The Leave it in the Ground Fund (LINGO Fund) is an innovative tool to fight the climate emergency. It has one purpose: to keep as much oil, gas and coal in the ground as possible.
Companies, organizations and individuals are called to address their unavoidable emissions by donating to the Fund. Through these donations the LINGO Fund supports environmental organizations and frontline activists in their fight against fossil fuel projects. The LINGO Fund is a powerful alternative to offsetting. By donating to the LINGO Fund and supporting resistance to fossil fuel projects, you can create a much bigger carbon handprint with your money!
Contribute to the Leave it in the Ground Fund todayand fight climate change at the root!
Stopping a fossil gas pipeline through earthquake territory
A planned pipeline in the coastal region of Chiapas in Southern Mexico shall bring fracked gas all the way from the US to Central America. A 8.2 magnitude earthquake, which happened in 2017 directly offshore of the place where the pipeline is being planned and caused great destruction in the region, highlights the tremendous hazard it represents.
We support local activists in carrying out information campaigns regarding the risk the gas pipeline represents for people and the environment.
Fossil fuel project size:
145 million cubic feet of fossil gas per day
Potential emissions:
3 million tons of CO2 per year
Resistance budget:
500 Euros
Potential impact:
6,000 tons of CO2 per Euro per year
To learn more about this project, please contact us.
At LINGO we think in million tons of CO2 and tackle the drivers of the climate emergency directly.
Contribute to the Leave it in the Ground Fund todayand fight climate change at the root!
Feeding the Leave it in the Ground Fund is similar to “offsetting” your emissions, and very different at the same time. In offsetting you try to make the harm undone, e.g. by planting trees or financing (additional) renewable energy. The problem is, none of these brings the fossil carbon back into the ground! The Leave it in the Ground Fund goes right to the root of the problem. To be very clear: even the Leave it in the Ground Fund can not put your emissions back underground. But we link the emitting behaviour with its effective, society-wide solution: turning off the tap.
The LINGO Fund provides environmental organizations and frontline activists with additional financial means for logistic, material, and legal support in order to carry out their specific environmental campaigns opposing fossil fuel projects. When these campaigns manage to stop fossil fuel projects millions of tons of CO2 will be kept in the ground.
This is very hard to say. The key ingredient of keeping fossil fuels in the ground is the hard work of environmental defenders and frontline communities, and of pioneers pushing game-changers forward. The financial contribution by the Leave it in the Ground Fund is not the reason why they are doing this, only one enabling factor. Therefore we cannot attribute successes in canceling extraction projects directly to the amount of money we have supported with. Having said this, most projects are in the range of millions of tons of CO2 and the financial contributions we are making are in the range of a few hundred to a few ten thousand Euros. This means that in the cases where we are successful, it is a ratio of at least a hundred tons kept in the ground for each Euro spent by our Fund.
The point of the Leave it in the Ground Fund is not “carbon neutrality”, where you compensate at the same time as you keep emitting. Our goal is to stop fossil fuel burning. Because we realize that this is not just one simple step with immediate effect, but rather often takes a transition, we suggest that you tax yourself on fossil fuels with a 100% tax. Each Euro spent on fossils means one additional Euro goes to the Leave it in the Ground Fund. (But it could be 10% or 20%.) By linking your spending on fossil fuels to the Leave it in the Ground Fund, the very thing we are trying to solve (burning fossil fuels) creates the countercurrent that will stop it, thus creating a negative feedback loop in the system.
Your question wasn’t answered? We’re happy if you contact us.
