“Everyone fighting against the global climate crisis has little to celebrate from this disappointing COP28. Its final outcome is grossly inadequate. Oil, coal and gas won again, but they had to struggle harder to do so and their era is nearing its end.

“COP28 was doubly disappointing because it put no money on the table to help poorer countries transition to renewable energies. And rich countries again reneged on their obligations to help people being hit by the worst impacts of climate breakdown, like those in the Horn of Africa who have recently lost everything from flooding, after an historic five-season drought and years of hunger.

“Poorer countries, and the poorest communities, are left facing more debt, worsening inequality, with less help, and more danger and hunger and deprivation. COP28 was miles away from the historic and ambitious outcome that was promised.”

Dana Stefov, Oxfam Canada lead on women’s rights and climate justice, added:

“If Canada wants to continue to have good faith negotiations and lead as a climate diplomat, we must end the duplicity. We must once again become a trusted global actor that backs up rhetoric with action. Canada must move more urgently and rapidly to phase out fossil fuels. We cannot accept an outcome that gives wealthy countries like Canada the same timelines and targets to phase out fossil fuels than those in the Global South.

“COP29 next year has a mandate to set a new international climate financing goal—it has the responsibility to fix the holes and distractions that led to a weak outcome at COP28. It is critical that Canada play a constructive role in these discussions. Similarly, COP28 set out only vague targets on how to adapt to climate change—these will need to be built upon in future COPs.

“In spite of these gaps, the outcome signals an end to the era of fossil fuels. As communities around the world continue to adapt and women, land defenders, human rights activists, young people and civil society continue to fight, Canada and other rich countries must live up to their responsibilities and take a big leap forward on fossil fuel phase-out and finance for adaptation and loss and damage”.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Vita Sgardello
Manager, Communications
(613) 799-0234
vita.sgardello@oxfam.org

The brutal inequality in the way the world’s super-rich 1 percent emit climate pollution is the focus of our latest report, Climate Equality: A planet for the 99 percent.

The report shows that just one year of greenhouse gas emissions from the world’s richest will kill nearly 1.3 million people this century from excess heat alone.

It isn’t just that the rich are getting richer (though that’s an important part of the story). They’re also responsible for a massive share of the carbon dioxide, methane, and other carbon pollutants driving climate breakdown across Canada and worldwide. In 2019, the richest 1 percent produced the same greenhouse gas emissions in 2019 as the world’s 5 billion poorest people or 66 percent of the global population, Oxfam’s research shows.

In Canada, the richest 1 percent produced 150 tonnes of carbon pollution per person, compared to just 5.2 tonnes for the poorest 50 percent. Those emissions will cause more than 13,000 deaths, just over 1 percent of the global total, through 2100.

Oxfam Climate Equality Report. Photo Credits: Marten van Dijl/Greenpeace | John McAdorey/Adobe Stock

Meanwhile, people across Canada and around the world are hardest hit by the climate emergency. Our crops are dying and our food is impossibly expensive. Women are taking on more of the care work at home. Fires and floods are ripping apart our homes and communities while our skies fill with wildfire smoke.

Those impacts fall heaviest on people living in poverty, those experiencing marginalization, and countries across the Global South. And that much more on women and girls, Indigenous Peoples, people living in poverty, and other groups experiencing discrimination.

“The super-rich are plundering and polluting the planet to the point of destruction, leaving humanity choking on extreme heat, floods, and drought,” declares Amitabh Behar, Interim Executive Director of Oxfam International.

The path to economic and social justice and a safe, stable climate begins with holding the rich accountable. That’s why Oxfam is calling for a 60 percent income tax on the richest 1 percent, a measure that would cut global emissions by 700 million tonnes and raise $6.4 trillion per year for climate action. The emission cuts would be more than Canada’s total climate pollution in 2021. The desperately needed dollars would fund the shift off fossil fuels and deliver climate financing and climate justice to countries in the Global South.

