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African countries have called for a suspension of all further talks on the Kyoto Protocol - except for discussions on rich country emissions reduction targets - until substantial progress is made on this critical issue. Hugh Cole, Climate Advisor for Oxfam in Southern Africa said: “The world’s poorest nations are faced with an impossible choice - no climate deal or a bad climate deal. Both options threaten the lives and livelihoods of millions of the worlds poorest people who are already struggling to cope with a changing climate. African leaders have agreed…

At the end of the G20 Summit in Rome, Italy, Oxfam panned the lack of bold and effective action from the world leaders at such an important moment in the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The coronavirus threatens to take many millions of lives and push billions more into poverty. Oxfam proposes two things that the G20 and other leaders can do now: develop a global public health plan and emergency response to tackle the disease head on; and create an economic rescue plan to cope with the huge economic costs precipitated by this virus. 

“Moderna’s discovery could be a real game-changer in the fight against COVID-19. However, on its own, Moderna can only produce enough vaccine for less than seven percent of the global population by the end of 2021, almost all of whom will be in rich countries," said Anna Marriott, Oxfam’s Health Policy Manager, in response to the announcement today from the National Institutes of Health that early data shows Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine is nearly 95 percent effective.

Today, Tuesday 5 October, European economic and finance ministers met to approve an update to the EU’s list of tax havens. This comes in the midst of the unfolding Pandora papers scandal and global tax negotiations. 

Human-rights abuses are commonplace in farms linked to major European supermarkets such as Aldi, Lidl and Tesco, new Oxfam research reveals. The organisation calls on the EU to introduce new legislation that requires companies to respect the human rights of people working in their global supply chains.

Survivors of COVID-19 from 37 countries are among almost 1,000 people who have signed an open letter to pharmaceutical industry leaders calling for a ‘people's vaccine’ and treatments that are available to all – free from patents. The letter comes on the eve of a high-level side event about the pandemic at the UN General Assembly in New York.

At least nine people have become new billionaires since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, thanks to the excessive profits pharmaceutical corporations with monopolies on COVID vaccines are making, The People’s Vaccine Alliance revealed today ahead of a G20 leaders Global Health Summit.

Despite being largely virtual, this year’s UN General Assembly opening week will remain a vital convening space where leaders and civil society can jointly discuss and tackle some of the gravest issues we face today.

The world, and most of all, its poor people, desperately needs a fair and safe climate deal to be agreed at the UN talks in Copenhagen in December.