Press releases

Today Oxfam praised the CEO’s of eight of the ten biggest food and beverage companies in the world for joining together with the heads of some 400 major companies to call on world leaders, “to act with determination, leadership and ambition to secure an ambitious and legally binding global climate deal.”

Negotiators avoided a show-down over crunch issues like finance and increasing near term emissions cuts, but they are only delaying the inevitable. A clearer mandate from Heads of State and ministers is needed to ignite the talks and ensure key questions are answered.

Wealthy nations are expected to fall up to $75 billion short of fulfilling their long-standing pledge to mobilize $100 billion each year from 2020 to 2025 to help the most vulnerable countries adapt to the dangerous effects of climate change and reduce their emissions, according to estimates by Oxfam today.

In response to the decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the Grand Chamber’s first-ever climate-related cases (Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland, Duarte Agostinho and Others v. Portugal and Others, and Carême v. France), Evelien van Roemburg, Head of Oxfam’s European Union office said: “European judges have ruled that a government’s failure to do enough to reduce national greenhouse gas emissions violates its population’s human rights. This is a positive step and allows people to require their governments to put in place effective climate regulations and carbon budgets. But the judges did not challenge Switzerland’s decision to give itself almost three more decades to reach net zero emissions, even though people around the world are being harmed now by the climate crisis.”   
 

Oxfam's response to the UNFCCC’s verdict on what effect national pledges to reduce emissions will have in avoiding dangerous warming.

Overcoming inequality and slowing global warming are imperative for achieving a world free from poverty and suffering, says an Oxfam report released today.

Reacting to the presentation by the European Commission of its new legislative proposal for a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) through enhanced cooperation, Nicolas Mombrial, Oxfam’

Poor crop yields, water shortages and more extreme temperatures are pushing rural villagers closer to the brink as climate change grips Nepal, according to a new report launched by the international aid agency Oxfam.

World leaders are set to fail their first test on climate change since Copenhagen and put the world on track for almost four degrees of warming, as the 31 January deadline for countries to submit emission reduction targets under the Copenhagen Accord nears.

Oxfam said it is vital that governments return to the negotiating table before the new agreement takes effect from 2020 to strengthen pledges of emissions cuts and agree to new finance levels.