“We must make the connection explicitly,” Behar writes. “Not taxing wealth allows the richest to rob from us, ruin our planet, and renege on democracy. Taxing extreme wealth transforms our chances to tackle both inequality and the climate crisis. These are trillions of dollars at stake to invest in dynamic, 21st century, green governments, but also to re-inject into our democracies.”

With this year’s United Nations climate change conference, COP28, coming up later this month, it’s time for action. Write to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today and tell him we have to do better. That a better world is possible, but only if polluters pay.

November 19, 2023 (Ottawa) — Oxfam today released the report Climate Equality: A Planet for the 99% showing how the impacts of climate breakdown are brutally unequal. The report comes ahead of the UN climate summit in Dubai, COP28, amid growing fears that the 1.5°C target for curtailing rising temperatures appears increasingly unachievable.

Super rich polluters are getting richer, but are insulated from the worst climate impacts. Meanwhile, ordinary Canadians and people everywhere are hardest hit by the climate emergency, from crops dying, to food being impossibly expensive, more care work for women, and homes destroyed by fires and floods.

Based on research from the Stockholm Environment Institute, Climate Equality: A Planet for the 99% assesses the consumption emissions of different income groups in 2019, the most recent year for which data are available. The report shows the stark gap between the carbon footprints of the super-rich —whose carbon-intensive lifestyles and investments in polluting industries like fossil fuels are driving global heating— and the majority of people around the world.  

The impacts of climate breakdown are brutally unequal

“Every day Oxfam works with women and girls, Indigenous peoples and other people living in poverty who are disproportionately impacted by the climate emergency.  They’re hardest hit as the climate crisis drives up poverty and inequality.  This new research reveals who’s mainly responsible for the carbon pollution driving climate breakdown: it’s the super rich,” said Dana Stefov, climate justice policy lead at Oxfam Canada.

Devastating impacts of the super rich

The richest 1% produce as much carbon pollution as the poorest five billion people on earth. That’s the super rich –  with their massive investments in dirty industries, along with their private jets, yachts and lavish lifestyles – polluting as much as five billion people put together. 

Carbon emissions of the richest 1 percent globally surged to 16 percent of world’s total CO2 emissions in 2019.  These outsized emissions of the global richest 1% were enough to cause 1.3 million heat-related excess deaths, roughly equivalent to the population of Calgary, Alberta.

The richest 1 percent in Canada emitted thirty times more carbon pollution per person in 2019, on average, compared to the half of the Canadian population in the lowest income brackets. 

“Everyday Canadians are doing their part, but any progress is stamped out by the super rich,” said Stefov. Between 1990 and 2019, the bottom 90% of Canadians by income reduced their share of consumption emissions by 16%, but the super rich top 1% increased their share of emissions by 31%.

Implement a billionaire wealth tax and a windfall profits tax

Oxfam Canada is calling on the federal government to implement a billionaire wealth tax and a windfall profits tax to make sure the richest Canadians and biggest companies pay their fair share. Super rich polluters must pay for the harms they cause and the climate actions needed to protect ordinary people. Governments can tackle the twin crises of inequality and climate change by targeting the carbon-intensive wealth of the super-rich, and investing in climate solutions. 

Oxfam estimates a tax on the incomes of the richest 1 percent globally would raise USD $6.4 trillion a year to pay for the transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy.  In Canada, the Parliamentary Budget Officer has calculated that a wealth tax and a windfall profits tax could generate at least CAD $9.8 billion a year.

“Billionaires are driving climate breakdown with their lavish lifestyles, polluting stock portfolios and outsized political influence.  Taxing the super rich not only reduces wealth inequality but will drive down their excessive emissions and ramp up public investments in green solutions. There are trillions of dollars at stake globally,” said Stefov.

