climate financing

Water-related disasters forced people to flee from their homes nearly eight million separate times in 10 of the world’s worst-hit countries last year, with many having to move multiple times – a 120% increase compared to a decade ago, said Oxfam today. 

Oxfam warns that over six million people from farming families in Zambia are facing acute food shortages and malnutrition until next growing season, which is twelve months away, due to a severe drought, exacerbated by climate change and El Nino, which has caused massive crop failures for half of the nation’s “planted area”. 

The world has entered a new and dangerous era of climate change impacts, causing huge loss and damage and driving up inequality in the world’s poorest countries that have contributed least to the climate crisis. Yet, new research by Oxfam estimates that nearly half of funding requirements for UN humanitarian appeals linked to extreme weather have gone unmet.

Governments must build back better low carbon economies post the pandemic to avoid fuelling the climate crisis, warned Oxfam today ahead of the Petersberg Climate Dialogue on 6-7 May. The virtual meeting will bring together government ministers from across the globe to discuss international climate action ahead of this year’s critical UN summit COP26 in autumn.

The true value of money provided by developed countries to help developing nations respond to the climate crisis may be just a third of the amount reported, according to Oxfam estimates published today.

Battered by cyclones and ravaged by extreme drought, poor communities in the Horn of Africa and Mozambique have found themselves on the front line of a climate crisis they did little to create.

Oxfam analysis of how climate change funds are allocated and accounted for shows very concerning trends for the world’s poorest countries and communities.

Climate finance efforts by developed countries are at a critical juncture. There are only two years before the deadline by which developed countries have committed to jointly mobilize $100bn per year to support climate action in developing countries. This briefing paper offers an assessment of progress towards this goal.

Reducing the impacts of disasters on poor people is absolutely vital. Climate/disaster risk financing could play a useful role if it is part of an approach that includes risk reduction, if it strengthens social protection, and if it has real participation from civil society.

The United Nations’ climate conference in Marrakech made it clear that the Paris Agreement is here to stay, but otherwise, did little to fix the Agreement’s biggest flaws that leave poor and climate-vulnerable countries in danger, said Oxfam.