Press releases

Responding to the draft COP26 decision text, Tracy Carty, head of Oxfam’s COP26 delegation said: "This draft COP decision text is too weak. It fails to respond to the climate emergency being faced by millions of people now, who are living with unprecedented extreme weather and being pushed further into poverty."

A new report published by Oxfam shows that a lack of political will and a rise in xenophobia have driven a backlash against refugees in many countries, while the arrival of Syrian refugees has been delayed in some countries because of lengthy processes, security screenings, and an increasingly hostile political climate.

New Oxfam analysis describes a $27 trillion black hole – accumulating at around $3.9 trillion a year to 2030 – that low-and-middle income countries face to meet climate-related loss and damages, adaptation, and mitigation measures, along with their health, education and social protection needs.

The G7 must pursue windfall taxes on excess corporate profits including from those making huge returns from surging food and energy prices. The revenues can be used to fund an end to global hunger and to tackle climate change, says Oxfam.

“Oxfam is dismayed at this third consecutive year of rising hunger. We’re back to where we were a decade ago. As ever, hunger is caused by human actions that drive poverty and inequality, conflict and war, poor governance, wastage, and worsening climate change," said Oxfam International’s executive director Winnie Byanyima in response..

Rice, soy beans, corn, wheat and palm oil together lead to more greenhouse gas emissions than any country’s individual footprint, apart from China and the United States, according to new Oxfam research into the food industry and climate change.

Oxfam today warned that EU countries must cut themselves loose from the US or risk losing a groundbreaking climate deal that has been two years in the making. A fair and safe deal can be struck in Copenhagen this year, but world leaders cannot wait for the US to play catch-up.

Oxfam warns that over six million people from farming families in Zambia are facing acute food shortages and malnutrition until next growing season, which is twelve months away, due to a severe drought, exacerbated by climate change and El Nino, which has caused massive crop failures for half of the nation’s “planted area”. 

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.

Oxfam has joined 14 NGOs to push the European Commission to keep to its commitment to reform the role of company directors to make big companies more accountable for human rights and environmental abuses in their supply chains, and more sustainable – a key move in light of current challenges such as the climate crisis and a growing gap between the rich and the poor.