Oxfam is calling on governments, including Canada, to:

• Get off fossil fuels quickly and fairly. 
• Implement a billionaire wealth tax and a windfall profits tax to make sure the richest Canadians and biggest polluting companies pay their fair share.
• Support a fair international finance deal at this year’s UN climate conference, COP 28, with governments, corporations and individuals most responsible for causing the climate crisis footing the bill. 
• Dramatically reduce inequality, including gender inequality, while fighting the climate crisis. 

Notes to editors

• Download Climate Equality: A Planet for the 99% and the methodology note. The Stockholm Environment Institute’s Emissions Inequality Dashboard is also available for consultation.
• See Oxfam Canada’s petition to the Prime Minister calling for progressive taxation to Make Rich Polluters Pay. 
• According to the UN, more than 91 percent of deaths caused by climate- and weather-related disasters over the past 50 years occurred in the Global South. Evidence shows that inequalities between rich and Global South countries are already 25 percent larger than they would be in a world without global warming. Worldwide, 80% of climate migrants are women. Women are 14 times more likely to die during a climate disaster.
• Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer has published research notes on implementing a wealth tax and a windfall profits tax on the oil and gas sector.

About Oxfam

Oxfam Canada is an affiliate of the international Oxfam Confederation networked in 87 countries as part of a global movement for change. Our mission is to build lasting solutions to poverty and injustice, focusing on improving lives and promoting the rights of women and girls.

We work directly with communities, partners, and women’s rights organizations to challenge the systems that perpetuate inequality and keep people poor. Together we seek to influence those in power to ensure that women trapped in poverty have a say in the critical decisions that affect them, their families, and entire communities. Because ending global poverty begins with women’s rights.

For updates, please follow @OxfamCanada.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Vita Sgardello
Manager, Communications
(613) 799-0234
vita.sgardello@oxfam.org

Despite being largely responsible for the worsening climate crisis in East Africa, rich nations paid Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan just $2.4 billion in climate-related development finance in 2021, in stark contrast to the $53.3 billion East Africa says it needs annually to meet its 2030 climate goals.  

Oxfam’s “Unfair Share” Report published today, shows that the biggest polluting nations have fallen short of meeting both the climate and the humanitarian funds East African countries need to recover from their climate-fuelled hunger crisis. It highlights the impact of climate change on the future of the region.  

Oxfam in Africa Director, Fati N’Zi-Hassane said: “Even by their own generous accounts, polluting nations have delivered only pittance to help East Africa scale up their mitigation and adaptation efforts. Nearly half the funds (45%) they did give were loans, plunging the region further into more debt.” 

A prolonged drought and erratic rainfalls have killed nearly 13 million animals, and decimated hundreds of thousands of hectares of crops, leaving millions of people without income or food. These four East African countries have incurred up to an estimated $30 billion of losses from 2021 to the end of 2023. Oxfam calculates that these countries also lost approximately $7.4 billion worth of livestock. 

As a result, over 40 million people across the four countries are suffering severe hunger because of a two-year drought and years of flooding, compounded by displacement and conflict. Despite the soaring humanitarian need, rich nations have only met about one third of the UN appeal for East Africa this year. 

“At the heart of East Africa’s hunger crisis is an abhorrent climate injustice. Rich polluting nations continue to rig the system by disregarding the billions owed to East Africa, while millions of people are left to starve from repeated climate shocks,” said N’Zi-Hassane.  

Industrialised economies have significantly contributed to the climate crisis, which now disproportionally affects regions like East Africa. The G7 countries and Russia alone have been responsible for 85 percent of global emissions since 1850. This is 850 times the emissions of Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan combined. 

“Global financial institutions are also complicit in contributing to the debt spiral that many developing countries are in. Onerous repayment cycles (to IFIs, bilateral and private creditors) prevent vulnerable countries from adapting to climate change or fully recovering from these consecutive shocks, like climate-fuelled hunger crises..” 

Extreme weather, now more severe and frequent, is the primary driver of hunger in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and in part in South Sudan, where climate change has made the drought 100 times more likely.  

