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With its vote on the reform of the EU’s polluter-pays scheme today, the European Parliament’s Environment Committee has failed to introduce effective rules for the support of poor countries in adapting to climate change.

Europe needs ambitious targets and concrete policies to cut emissions and tacke the climate crisis, said Oxfam at the occasion of EU heads of state and governments meeting for a European Union summit in Brussels today.

Following the publication of a major new report by the Global Commission on Adaptation today, Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam and a member of the Commission said: “For too long adaption has been treated as if it were less important than emissions reductions. This report shows we need both: much deeper and quicker cuts in emissions and much more help for vulnerable communities from the Bahamas to Mozambique who are struggling to survive in the face of this crisis.“People on the front line of the climate crisis, who did least to cause it, have been largely …

Hundreds of European cities, regions, businesses, youth and faith groups and civil society organisations are urging European leaders to take decisive action to respond to the climate emergency by profoundly altering the way we run our societies and economies to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C.

Joint Media Reaction by Oxfam, CAN Europe, APRODEV, CIDSE

In a key committee vote on the reform of the EU bioenergy policy, the European Parliament has improved the reform proposal, but Oxfam says it does not do enough to end the EU's bioenergy policy's destructive effects on the climate and on people worldwide.

Oxfam welcomes the fast-track ratification of the Paris climate agreement by the EU. Now, EU governments have to show their practical commitment to protect people and the planet from global warming.

“Climate change has set our planet on fire, millions are already feeling the impacts, and the IPCC just showed that things can get much worse," said Raijeli Nicole, regional director for Oxfam in the Pacific.

If Europe were to rule out its support of biofuels by 2020, the region could lower its net imports of grain and oilseeds by up to 27 million tons, remarkably reducing its dependence on foreign goods. Global food prices could also drop significantly.

Europeans may still be forced to buy biofuels made from food crops until 2030, as a result of the deal struck by EU member states and the European Parliament this morning on the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II), Oxfam said.