climate crisis

Europe currently wastes land the size of Ireland on crops for biofuels which is an obstacle to tackling the climate crisis and food security, a new study shows. The study commissioned by T&E shows that this land could be used to feed 120 million people or, if given back to nature, could absorb twice as much CO2 as is supposedly saved by powering cars with biofuels. Using an area equivalent to just 2.5% of this land for solar panels would produce the same amount of energy.

Friends of the Earth (Les Amis de la Terre) France, Notre Affaire à Tous and Oxfam France, who had given BNP Paribas formal notice to comply with its due diligence obligations on 26 October, sued BNP Paribas over its massive support to fossil fuels and for its substantial contribution to climate change. BNP Paribas is Europe’s largest and fifth worldwide funder of fossil fuel expansion: the three organizations urge the bank to immediately stop financing this expansion and to adopt an oil and gas exit plan. This is the world's first climate lawsuit against a commercial bank.

Responding to news of the $4.5 billion pledge made by the G7 leaders to tackle global hunger, Max Lawson, Head of Inequality Policy at Oxfam said:

‘Faced with the worst hunger crisis in a generation, the G7 have simply failed to take the action that is needed. Many millions will face terrible hunger and starvation as a result.’

Today, the European Commission released their Fit for 55 legislative package. This bundle aims to revise the EU’s current 2030 climate and energy rules. The package will implement the goal of reducing average EU carbon emissions by 55% in 2030. In response to the package, Evelien van Roemburg, Oxfam EU Head of Office said: “We are at a tipping point in the fight against the climate crisis. The EU has the opportunity to keep us from tipping over the edge by capping the rampant increase in global temperatures to 1.5° Celsius."

In response to the recent Amazon fires burning at a record rate and Macron's recent statement to block the EU trade agreement with Brazil at the G7 meeting, Katia Maia Oxfam Brazil Executive Director said we welcome Macron's warning to the Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro to take firm and immediate actions to save the Amazon forests, but warnings alone do not end fires. But the G7 countries, who are historically responsible for causing the climate crisis, have equal responsibility and must too take action.

Water-related disasters forced people to flee from their homes nearly eight million separate times in 10 of the world’s worst-hit countries last year, with many having to move multiple times – a 120% increase compared to a decade ago, said Oxfam today. 

In response to the outcome of COP28, Oxfam International’s Climate Change Policy Lead Nafkote Dabi said:

“Everyone fighting against the global climate crisis has little to celebrate from this disappointing COP28. Its final outcome is grossly inadequate. Oil, coal and gas won again, but they had to struggle harder to do so and their era is nearing its end." 
 

Global climate finance levels are woefully insufficient to keep warming below 1.5°C or protect people from the devastating impacts of climate breakdown —and this gap is particularly evident in countries mired in conflict or that are unable to provide basic services for their communities. 

In response to the launch by France and Kenya of an international taxation taskforce at COP28 to push for new levies to raise further money for climate action, Nafkote Dabi, Oxfam International’s Climate Change Policy Lead, said: “While the will to move the international tax agenda towards raising critical new funds for countries most affected by the climate crisis is welcome, the proposals being put on the table fall far short of what is needed. Taxing excess profits and the obscene wealth in the hands of the top 1% should be at the core of this initiative. That’s where the money is —and this is what is needed to help stop the runaway inequality that is fueling climate breakdown."

The richest 1 percent of the world’s population produced as much carbon pollution in 2019 than the five billion people who made up the poorest two-thirds of humanity, reveals a new Oxfam report today. It comes ahead of the UN climate summit in Dubai, amid growing fears that the 1.5°C target for curtailing rising temperatures appears increasingly unachievable.