Today at the UN climate change talks in Durban the European Union as a bloc has reported that it has spent €2.34 billion during 2011 as ‘fast start finance’. This is part of the EU’s €7.2 bil
International agency Oxfam urged governments to fund generously the UN’s appeal for the Syrian crisis both for work within Syria and for work in neighboring countries sheltering refugees.
The political response to tax dodging in the 12 months since the SwissLeaks scandal hit the headlines has been slow and restrained, said Oxfam today. SwissLeaks exposed how global banking giant HSBC's Swiss branch helped wealthy individuals hide $100 billion in secret bank accounts out of the reach of tax authorities.Claire Godfrey, Policy Lead for Oxfam’s ‘Even it Up’ Campaign, said:“A year has passed since the Swiss Leaks scandal but still much more needs to be done to ensure wealthy individuals and big business pay they fair share of taxes.“Governments across the…
“The Panama Papers give us a disturbing look into the murky world of tax dodging, a problem that governments and international institutions refuse to tackle head-on. The true scandal is that many of the cases uncovered are not always illegal, but instead, fully legal practices that ruthless abuse a weak and inadequate tax system."
Oxfam commended the World Bank for connecting the need to tackle climate change with the urgent fight to end poverty. In a new report, the Bank warned that more than 100 million additional people could be pushed into poverty by crop failures, floods, hunger, and other shocks caused by climate change.
The Vatican is hosting a climate change conference today, which will bring together world leaders, climate experts and religious representatives. Winnie Byanyima, Oxfam International Executive Director, said, “The way the world responds to climate change is a litmus test of our humanity.
El Niño is a crisis of global proportions, seriously affecting 60 million people around the world, yet it is not getting international attention and there remains a huge funding gap of nearly $1.8bn. The appointment of Mary Robinson and Macharia Kamau as Special Envoys for El Niño by the UN is an encouraging step.