WePlanet is an

alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or sovereign state, states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an a ...

of many environmental organizations worldwide. According to the organization's website, the alliance is made up of organizations from eighteen countries. Launched in the 2010s as "RePlanet", its name was changed to "WePlanet" in 2023 citing potential conflicts with existing companies following expansion. WePlanet and most of its affiliate national organizations are associated with an

ecomodernist Ecomodernism is an Environmentalism, environmental philosophy which argues that Research and development, technological development can protect nature and improve human wellbeing through eco-economic decoupling, i.e., by separating economic growt ...

environmental philosophy. Ecomodernism places emphasis on pragmatic,

evidence-based Evidence-based practice is the idea that occupational practices ought to be based on scientific evidence. The movement towards evidence-based practices attempts to encourage and, in some instances, require professionals and other decision-makers ...

and science-backed solutions to address the problems created by the environmental crisis. Ecomodernism also advocates the benefits of technical progress for the environment. Young ecomodernist activists claim that older environmental NGOs and established

green parties A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace social democratic economic policies and form coalitions with ...

have often stuck to anti-technology positions inherited from the 20th century, which the new urgency of climate change should have lead them to question Critics of WePlanet have often targeted ecomodernism in general, including attacking its reliance on

Technological fix A technological fix, technical fix, technological shortcut or (techno-)solutionism is an attempt to use engineering or technology to solve a problem (often created by earlier technological interventions). Some references define technological f ...

, and portraying its view of

eco-economic decoupling In economic and environmental fields, decoupling refers to an economy that would be able to grow without corresponding increases in environmental pressure. In many economies, increasing production ( GDP) raises pressure on the environment. An ...

dystopian A dystopia (lit. "bad place") is an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives. It is an imagined place (possibly state) in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmenta ...

. UK environmentalist

George Monbiot George Joshua Richard Monbiot ( ; born 27 January 1963) is an English journalist, author, and Environmental movement, environmental and political activist. He writes a regular column for ''The Guardian'' and has written several books. Monbiot ...

has criticized ecomodernists for their assumed subservience to corporate interests as well as for their irrational faith in a literal and unidimensional view of modernization. Monbiot appears, however, to view WePlanet as different from the ecomodernist mainstream, because he has teamed up with them for the "Reboot food" campaign. This has, in turn, lead to Monbiot becoming the target of critics from anti-

GMO A genetically modified organism (GMO) is any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. The exact definition of a genetically modified organism and what constitutes genetic engineering varies, with ...

activists for this supposed about-face and WePlanet being accused of

astroturfing Astroturfing is the deceptive practice of hiding the Sponsor (commercial), sponsors of an orchestrated message or organization (e.g., political, economic, advertising, religious, or public relations) to make it appear as though it originates from ...

. WePlanet claims to differ from the technocentrist tendencies of ecomodernism by advocating

rewilding Rewilding is a form of ecological restoration aimed at increasing biodiversity and restoring natural processes. It differs from other forms of ecological restoration in that rewilding aspires to reduce human influence on ecosystems. It is also d ...

as a non-technical objective, associated with land-sparing agriculture

Activities

Nuclear energy advocacy

This is the most visible rift between the newer environmental organizations like WePlanet and the older established ones. WePlanet and affiliate national organizations are known for advocating

nuclear energy Nuclear energy may refer to: *Nuclear power, the use of sustained nuclear fission or nuclear fusion to generate heat and electricity *Nuclear binding energy, the energy needed to fuse or split a nucleus of an atom *Nuclear potential energy, the pot ...

as a safe,

dense Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the ratio of a substance's mass to its volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' (or ''d'') can also be use ...

and clean source of energy that is more indispensable than ever for

decarbonisation Climate change mitigation (or decarbonisation) is action to limit the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that cause climate change. Climate change mitigation actions include conserving energy and replacing fossil fuels with clean energy sour ...

by way of massive

electrification Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. In the context of history of technology and economic development, electrification refe ...

. This has led to several campaigns to oppose shutting down existing nuclear power plants, among which a 2023 open letter to german chancellor

Olaf Scholz Olaf Scholz (; born 14 June 1958) is a German politician who served as the Chancellor of Germany from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD), he previously served as Vice-Chancellor of Ge ...

, initiated by WePlanet (Replanet at the time) and signed by two dozen scientists and Nobel laureates. WePlanet Africa have also lead a pro-nuclear campaign of their own A campaign, Dear Greenpeace, urging

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by a group of Environmental movement, environmental activists. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its biod ...

to take into account the climate emergency to abandon its entrenched opposition to nuclear power has been lead by a group of young activists from Weplanet, with Ia Aanstoot at the forefront, casting Greenpeace as, by contrast, an "old-fashioned" organization clinging to the long-held positions of its 1970s founders.

"Switch off Putin"

In the wake of the war in Ukraine, WePlanet has issued two reports under this title, advocating strong restrictive measures to curtail import of oil and gas from Russia, as well as limitations on the use of biofuels to address the food crisis resulting from reduced exports from Ukraine.

New Gene Technologies

In January 2024, on the occasion of the discussion and vote by the

EU parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it a ...

of new regulations applying to organisms modified by "new genomic techniques" (arising from the use of the newer CRISPR-based gene editing tools), WePlanet initiated an open letter to EU lawmakers.

Reboot Food

As advocated by, among others,

, the huge share of the world's land dedicated to the production of meat, with a huge direct impact on biodiversity and climate change, could get progressively reduced if new technologies such as

precision fermentation Industrial fermentation is the intentional use of fermentation in manufacturing processes. In addition to the mass production of fermented foods and drinks, industrial fermentation has widespread applications in chemical industry. Commodity chem ...

were used to produce protein, with a gain in efficiency of land-use by a factor of around 40000. The land thus reclaimed from its use for meat production could get rewilded, with large-scale benefits in terms of biodiversity, carbon storage and recreational activities.

Reduce Charcoal use

This campaign initiated by WePlanet african chapters is intended to raise awareness about all the negative impacts of the use of charcoal as a fuel. Charcoal and other wood fuels are responsible for a large share of the deforestation in Africa and developing countries, and are also catastrophic in terms of indoor air pollution. Deaths caused by indoor pollution are said to have increased by 60% from 1990 to 2017, according to a

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

report. The campaign promotes alternative solutions such as clean cookstoves and renewable energy sources.

Affiliate national organizations

* Finland : Suomen ekomodernistit * Sweden : Ekomodernisterna * Poland : FOTA4climate * Germany :Eco-Progressive Network//WePlanet DACH * France : Les Eco-Humanistes/Ecohumans * Netherlands : WePlanet Nederland * Belgium : WePlanet Belgium * Australia : WePlanet Australia * Africa: wePlanet Africa

Notes

References

{{Conservation organisations Environmental advocacy groups