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At the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the IMF in Peru this week, moves to help combat inequality and climate change were announced, but G20 finance ministers failed to adequately address the skewed international tax system, said Oxfam today.

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. 

In “Powering the Transition,” Oxfam details how together, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank are investing almost $5 billion in fossil fuels in the 10 Asian countries that belong to the Climate Vulnerable Forum.

Ministers must deliver on their climate finance promises and support a second wave of attack on corporate tax cheats if their Lima meeting is to succeed, said Oxfam today. 

“Oxfam welcomes any fall in the number of hungry people. This is proof that we can make great strides in eradicating global hunger. But in a world of plenty, 805 million hungry people is still 805 million too many,” said Oxfam spokesperson Luca Chinotti. “Global hunger is still unacceptably high.”“The fight to end global hunger is going in the right direction but is still too slow. These 2012-14 figures show a mixed picture at best. Some regions and countries seem to be winning but others are stagnant or falling behind, compared to the levels of four years ago. More…

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.

This year’s G20 Summit will raise the stakes for the group to prove itself against growing doubts about its effectiveness – not least for people living in poverty, says Oxfam.

The G20 leading economies have sidelined development and food security at their summit in Los Cabos.

European energy ministers meeting in Brussels today agreed European drivers should be obliged to burn massive quantities of food crops in their fuel tanks until 2030. Anti-poverty organisation Oxfam and green group Transport & Environment (T&E) deplored this policy that would only benefit the biofuels industry and contribute to hunger and environmental damage.

South Africa is facing its smallest maize harvest since 2007 this year as record-high temperatures and drought continue to hit its agricultural sector. According the government’s Crop Estimates Committee, only 7.44 million tons of maize is likely to be harvested in 2016 - that’s 25 percent less than the 9.94 million tons reaped.