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Governments must phase out fossil fuels, rapidly reduce emissions, provide remedy to those facing climate damages and provide climate finance.

As the EU scales back its climate ambition, new Oxfam research reveals the stark carbon inequality in the EU: Europe’s wealthiest are increasing their emissions, while ordinary Europeans have made the biggest cuts. The report highlights three key findings: Europe’s wealthiest are burning through our climate budget: the richest 10% of Europeans produce as much carbon as the bottom 50% combined. Carbon cuts are driven by ordinary Europeans, while Europe’s elite keep polluting: emissions have fallen. The bottom 50% of Europeans reduced their emissions by 27%, while the richest 0.1% increased theirs by 14%. To stay on the 1.5°C pathway, the EU must tackle the excessive emissions of Europe’s richest: everyone must cut their emissions, but the richest must go much further. The research shows that, to stay within the 1.5°C limit, the bottom 50% would need to cut their emissions in half, the top 10% by 90%, the top 1% by 97%, and the top 0.1% by 99%. 2024 was the first year that average global temperatures exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Yet, since the European elections, the EU has scaled back its climate ambitions, failing to submit its climate plan before the COP30 deadline and watering down climate legislation in the name of simplification. Oxfam calls on the EU to ramp up its ambition for emission reduction, with measures aimed at Europe’s wealthiest, to avoid a climate catastrophe and reduce climate inequality.

In response to the UNEP Emissions Gap Report

Oxfam joins over 80 CSOs in launching a report and calling for a ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Most countries recognize Palestinian statehood, yet Israel’s international law violations are accelerating.

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."

In response to the publication today of Bloomberg’s investigation into human rights abuses alleged to have been committed in private hospitals.

Over two and a half years into the war, the continued fighting has created extremely challenging conditions for civilians. Ukrainian communities and civil society have always been and continue to be at the forefront of humanitarian response. 

A decade ago, the world’s countries agreed to a vision of what the common good looks like—the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—and a plan to finance that vision—the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. Ten years later, the SDGs and the Addis Agenda are failing.

The world’s richest 1% increased their wealth by more than $33.9 trillion in real terms since 2015, reveals new Oxfam analysis ahead of the world’s largest development financing talks in a decade, in Seville, Spain. This is more than enough to eliminate annual poverty 22 times over at the World Bank’s highest poverty line of $8.30 a day. But about 60% of low-income countries remain in or at risk of debt distress.