UN climate talks

Oxfam response to the latest climate finance draft text (22 November 2024) at COP29.

Climate activists today added a dramatic twist to the COP29 summit with a live game show called Make Polluters Pay. As the United Nations climate finance negotiations entered their final days in Baku, activists took center stage at the summit conference venue. Dressed as fossil fuel executives, they theatrically shoveled fake "money" into a symbolic Loss and Damage Fund, highlighting the urgent need for rich countries to pay up on climate finance.

Oxfam's reaction to the latest climate finance draft text at COP29. 
 

In response to the outcome of the June UN Climate Meetings (SB60) in Bonn, Germany, Nafkote Dabi, Oxfam International’s Climate Change Policy Lead, said: "This year’s climate talks felt like treading water in a rising tide, with the world’s biggest economies failing to act with the urgency this crisis demands. Rich countries continue to shirk their responsibilities in contributing their fair share to the global effort to reduce carbon pollution."

Oxfam said it is vital that governments return to the negotiating table before the new agreement takes effect from 2020 to strengthen pledges of emissions cuts and agree to new finance levels. 

The poorest half of the world’s population - 3.5 billion people - is responsible for just 10 percent of carbon emissions, despite being the most threatened by the catastrophic storms, droughts, and other severe weather shocks linked to climate change.  

Climate change alert: Oxfam report reveals spiralling costs of 3 degree compared to 2 degrees warming.

Oxfam welcomes today’s orientation debate on the EU Emissions Trading System as some Member States spoke out in favor of the ETS being a more predictable source of funds for climate action in poor countries.

Negotiators have given themselves the tools to build a stronger deal in Paris, but governments must now put them to good use. Oxfam will continue to press for a climate deal for the world’s poorest people. Exclusion of civil society from the process that has characterized the meeting in Bonn must not be a precedent for Paris.

Oxfam welcomes the ambitious Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) from Ethiopia, as it sets far-reaching short-term and long-term goals on adaptation and reducing emissions.