“These pummelling shocks have depleted people’s reserves, leaving those already vulnerable with nothing to fend for themselves. Since the last drought in 2017, the number of people who need urgent aid across the four countries has more than doubled – from 20.7 million to 43.5 million,” said N’Zi-Hassane. 

The climate crisis has taken its toll especially on women and girls. Women in Somalia told Oxfam they now have to walk more than four hours every day to fetch water, often in treacherous journeys – a significantly increased distance compared to previous droughts. Too often, when food is scarce, mothers eat last and least; and girls are the first to be dropped out of school or married off at a young age so there is one less mouth to feed. 

Nimo Suleiman, a displaced mother of two from Somaliland, said “I have witnessed previous droughts but I have never seen anything like this before. The closest water point for us is five kilometers away, the road to the water point is not safe and very hot, but our family’s survival depends on us making that journey.”  

“At the first African Climate Summit, Oxfam urges African leaders to speak up and hold rich polluting nations to account for this climate crisis. Rich nations must immediately inject funds to meet the $8.74 billion UN humanitarian needs for East Africa in order to save lives now,” N’Zi-Hassane said.  

“It is equally crucial for the biggest polluters to pay their fair share of the money East Africa needs to strengthen its efforts to help its most vulnerable citizens prepare for the next climatic shock. These funds must be sustainable, in the form of grants rather than loans.” 

“Leading up to COP28, African voices must be loud in demanding rich polluting nations to drastically cut their emissions, and to compensate East Africa for all their climate loss and damage so that the region can recover from these worsening climate shocks.”  

Notes to the Editors 

• Read Oxfam’s “Unfair Share” report.  

• Oxfam is holding a roundtable at the African Climate Summit on 5 Sept .  
• The $2.4 billion figure is based on the OECD records of “Climate-related development finance” statistics reported figures in 2021 for Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan, which capture both bilateral and multilateral climate-related external development finance flows. For more detail on the OECD methodology please see the OECD Methodology note. 
• Out of the total $2.4 billion funds provided, only $1.33 billion were in the form of grants (54.5%) while $1.09 billion were in the form of loans (45%). Source: OECD 
• The figure $53.3 billion is the four countries identified annual needed funds for the period 2021 to 2030, in their “National Determined Contributions” (NDCs) to enable them to implement their climate goals under the Paris Agreement. It includes: $62 billion for Kenya, $316 billion for Ethiopia, $55.5 billion for Somalia and $100 billion for South Sudan. 
• According to the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the East Africa region’s average annual loss from climate change until 2030 is 2-4% of its annual GDP. For Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan, the total combined GDP in 2022 is $260 Billion. 

• Oxfam calculated livestock loss for Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia based on 2021 and 2023 estimates of the total government reported loss of 12.95 million heads of livestock – including 6.85 million livestock in Ethiopia, 2.6 million livestock in Kenya and 3.5 million livestock in Somalia. Ethiopia and Somalia have not provided an estimate of the value of the lost livestock. The approximate cost of per animal head in the region is $ 576.9, totalling $7.2 Billion for all 12.95 million livestock lost. 
• Food insecurity figures are based on IPC classification of the number of people in crisis or worse levels of food insecurity (IPC3+) for Ethiopia (11.8 million), Kenya (5.4 million), Somalia (6.5 million) and South Sudan (7.7 million).  
• Humanitarian need figures is based on the 2023 UN Humanitarian Response Plans for Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan and Kenya. 
• Humanitarian need figures for 2017 are based on 2017 Humanitarian Response Document for Ethiopia;  Somalia and South Sudan , and the 2017 Flash Appeal for Kenya. 

Contact Information 

Vita Sgardello
Communications Manager
vita.sgardello@oxfam.org
+1.613.799.0234

Oxfam water engineers are having to drill deeper, more expensive and harder-to-maintain water boreholes used by some of the poorest communities around the world, more often now only to find dry, depleted or polluted reservoirs.

