John,

I won’t lie: reading the news, it’s hard to be optimistic.

But I get a rush of hope every time I think about what we’re achieving,
despite the odds.

We might be a relatively small community, but together in our millions we
can take on the biggest issues in the world – from climate to big tech to
the war in Gaza – and win.

So grab a drink and savour these important updates from just a few of the
campaigns we’re working on together –

Climate: we’re forcing major insurance companies to drop fossil fuel projects

[1]Photo taken in London's financial district, with bankers in suits
walking by in the background. Two campaigners are in the centre Ekō
holding climate campaign signs, and in the foreground are more campaigners
holding hands.

Month after month, we’re breaking heat records worldwide, while the
predatory global financial industry continues to pour fuel on the fire,
investing in and insuring new fossil fuel projects that our planet simply
can’t handle. So, with help from thousands of Ekō members’ actions and
donations, we’re taking them on, over and over again.

And we just got a huge win: Zurich Insurance Group – with $439.3 billion
in assets – has finally committed to stop insuring new oil and gas
extraction projects! The good news came after years of pressure from
activists young and old – and right on the heels of a Global Week of
Action where Ekō members all over the world contacted key people at
Zurich, urging them to act.

This isn’t just a one-off victory, it’s a trend – we’re forcing insurer
after insurer to cut ties with this toxic industry.

We got six other insurers to say NO to TotalEnergies’ terrible East
African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project – companies that were put front
and center in our Global Week of Action. Working with our amazing
partners, and thousands of Ekō members who sent emails, made phone calls,
and protested at HQs – we’re turning this project into a pariah, and have
kept hope alive that we’ll stop the EACOP pipeline for good.

It’s a long fight to stop the financing of fossil fuels, but we’re proving
that together we are up for the challenge.

Technology: we’re exposing Big Tech’s dangers to democracy

[2]Photo of cardboard cut-out scene depicting CEOs of Facebook and TikTok
celebrating with glasses of champaign in the centre, and
distressed-looking young people beside them. The US Capitol building is
visible in the background.

2024 is a massive year of elections around the world – from the UK to
India to the US and more – and it has never been more important to ensure
that our democracy is safe from the disinformation that runs rampant on
social media.

That’s why we put our researchers to work uncovering a million dollar
disinformation network in India – and just the other day we got Meta
(Facebook) to take action against the shadowy far-right groups running
horrendous Islamophobic ads and amplifying dangerous misinformation
targeting voters in India’s elections. Together with India Civil Watch
International, our research also exposed how unprepared Facebook is for
AI-powered disinformation, and made headlines around the world – like
[ [link removed] ]here, [ [link removed] ]here, and [ [link removed] ]here.

And that’s not all. Ekō campaigners also published an investigation into
Instagram and TikTok, highlighting how the platforms are still rife with
harmful content targeting kids. We hand-delivered our research, alongside
dozens of messages from the Ekō community to key US lawmakers ahead of
hearings at US Congress.

Outside, we mounted a massive visual protest while Zuckerberg and TikTok’s
CEO testified. Our action was covered by tons of top media, like the New
York Times, NBC, and Al Jazeera, helping to frame the public debate.

We’ll never have Mark Zuckerberg’s wealth, but we can still challenge the
Facebook boss and his buddies all over the world, and push our governments
to put people before Big Tech’s profits.

Palestine: we’re holding AXA to its word on its investments in Israel's war
crimes

[6]Photo of demonstration outside of AXA's building in Paris where the
annual shareholder meeting was held. Protesters hold up Ekō campaign
placards in the foreground. A Palestinian flag is visible in the
background.

After years of brutal occupation, the Israeli government’s destruction of
Gaza is now in its seventh catastrophic month, with thousands of innocent
people left dead and hundreds of thousands more facing starvation and an
uncertain future. Governments and companies around the world continue to
be complicit, providing financing and weapons to Israel. But we’re
refusing to let them do it quietly. And we’re starting to win.

For five years we’ve campaigned to make insurance giant AXA divest from
Israeli corporations involved in the expansion of illegal settlements, and
deadly violence against Palestinians.

It’s been a big collective effort with a family of human rights advocates
and groups. Our first win was back in 2019, when AXA cut ties with
Israel’s biggest arms manufacturer, Elbit Systems. But AXA held onto its
shares in banks that directly enable illegal settlements with loans and
other financial services.

Finally, after years, and in light of the horrors happening today in
Palestine, AXA’s CEO announced at its shareholder meeting in April it's
cut “all ties to Israel’s banks”. This information came as a direct
response to a brave Ekō-member AXA shareholder speaking up at the
company's shareholder meeting in Paris.

It will take some weeks more to confirm – but one way or another, we’ll
keep pushing until we win at last!

I could go on and on... frankly, that’s one of the things I’m proudest of
about this community: we keep at it – we go on and on – even when the odds
are against us. That’s why we’re a force to be reckoned with, even when
taking on some of the biggest issues facing our people and our planet
today.



Thanks for all that you do,
Deborah and the team at Ekō


P.S. Breaking!! While we were finalizing this email, we heard about two
more wins made possible in part by this wonderful community!

First, the UK has finally banned the export of animals for slaughter and
fattening, another symptom of our broken relationship with nature. We
started campaigning years ago for this historic win!

And second, news that just came in from Down Under: a new cap on car
pollution is now law in Australia! Toyota fought HARD to block this, but
this critical policy will cut pollution from the transport sector,
Australia’s fastest growing source of emissions, in half in just 4 years.
The policy works by setting an emissions cap that car companies have to
meet across their whole fleet. 85% of the world’s car market has similar
standards in place, but Australia was holding out for years. Together,
we’ve helped ensure that Australia will no longer be a dumping ground for
the dirtiest, most inefficient cars in the world. Another big win on
climate!

Look forward to telling you about more victories soon!

More information:

[ [link removed] ]Thousands take part in powerful global week of action demanding
Insurance industry take climate action, Insure our future, 5 March 2024

[ [link removed] ]Zurich Insurance to Halt Coverage of New Fossil-Fuel Exposures,
Bloomberg, 8 April 2024

[ [link removed] ]Revealed: Meta approved political ads in India that incited violence,
The Guardian, 20 May 2024

[ [link removed] ]AXA Divests From Israeli Banks Financing War Crimes Against
Palestinians?, Ekō, 23 April 2024

 

 

Ekō is a worldwide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy.

Please help keep Ekō strong by chipping in $3. [link removed]