Press releases

The European Commission published today a paper on how to raise the $100 billion per year pledged by rich countries at last year’s UN climate talks in Cancun to help poor countries protect

Europe needs ambitious targets and concrete policies to cut emissions and tacke the climate crisis, said Oxfam at the occasion of EU heads of state and governments meeting for a European Union summit in Brussels today.

Oxfam welcomed today’s commitment from General Mills to implement industry-leading measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions from its supply chains and press for political action to address climate change. 

The European Union is failing to give full details about its €7.2 billion pledge for immediate climate finance needs in developing countries. By not being fully transparent, the EU is undermining trust with developing countries.

International aid organization Oxfam welcomed encouraging remarks made by heads of state at the UN Summit on Climate Change, but cautioned that it remains to be seen if they will be translated into a fair, ambitious and binding global treaty in Copenhagen this December.

Oxfam Global Ambassador and Hollywood actor Gael Garcia Bernal stars in a new on-line advertisement made by international agency Oxfam urging people to join the new “tck tck tck” climate change campaign.

As climate negotiations in Tianjin, China, closed today, international development agency Oxfam said the outline of an agreement on a set of decisions at the Cancun summit in December are beginning to appear, but governments will need to work with real urgency to achieve real progress this year.

Though de Boer moves on world leaders have barely started the job of tackling the climate crisis. With the lives and livelihoods of billions at stake they could learn much from de Boer's perseverance as well as his uncompromising commitment.

In response to the launch by France and Kenya of an international taxation taskforce at COP28 to push for new levies to raise further money for climate action, Nafkote Dabi, Oxfam International’s Climate Change Policy Lead, said: “While the will to move the international tax agenda towards raising critical new funds for countries most affected by the climate crisis is welcome, the proposals being put on the table fall far short of what is needed. Taxing excess profits and the obscene wealth in the hands of the top 1% should be at the core of this initiative. That’s where the money is —and this is what is needed to help stop the runaway inequality that is fueling climate breakdown."

Today EU Environment Ministers agreed the official EU emissions reductions pledge for the United Nations climate talks in Paris at the end of the year, backing an "at least 40%" emissions reduction target and failing to provide clarity on whether loopholes could water down the offer.

In response to the Food and Agriculture Organization's report, "Climate Change, Water and Food Security", Oxfam's international climate adviser Tim Gore said:

“While this report provides helpful information on various actions to advance the climate finance agenda, it fails to boost confidence that developed countries will make significant and swift progress on meeting their commitment to provide $100 billion annually, over 2020-2025 to assist poor countries. The report would have been an ideal moment for developed countries to spell out how they will compensate for missing the $100 billion mark earlier through additional climate finance in subsequent years. Also, it lacks a robust roadmap as to how they’re going to double adaptation finance by 2025, something they agreed to at COP 26.”

Oxfam welcomed reports of increased climate finance pledges made by finance ministers in Lima today, but warned that only a fraction is meant to help countries most vulnerable adapt to the devastating effects of climate change.

The world’s most climate vulnerable countries must work together in international climate negotiations or the needs of the one billion people they represent risk being ignored, concluded a summit of international civil society in Dhaka this week.

The European Commission unveiled today its vision for Europe’s climate and energy policies from now to 2030.

Reacting to business leaders’ proposals on climate change, Jeremy Hobbs, Executive Director of Oxfam International said:

Oxfam praised President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping for officially joining their countries to the Paris climate agreement today.

The joint US-China statement on new domestic policy commitments and a vision for a global climate change deal underscores the importance the world’s two largest emitters place on solving the climate crisis, says Oxfam, but collective action is needed.

Poor countries will today leave the UN climate change negotiations in Doha with little more than they arrived with, because developed countries failed to take any meaningful collective action to prevent and address the most harmful impacts of climate change.