Today, during World Water Week, Oxfam publishes the first of its series of reports, “Water Dilemmas”, about the growing water crisis, in large part driven by global heating from greenhouse gas emissions. The report describes how climate change will impact water security in different regions, leading to more hunger, disease and displacement.

Nafkote Dabi, Oxfam Global Climate Justice Lead, said: “While global warming is being caused by oil, coal and gas, its harm is fundamentally being experienced as a global water crisis. This poses one of the biggest threats to humanity and will lead to more hunger, more disease and more displacement, especially for the countries and communities least prepared for climate change.”

Oxfam in Africa Water and Sanitation Lead, Betty Ojeny, who is working on the frontline of the drought response in East Africa, said: “One in five boreholes we dig now in the region I work, ends up dry or with water that is unfit for humans to drink. We have to dig deeper wells, through baked soils, which means more expensive breakages. This is happening at a time when donor funding for water is declining.”

“We’re having to use expensive desalination technologies that are sometimes glitchy, especially in the more hostile terrains where we have to work. We’re seeing climate change biting now and these problems are only going to get worse,” Ojeny said.

Ojeny works in Oxfam’s biggest current humanitarian response in East Africa where over 32 million people are facing acute hunger and starvation because of a five-season drought, made worse by conflict and poverty. Areas elsewhere in the same region are being hit by destructive flash floods and unpredictable rains, devastating people’s crops and livelihoods.

“Global warming is increasing the frequency and severity of disasters, including floods and droughts, which will be hitting countries harder and more often in years to come. The huge lack of investment in strengthening water systems is leaving countries open to catastrophe,” Dabi said.

The report found that by 2040, East Africa could be hit by an 8 percent rise in precipitation, with a cycle of floods and droughts leading to a potentially catastrophic 30 percent rise in surface runoff. This washes away nutrients from exhausted soils, and destroys infrastructure. It says 50-60 million more people could be at risk of malaria by 2030.

It says the West Africa region will suffer similar problems as a result of this water crisis. Both regions are facing 8-15% more intense heatwaves and falls in labour productivity by 11-15%, amid mass migration, rising poverty and hunger, crop changes and livestock loss, and more water-driven conflicts.

“Already today, because of droughts, many of Oxfam’s installed water systems are rendered obsolete as pastoralist communities are forced to migrate to look for new pasturelands. This is undermining the communal management of water, which is key for sustainability and enhancing people’s resilience,” Ojeny said.

“In South Sudan we already see flooding washing away sanitation facilities and submerging boreholes, rendering them useless. More water-borne diseases like cholera are putting immense pressure not only on our water and sanitation work, and also stretching our public health operations too,” she said.

By contrast, the report says across the Middle East region by 2040, rainfall will decrease markedly instead, as will water levels and river runoff, sparking worsening food security. Heatwaves will rise by 16% leading to a drop in labour productivity of 7%, with water prices rising with the demand.

Countries across Asia meanwhile will be affected more by sea-level rise, potentially over half a meter by 2100. Along with surface run-off and glacier melt, this will affect fresh groundwater aquifers, especially in coastal areas where hundreds of millions of people live. The report also signals more heatwaves in Asia (8%) and a decline in labour productivity, by 7%, leading to more poverty and migration. It says diseases like malaria and dengue could rise by a staggering 183%.

All this will have knock-on effects on people’s food sources and productivity, fueling hunger. Oxfam calculates that in 10 of the world’s worst climate hotspots, chronic hunger is projected to rise by a third in 2050 as a result of climate change – that is 11.3 million more people going hungry than without climate change – a landslide derailing of the UN’s “zero hunger” target.

The reports says that decades of underinvestment in water systems, poor water management, and erosion, pollution and overuse of subterranean aquifers are worsening this water crisis. Millions of already disadvantaged people are now left ill-equipped to face the harmful consequences of the climate crisis. Only 32% of the $3.8 billion global UN humanitarian appeals for water and sanitation was funded last year and countries most at risk of water insecurity are failing to invest in water infrastructure.

