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Rich countries’ obsession with private finance means millions of poor and vulnerable people could be left to face increasingly extreme and erratic climate alone warned Oxfam today as minist

From campaigning to end the financial secrecy that shelters trillions hidden in tax havens, to encouraging investment in universal education and healthcare – Oxfam is working to make sure that the poor get a share of the power and resources that will help to reduce poverty and inequality.

Global sales of ammunition are worth more than $4 billion and are growing at a faster rate than trade in guns, yet there is virtually no regulation in place to control where the bullets end up.

More than $2.2 billion worth of arms and ammunition have been imported since 2000 by countries operating under arms embargoes, according to new figures released today by international humanitarian agency Oxfam.

The shipping industry can do more to tackle climate change and raise billions of dollars to help poor countries cope with its devastating impact. A major meeting of the IMO – the international shipping regulators – is starting in London today.

The European Union’s suggestion today of global public financing worth €22-€50 billion per year for developing countries to tackle climate change falls short of what is needed.

Oxfam, together with civil society organizations, welcomes the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) announcement that it will not resume its investments in K-12 private schools, following the release of an independent evaluation by the World Bank Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) on the IFC’s investments in this area.  

On the eve of Climate Finance Day, an international finance event held annually in Paris, BNP Paribas – the number one financier of fossil fuel expansion in Europe and fifth in the world - was given three months to comply with the French duty of vigilance law. This legal action was taken by the NGOs Oxfam France, Friends of the Earth France and Notre Affaire à Tous. This is the first step towards an unprecedented climate litigation case - the first in the world to target a commercial bank for its high-risk activities in the oil and gas sector.

Responding to the WTO’s published ‘outcome’ of negotiations over a waiver of Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), Max Lawson, Head of Inequality Policy for Oxfam and co-chair of the People's Vaccine Alliance, said: "This text is a recognition that WTO rules on intellectual property are a clear barrier to ensuring people get the vaccines, tests, and treatments they need. It is a tragedy that it has taken almost two years and millions of deaths to reach this point and a travesty that the action proposed today falls well short of what is needed."

On the newly published UN Synthesis Report on the post-2015 framework, which sets the global development agenda for the next 15 years: Oxfam is disappointed that the UN has not made far stronger proposals to address extreme economic inequality and climate change in its new report.