Press releases

The richest 1 percent grabbed nearly two-thirds of all new wealth worth $42 trillion created since 2020, almost twice as much money as the bottom 99 percent of the world’s population, reveals a new Oxfam report today. During the past decade, the richest 1 percent had captured around half of all new wealth. 

Responding to news that the World Trade Organization (WTO) will push back its deadline to reach a deal on easing intellectual property rules on COVID-19 tests and treatments to support the production of cheaper generic equivalents in developing countries, Max Lawson, Co-Chair of the People’s Vaccine Alliance and Head of Inequality Policy at Oxfam, said: “We are nearly three years into the COVID-19 pandemic. As many as seventeen million people are estimated to have died in the time that the WTO has bickered over intellectual property rules for tests and treatments. To say that more time is needed to consider the issue is utter nonsense.

Amongst the over 20 targets being discussed at the COP15 Biodiversity Summit is to set aside 30 percent of the world's lands and oceans for nature to protect biodiversity by 2030. However, states have so far failed to commit to protecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and those of local communities living in these areas.

The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) figures for Somalia, shows that Somalia remains on the brink of famine. 5.6 million people are now in crisis or worse levels of food insecurity and this is expected to rise to 6.4 million by March 2023, and 8.3 million by June 2023. By June 2023, the number of people in catastrophic levels of hunger (IPC Phase 5) is expected to double to 727,000.

Today, the EU reached a provisional agreement on a new carbon tariff on goods imported into Europe (the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism).

After months of deadlock, EU countries reached an agreement on a low-rate minimum tax for multinational profits at the EU level. This follows a deal struck at the international level to implement a global minimum tax.  

Tomorrow, European migration ministers are set to meet to discuss a proposal to erode EU asylum standards. The so-called Instrumentalisation Regulation allows European countries to ignore EU asylum law if they think that non-EU countries or others are using migration to put pressure on Europe.  

Today, EU finance ministers again failed to agree on an EU minimum tax for multinational companies. This follows a deal struck at the international level to implement a global minimum tax. 

More than half the population of South Sudan – 6.6 million people – are severely hungry, including 2.2 million people at risk of starvation. Yet the humanitarian response remains woefully underfunded and without an urgent increase in aid now, 7.7 million people or two-thirds of the population will face severe food shortages next year, Oxfam warned today.

Today, European justice ministers agreed on a proposal for a law to make companies accountable for the damage they cause to people and the planet.