“The worst scenarios that the world needed to avoid have already begun. Under today’s emissions trajectories, billions of people face no safe future in the worsening water crisis, happening under such political nonchalance. Rich polluting nations must immediately and drastically cut their emissions, and fund water infrastructure in poor communities.”

“We are still able to alter course toward safety if we choose, but we must act fast. Governments need to fundamentally refocus their attention and investment into our water systems as an absolute policy priority. They must urgently meet the UN’s $114 billion-a-year ambition for the water, sanitation and hygiene sector, which will save lives today and impact virtually every other UN goal for 2030,” Dabi said.

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Notes to Editor:

• Read Oxfam’s “Water Dilemmas” report. The report builds on existing scientific literature and climate models, along with witnessed and anecdotal evidence, to highlight the impacts of climate-driven water insecurity on food insecurity, conflicts, displacement and migration, gender inequality and disease in four regions (Asia; Middle East; West Africa; Horn, Eastern and Central Africa or HECA).
• Oxfam has human stories from Somalia, Ethiopia and Yemen, including photos and footage. Please see Inuru link here.
• For decades Oxfam has supported millions of highly vulnerable people with life-saving water and sanitation systems, in partnership with authorities, local partners and communities around the world. Oxfam is a leading agency in the humanitarian and development water and sanitation sector.
• Last year, Oxfam looked at 10 of the world’s worst climate hotspots – Somalia, Haiti, Djibouti, Kenya, Niger, Afghanistan, Guatemala, Madagascar, Burkina Faso, and Zimbabwe – which have repeatedly been battered by extreme weather over the last two decades – and found that their hunger more than doubled in just six years. The 10 worst climate hotspots were calculated looking at countries with the highest number of extreme weather-related UN appeals since 2000, where climate was classified as a “major contributor” to these appeals. Source: Oxfam’s “Footing the Bill” report May 2022 and Oxfam’s “Hunger in a Heating World” report Sept 2022.
• Projections of the population at risk of hunger in the 10 countries by 2050 with and without climate change are from the International Food Policy Research Institute’s (IFPRI) International Model for Policy Analysis of Commodities and Trade (IMPACT). Globally, IFPRI projects that about 70 million more people will be at risk of hunger because of climate change in 2050, including 28 million additional people in East and Southern Africa. Source: 2022 IFPRI Report: Climate Change and Food Systems
• Only 32% of the $3.8 billion global humanitarian appeal for the WASH sector for 2022 was funded. Source: UN OCHA Financial Tracking Service.
• The UN SDG6 states that meeting the water, sanitation and hygiene 2030 target requires increasing progress six-fold
• In East Africa, over 32 million people across Ethiopia (20.1 million), Kenya (5.4 million) and Somalia (6.6 million) are estimated to be experiencing crisis or worse levels of hunger. Source: Ethiopia’s Humanitarian Response Plan for 2023, Kenya’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) March-May 2023 report, and Somalia’s IPC report April- June 2023

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Vita Sgardello
Manager, Communications
(613) 799-0234
vita.sgardello@oxfam.org

• 722 mega–corporations raked in $1 trillion a year in windfall profits in 2021 and 2022.
• A windfall tax of 90 per cent on last years’ windfall profits could generate $941 billion — money that now could be used to tackle poverty and climate change.
• While profits soared, one billion workers across 50 countries took a $746 billion real–termpay cut in 2022.
• Oxfam and ActionAid are calling for permanent windfall taxes on windfall profits across all sectors.

722 of the world’s biggest corporations together raked in over $1 trillion in windfall profits each year for the past two years amid soaring prices and interest rates, while billions of people are having to cut back or go hungry.

