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I felt a buzz of energy and calm when I was at the Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development — a feeling quite different from the heaviness of the tragedies unfolding in many parts of Africa.Tropical storm Filipo, just a year after the devastating Cyclone Freddy, has left hundreds of thousands of people in Mozambique in urgent need of humanitarian support. In Kenya, where I live, relentless waves of torrential rains and deadly floods have displaced thousands of people and caused severe damage to infrastructure. 

What should have been a watershed G20 summit for shared global prosperity fell short of its potential – but some of the strongest ideas, especially the Robin Hood Tax, did overcome the opposition of some 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.

In response to Spain, Brazil and South Africa’s new global coalition to tax the super-rich, launched today at the Fourth Financing for Development Conference in Seville, Oxfam Tax Justice Policy Lead Susana Ruiz said:

Oxfam raised the alarm today that a leading global transparency initiative for the oil, gas and mining sector faces a crisis of relevance and legitimacy. As the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) meets for its Global Conference in Lima, Peru this week, Oxfam calls on the EITI Board and stakeholders to regain its position as a leader in reforming the industry.

Today, the European Commission released their Fit for 55 legislative package. This bundle aims to revise the EU’s current 2030 climate and energy rules. The package will implement the goal of reducing average EU carbon emissions by 55% in 2030. In response to the package, Evelien van Roemburg, Oxfam EU Head of Office said: “We are at a tipping point in the fight against the climate crisis. The EU has the opportunity to keep us from tipping over the edge by capping the rampant increase in global temperatures to 1.5° Celsius."

Less than eight cents in every dollar raised in tax revenue in G20 countries now comes from taxes on wealth, reveals new analysis by Oxfam today ahead of the first meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Sao Paulo, Brazil. 

Global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are set to rise by 10.6% by 2030 instead of falling by the 45% needed to limit the increase in global temperature to 1.5 °C. The G20 countries are the worst and most-responsible offenders, says Oxfam.

Failure of the UK and EU countries to agree to TRIPS waiver costs lives and undermines the credibility and future of WTO. 17.5 million people have died from COVID-19 in the 20 months since WTO talks about relaxing COVID-19 intellectual property (IP) rules began - the equivalent of nearly 30,000 people a day, said campaigners from Oxfam and the People’s Vaccine Alliance today ahead of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial.

Climate change is making extreme weather much more likely. As the 2012 drought in the USA shows, extreme weather means extreme food prices.