cop16

For the past year we have all operated under the hangover of Copenhagen: the disappointment, suspicion, scepticism and disorientation. And while there was so much more that could have been accomplished at Cancun, the other side of these talks is a better place to be.

UN climate talks are off the life-support machine, following a last-minute agreement that gives the Kyoto Protocol a lifeline. It establishes a global Climate Fund and, while falling short of the emissions cuts needed, lays out a path to move towards them.

National self-interest and brinkmanship must not be allowed to sabotage the Cancun climate talks and risk reversing the progress made over the past two weeks, warned Oxfam on the penultimate day of the increasingly volatile Summit.

Halfway through the Cancun climate talks, negotiators have an opportunity to make real progress on a fair global climate fund and climate finance, said Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and Honorary President of Oxfam.

Responding to the World Meteorological Organization's announcement that there is a race going on between 2010, 2005 and 1998 to see which will be the hottest year since records began, Oxfam New Zealan

Reacting to Japan’s statement that it would not ratify a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, Tim Gore, Climate Advisor for Oxfam said:

In response to the European Union’s report announced at Cancun on Fast Start Financing, Oxfam’s climate policy adviser Tracy Carty, said:

Negotiators should begin UN climate talks with far more urgency and resolve following a year of weather-related disasters, record temperatures, flooding and rising sea levels.

Oxfam Global Ambassadors call on international negotiators to protect the world’s poor from climate catastrophe at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun.