Press releases

A global humanitarian catastrophe can still be averted if governments make climate action a priority, said Oxfam today ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in Poland.

Governments must move quickly at this year’s first UN climate change meeting to plug the gaping deficit of funds to help developing countries adapt to climate change and lower their emissions.

Responding to the latest finance text that came out today, international climate change policy adviser Tim Gore said:
 

Oxfam welcomes the new European Commission proposals for advancing climate talks. However, while the EC has highlighted emissions reduction loopholes in the Copenhagen Accord, it has ignored major loopholes on climate finance.

The biggest French food company fails to provide a strong commitment to fight climate change and support small-scale farmer resilience.

In response to President Obama’s climate plan announcement scheduled for this afternoon Gawain Kripke, research and policy director for Oxfam America said:
 

As the COP19 climate talks start, poor countries are being left with little idea about what money is available to help them cope with climate change because of murky accounting and a lack of transparency by rich countries.

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. 

Mr. Malpass must push the World Bank to champion policies that tackle climate change, reduce inequalities and lead to investment in free public education and health.

As climate talks in Germany wrap up, both poor and rich nations increasingly recognize that fixing the climate change adaptation funding gap, one of the biggest holes in the Paris Agreement, will be a major challenge at the next United Nations conference in Morocco.
 

We have said we stand in solidarity with the millions impacted by Typhoon Haiyan, and with all climate impacted people. Our solidarity compels us to tell the truth about COP 19 and to voluntarily withdraw from the Warsaw climate talks.

Rich polluting countries such as Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and the US are short-changing poor countries by billions of dollars that they need to cut emissions and adapt to the climate crisis, says Oxfam. The two-day pledging conference to the Green Climate Fund begins in Paris today.

As the latest round of UNFCCC talks on climate change draw to a close today, Oxfam warns that there has been a clear lowering of expectations ahead of the next UN climate summit in Cancun which will stall the progress needed unless negotiations step up several gears.

Our new report warns multiple climate impacts could reverse 50 years of work to end poverty. Shifting seasons are destroying harvests and causing widespread hunger - but this is just one of the multiple climate change impacts taking their toll on the world’s poorest people.

The European Union is rumored to be preparing just a token handout for climate action in poor countries for the next three years, with no guarantee that this money is going to come on top of existing aid commitments.

The European Commission today published – as part of its “summer package” – a legislative proposal to reform the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). The Commission has failed to use this key opportunity to help address a key stumbling block in the climate negotiations: the provision of predictable and additional climate finance.  

The European Union’s suggestion today of global public financing worth €22-€50 billion per year for developing countries to tackle climate change falls short of what is needed.

Global business leaders could make a significant contribution toward a fair and safe deal to tackle climate change when they meet at an international summit in Copenhagen beginning May 24.