Park Association

"It is time to transition away from fossil fuels and limiting the political influence of companies who profit from fossil fuels is an important part of that transition."

City of San Marcos Mayoral Candidate Randy Walton

"We believe in a healthier ocean and world for all! The fossil fuel industry directly impacts the communities we work with and we won't support this."

Paddle for Peace

"The BQuest Foundation believes that any organization that is committed to fighting the climate crisis should divest from companies that are perpetuating the use of fossil fuels. Profiting off of fossil fuel-related investments while also donating to climate-related causes is a fundamental misalignment of an organization's mission and investments and undermines their purpose. We also believe that philanthropic organizations should strive to avoid commingling their funding with fossil fuel-related businesses in ways that enable greenwashing. When a company whose primary business model is based on fossil fuels then donates to climate-related causes, they are greenwashing their reputation as a business that "cares" about climate change."

Bquest Foundation

"The fossil fuel industry is clearly not shifting to renewables with anything like the speed required to avoid the worst aspects of climate change.  Instead they use their enormous profits to buy influence with politicians and to paper over their culpability with charitable donations.  Either way their money is tainted and all organizations and all electeds must refuse it.  For the sake of our cliimate we can do nothing less."

Interfaith Coalition for Earth Justice

"The pledge is important to our organization because our primary purpose is decarbonization."

Center for Community Energy

"Taking the Fossil Fuel Free Pledge is another step in our commitment to advocate for a cleaner, greener future. We cannot continue to let monied interest dictate our environmental policies. Change starts with the people demanding fossil fuel money out of politics."

Change Begins With Me

"I serve on SDCP as CCA CAC representative for Imperial Beach. We are bringing green energy to IB, Chula Vista, La Mesa, San Diego, Encinitas and National City and incorporated SD County. I have been pleased to serve the past 2 1/2 years as Secretary of the Community Advisory Committee and continue to strive to bring 100% renewable energy to Imperial Beach."

Imperial Beach City Council District 3 Candidate Anna Webb

"Our future, our only future, is a carbon-neutral future."

Carlsbad City Council Candidate Sam Ward

"Greenhouse gasses are contributing to climate change and will end up making our planet uninhabitable. Burning fossil fuels needs to stop."

City of Encinitas Mayoral Candidate Tony Kranz

"We are in a climate emergency. We can’t wait for a top-down approach. Local action is needed to take the lead."

Solana Beach Councilmember Kristi Becker

"I fear for my 8 year old daughter's future. Climate change is an existential threat and we need to act immediately and decisively to prevent its most disastrous impacts."

Solana Beach City Council District 2 Candidate Kristin Brinner

"We must do better to preserve our Mother Earth and address the Climate Crisis we are currently facing, our future generations are depending on us."

La Mesa City Council Candidate Mejgan Afshan

"I'm a firm believer in people-powered campaigns, transparency, elections that are free from corporate influence, and electing candidates who are not beholden to the fossil fuel industry."

Helix Water District Division 2 Candidate Andrea Beth Damsky

"Climate change is real and communities need to take action now for a sustainable future."

South Bay Sustainable Communities

"The goal of SD-SEQUEL (San Diegans for Sustainable, Equitable & Quiet Equipment in Landscaping) is to transition away from gas-powered lawn maintenance equipment to electric. Small off-road engines produce more smog forming emissions than all of the cars in California."

SD-SEQUEL

"We must act now to save our environment for future generations. This pledge is important to me because it shows commitment to climate action."

San Diego City Council President pro Tem Monica Montgomery Steppe

"The political and “charitable” donations made by profit-driven fossil fuel companies corrupt every level of our political process. These profoundly anti-democratic donations allow big oil and gas to pollute frontline communities, expropriate Indigenous lands, block the transition to clean energy, and accelerate global warming during a climate emergency."

Democratic Socialists Of America – San Diego

"We only have a few short years to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50% if we are to avoid the worse consequences of climate change. As an organization we will not do anything that enables the fossil fuel industry to continue to endanger the lives of our children and grandchildren, including accepting any money from fossil fuel corporations."

North County Climate Change Alliance

"Our organization should be as carbon neutral as the bicycles we work so hard to promote as a healthy and sustainable mode of transportation."

San Diego Bike Coalition

"I am fiercely determined to do everything in my power to shift us to zero carbon, and freeing our democratic institutions from the grip of the fossil fuel industry is essential that work."

San Diego Unified School District School Board Candidate Dr. Cody Petterson

"The only way to stop them [utilities] is to stop giving them our money and to stop taking theirs."