Analysis by Oxfam and ActionAid of Forbes’ “Global 2000” ranking shows they made $1.09 trillion in windfall profits in 2021 and $1.1 trillion in 2022, with an 89 per cent jump in total profits compared to average total profits in 2017–2020. For this analysis, windfall profits are defined as those exceeding average profits in 2017–2020 by more than 10 per cent.

45 energy corporations made on average $237 billion a year in windfall profits in 2021 and 2022. Governments could have increased global investments in renewable energy by 31 per cent had they taxed at 90 percent the massive windfall profits that oil and gas producers funneled to their rich shareholders last year. There are now 96 energy billionaires with a combined wealth of nearly $432 billion ($50 billion more than in April last year).

Food and beverage corporations, banks, Big Pharma, and major retailers also cashed in on the cost–of–living crisis that has seen more than a quarter of a billion people in 58 countries hit by acute food insecurity in 2022.

Extreme wealth and extreme poverty have increased simultaneously for the first time in 25 years. 

• 8 food and beverage corporations made on average about $14 billion a year in windfall profits in 2021 and 2022, enough to cover the $6.4 billion funding gap needed to deliver life–saving food assistance in East Africa more than twice over. Oxfam estimates that one person is likely to die of hunger every 28 seconds across Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan. Global food prices rose more than 14 per cent in 2022.
• 28 drug corporations made on average $47 billion a year in windfall profits, and 42 major retailers and supermarkets made on average $28 billion a year in windfall profits.
• Nine aerospace and defense corporations raked in on average $8 billion a year in windfall profits even as 9,000 people die every day from hunger, much of that driven by conflict and war.

“People are sick and tired of corporate greed. It’s obscene that corporations have raked in billions of dollars in extraordinary windfall profits while people everywhere are struggling to afford enough food or basics like medicine and heating,” said Oxfam International interim Executive Director Amitabh Behar.

“Big business is gaslighting us all —they’re hiking prices to make monster profits, plundering people under the cover of a polycrisis.”

The Canadian government has announced it will match donations by individual Canadians until June 30, up to a total of $5 million.

Facts:

• Clashes between rival military factions in Sudan that began on April 15, 2023 have left more than 1,800 people dead and forced 1.4 million people to flee their homes.
• Refugees from the Sudan conflict have flooded into Chad, Central African Republic, and South Sudan, putting a strain on already overburdened humanitarian relief efforts in those countries.
• The persistent drought conditions first seen in 2020 continued into 2023 in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya with more than 23 million people facing severe shortages of food and water.
• The Democratic Republic of the Congo is home to the highest number of food-insecure people worldwide at 26.4 million people – a quarter of the country’s population.
• Humanitarian Coalition members are on the ground in the region, providing emergency food, water, shelter, and health care to people in need.

Quote:

Richard Morgan, Executive Director of the Humanitarian Coalition, says: “The combined effects of climate change, conflict and hunger have left millions of people in Sudan, surrounding countries and throughout parts of East Africa on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe. The Humanitarian Coalition is calling on all Canadians to donate to help people in need.”

The following are members of the Humanitarian Coalition: Action Against Hunger, Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Canadian Lutheran World Relief, CARE Canada, Doctors of the World, Humanity & Inclusion, Islamic Relief Canada, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam-Québec, Plan Canada, Save the Children Canada and World Vision Canada. The Humanitarian Coalition brings together 12 leading aid organizations to provide Canadians with a simple and effective way to help during major international humanitarian emergencies.

Canadians can help provide emergency assistance to people in East Africa by donating HERE.

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For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

As global greenhouse emissions continue to rise, and climate change wreaks more havoc upon the people and places least responsible for the problem, rich polluting countries are now three years overdue on their promise to mobilize $100 billion a year in climate finance for low- and middle-income countries.

To make matters worse the actual support they provide is much less than reported numbers suggest, and is coming mostly as debt that has to be repaid, says Oxfam.

