climate change

Responding to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report, Oxfam Climate Policy Lead Nafkote Dabi said: “Amid a world in parts burning, in parts drowning and in parts starving, the IPCC today tables the most compelling wake-up call yet for global industry to switch from oil, gas and coal to renewables."

Using land alone to remove the world’s carbon emissions to achieve ‘net zero’ by 2050 would require at least 1.6 billion hectares of new forests, equivalent to five times the size of India or more than all the farmland on the planet, reveals a new Oxfam report today.

Days of heavy monsoon rain in south-eastern Bangladesh have caused severe flooding in and around the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps, leaving thousands in urgent need of food, water and sanitation, Oxfam warned today. 

Max Lawson, Head of Inequality Policy at Oxfam, said: "This G7 summit will live on in infamy. Faced with the biggest health emergency in a century and a climate catastrophe that is destroying our planet, they have completely failed to meet the challenges of our times. Never in the history of the G7 has there been a bigger gap between their actions and the needs of the world."

Responding to the UK Government’s announcement that G7 leaders will agree to new financing for infrastructure projects in developing countries and an increase international climate finance, Oxfam's climate change lead Nafkote Dabi said: "This plan could support green development in poorer countries, but it is lacking in detail including on who will foot the bill."

The economies of the G7 nations could see an average loss of 8.5 percent annually by 2050 ―equivalent to $4.8 trillion― if leaders do not take more ambitious action to tackle climate change, according to Oxfam’s analysis of research by the Swiss Re Institute. Oxfam is calling on G7 leaders, who are meeting in the UK later this week, to cut carbon emissions more quickly and steeply.

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.

As the Earth Day Summit concluded, Oxfam applauded President Biden for convening world leaders in an effort to increase global climate ambition, lower emissions, and build resilience. However, more action is needed to avert dangerous climate change impacts that are already disproportionally harming those who are most vulnerable.

On the eve of the Earth Day Summit, Oxfam is calling for President Biden and world leaders attending the virtual summit to urgently ramp up ambition to tackle the climate crisis.

Almost half of the population of Timor-Leste’s capital has been impacted by severe flooding, according to government figures, after heavy rains fell on Dili and nearby provinces last week. Cyclone Seroja took the people of Timor-Leste by surprise, with the small nation previously not within the range of such extreme weather events. Oxfam in Timor-Leste’s Associate Country Director, Annie Sloman, said the impact of climate change was undeniable.