The Climate Reality Project

"It’s time for our city to stand up for a climate action plan with teeth and that transitions San Diego from carbon quickly. The fossil fuel pledge provides the transparency and accountability we need from our elected leaders."

San Diego City Council District 2 Candidate Dr. Joel Day

"Caring for the earth is a matter of faith.  We believe that we must strive to be ethical at all levels of the organization, especially in how we deal with finances.  We appreciate this important call to divest from fossil fuels and focus on ensuring that our earth is sustainable for future generations."

University Christian Church

"Fossil fuel use is a significant contributor to climate change. As a candidate who is committed to fighting climate change, from rising sea levels on the coast, to wildfire and extreme temperatures in the desert, I believe it is vital that we are focused on alternatives that are renewable, create policies to reduce current consumption, and stop the influence of fossil fuel money in government."

San Diego County District 5 Supervisor Dr. Tiffany Boyd-Hodgson

"It’s critical to live more sustainably and we need to show it as individuals."

CA Assembly District 80 Candidate Georgette Gómez

"Air pollution from fossil fuels causes the premature deaths of 1 in 5 people worldwide.  Fossil fuels emit toxic chemicals, heavy metals, smog and pollution that poison the air our children breathe, the water they drink, harm nearly every cell in the body, trigger asthma and heart attacks and lead to strokes, cancer, diabetes, lung, heart and brain illnesses and neuroinflammation that causes cognitive decline and diseases such as dementia, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.  Our children’s health, ability to learn, and thrive depend on a fossil-free future. Fossil fuel pollution ended the lives of over 8 million people in 2018, according to Harvard University, University of Birmingham, University Leicester and University College London. Studies directly link premature deaths from particulate pollution to fossil fuel combustion. Fossil fuels emit toxic pollution and climate warming Greenhouse gases and directly threaten public health, education, equity, racial, social, climate and environmental justice, ecosystems, oceans, rivers, forests, wildlife, birds, pollinators, soil, crops, food, water and geopolitical security.  Our children need us to do everything in our power to ensure that we have a fossil-free future.  All children need clean air to breathe, safe water to drink, access to parks, green spaces and public lands free of toxic chemicals, heavy metals, smog, Greenhouse gases and pollution. The actions we take today affect the health and welfare of our children and their future. Please join us at CleanEarth4Kids.org to work for a healthier world."

CleanEarth4Kids

"This pledge is important for my grandchildren's quality of life."

San Diego Urban Sustainability Coalition

"In the sea, on land, and in the air, humanity is strangling our planet in a climate disaster actively aggravated by deforestation, pollution, and species destruction.  As the co-founder and former president of San Diego County Democrats for Environmental Action, coordinator and consultant to the ReWild Mission Bay campaign through the San Diego Audubon Society, a former Surfrider San Diego and Oregon Wild communications chair, the founder and host of the Treehuggers International radio program, and an active environmental and conservation advocate throughout my personal and professional life, I'm ardently opposed to the influence of fossil fuel conglomerates in thwarting effective climate, renewable energy, and conservation policies, and I reject those companies' undue and considerable influence in all levels of government."

San Diego City Council District 6 Candidate Tommy Hough

"As we finally transition to a greener future, it’s essential that we as elected officials show our commitment by taking the fossil free pledge."

Carlsbad Council Member Priya Bhat-Patel

"Our Mission is to protect and enhance the natural environment throughout San Diego. Fossil fuel extraction does not protect or enhance our natural environment."

Environmental Center of San Diego

"We refuse to be bought by corporations that don't care about their impact on our climate or communities. We're signing this pledge to stand, firmly, with San Diegans fighting for a better, more sustainable future."

BikeSD

“We want to lead by example and send a message to fossil fuel companies who think they can buy their way into continuing to pollute our environment.”

San Diego Coast Keeper

“The pollution and GHG emissions from fossil fuels pose a direct threat to our ocean, waves and beaches in San Diego County.”

Surfrider Foundation San Diego

“The fossil fuel industry has used its wealth and political power to mislead the public and stymie climate action and climate justice for over six decades. By signing this pledge, organizations and candidates are putting their money where their mouth is and showing the community that they are part of the solution – not part of the problem.”

SanDiego350

“The Fossil Fuel Free Pledge campaign sheds light on what nonprofit organizations and elected officials truly stand for and believe in. This pledge also gives the public, voters, donors and philanthropists a greater sense of security knowing that the nonprofits and elected officials they choose to support do not stand behind greenwashing and won’t be compromised by a fossil fuel agenda that erodes climate action.” 

Hammond Climate Solutions Foundation

Take the Pledge

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