Press releases

As the second to last negotiations before Copenhagen draw to a close in Bangkok, three big sticking points remain. These issues show a lack of willingness of the EU and other industrialised countries to find common ground with developing countries.

Climate negotiations stuck: US becoming key obstacle on the road to Copenhagen. Rich countries have not put serious money on the table to help poor countries adapt to the escalating impacts of climate change.

Just over a week after tsunami waves scoured the southern coast of Samoa, killing one per cent of the population and seriously affecting one out of every six people, the relief effort is still urgent. But recovery is not just about immediate relief – it is about longer-term development.

Major greenhouse gas emitters must help poor countries cope with climate change while recognizing the human rights and gender aspects of climate change, a panel of judges ruled at the Asian People’s Climate Court in Bangkok on Tuesday.

Oxfam and a coalition of NGOs reveal death toll reaches 2.1 million in three years of talks about talks. Talks to establish an effective international treaty on the trade in conventional arms are going at a snail’s pace because of some major arms exporters.

Emeritus Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson, Honorary President of Oxfam International and former UN commissioner for human rights, will hear testimony from people living on the climate front line at a special tribunal in Cape Town.

International humanitarian agency Oxfam announced today that Cambodia is still in emergency relief mode though flood waters in some areas are beginning to stabilize.

After rushing in a relief team to help deliver the most basic emergency supplies – drinking water, shoes, clothes, Fala Lilii (mats), sleeping bags and boxes of tinned fish – we are ramping up our response in Samoa.

International aid agency Oxfam today began tankering clean water into Padang, as part of the relief effort for the many people affected by last Wednesday’s 7.6 magnitude earthquake. Providing clean water is an immediate priority.

Additional aid team arrive in Padang, Sumatra to assist Oxfam partners. Vital stocks of emergency aid have been dispatched to the quake zone in Sumatra, Indonesia today (3 October 2009).

Typhoon Parma struck the Philippines on Saturday. The storm is the country's second in eight days. The capital, Manila, escaped the worst of the storm, but the north has been harder hit. Manila has been experiencing heavy rainfall since Friday evening.

Oxfam predicts more widespread destruction caused by Typhoon Ketsana and a higher demand for immediate humanitarian assistance in Cambodia.

International agency Oxfam’s emergency team is at work in Samoa today responding to urgent needs. The immediate focus is to ensure survivors in remote rural areas have clean water and basic sanitation.

International agency Oxfam is sending an emergency response team to Samoa today to help meet the urgent needs of people affected by the yesterday’s tsunami.

Millions of people forced to flee the fighting in Pakistan’s Swat Valley struggled to receive vital aid because the international community provided too little help, too late, according to a report released today by international aid agency Oxfam.

Oxfam-funded local organizations in West Sumatra are on aid missions in the earthquake-hit area ready to distribute 2,400 sheets of tarpaulins for
emergency shelter, hygiene kits and clothing said the international agency today.

The World Bank’s new assessment on the scale of finance needed to help developing countries adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change – $75-100bn per year on average from 2010-2050 – is a vital and timely contribution to the current climate negotiations under way in Bangkok.

Oxfam will send an 11-strong team of aid experts to the storm-hit province of Kon Tum in central Vietnam, hit by typhoon Ketsana last night. They will carry out an assessment of needs and start initial response work immediately.

Manila, Philippines — International aid agency Oxfam today urged the Philippine government to look at environmental sanitation and safe water as the two key needs of women, men and children affected by Typhoon Ketsana.

Oxfam is expecting to send emergency staff to Apia , Western Samoa , within 24 hours to assess the situation on the ground, and identify the most urgent needs for people displaced following the 8.3 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that hit Samoa.