Oxfam’s ‘Climate Finance Shadow Report 2023’ published today shows that while donors claim to have mobilized $83.3 billion in 2020, the real value of their spending was — at most — $24.5 billion. The $83.3 billion claim is an overestimate because it includes projects where the climate objective has been overstated or as loans cited at their face value.

By providing loans rather than grants, these funds are even potentially harming rather than helping local communities, as they add to the debt burdens of already heavily indebted countries — even more so in this time of rising interest rates.

Donor countries are repurposing up to one-third of official aid contributions as climate finance rather than putting forward new and additional money, while more than half of all climate finance going to the world’s poorest countries is now coming as loans. In Canada, the most recent federal budget cut foreign aid by 15 per cent, which could put other international assistance priorities seriously at risk as Canada aims to fulfil its $5.3-billion (CAD) international commitment to climate finance between 2021 and 2025.

“This is deeply unjust. Rich countries and elites most responsible for the climate crisis are treating low income countries with contempt. In doing so, they are fatally undermining crucial climate negotiations. Donor countries like Canada should be massively scaling up their climate finance to meet the needs of a planet in crisis,” said Oxfam Canada’s Policy Lead on Climate Justice and Women’s Rights, Dana Stefov.

In the lead up to the Bonn Climate Summit (June 5 – 15), Oxfam also finds that climate-related development financing is largely gender-blind. On a global level, only 2.9 per cent of all funding identified gender equality as worth prioritizing. Only one-third of climate finance projects in 2019-2020 mainstreamed gender, meaning that they took into account both women and men’s specific needs, experiences and concerns. While Canada is doing substantially better with gender mainstreaming applied in close to 95 per cent of climate finance between 2016 and 2021, a mere one per cent of Canada’s climate finance over that same period had gender equality as its principal purpose.

Oxfam estimates that the real value of funds allocated by rich countries in 2020, to support climate action in low- and middle-income countries was between $21 billion and $24.5 billion, of which only $9.5 billion to $11.5 billion was directed specifically for climate adaptation — crucial funding for projects and processes to help climate-vulnerable countries address the worsening harms of climate change.

Oxfam is highly concerned that adaptation funding is given too little attention when, in the past three years, India, Pakistan and Central and South America have all seen record heatwaves, in Pakistan later followed by flooding that affected over 33 million people, while East Africa is mired in its worst drought in over 40 years, contributing to crisis levels of hunger.

“Despite their extreme vulnerability to climate impacts, the world’s poorest countries, particularly the least developed countries and small island developing states, are simply not receiving enough support. Instead, they are being driven deeper into debt,” Stefov said.

Oxfam is highly concerned that funding for “loss and damage” — climate impacts that cannot or have not been mitigated or adapted to — still has no predictable place within the international climate finance architecture. Loss and damage finance needs are urgent, with estimates saying that low- and middle-income countries could face costs of up to $580 billion annually by 2030.

Oxfam says that ongoing deliberations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to set a new global goal on mobilizing climate finance from 2025 onwards is a chance to rebuild trust between rich and low- and middle-income countries. But if past mistakes are not resolved and simply repeated, this initiative will have failed before it properly starts.

Climate finance providers should be massively scaling-up their efforts and be reporting climate financing on a case-by-case basis, highlighting the actual proportions channeled towards mitigation and adaptation. There is equally an urgent need for more grant-based financing for climate action, and less momentum toward loaning the money they have all promised to give.

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Notes to editors:

• Download Oxfam’s ‘Climate Finance Shadow Report 2023’.
• All dollar figures are in US dollars, unless otherwise noted.
• In East Africa alone, drought and conflict have left a record 36 million people facing extreme hunger, nearly equivalent to the population of Canada. Oxfam estimates that up to two people are likely dying from hunger every minute in Ethiopia, Kenya Somalia, and South Sudan.
• The UN currently designates 46 countries as LDCs.
• According to the OECD, mobilized private adaptation financing rose sharply from $1.9 billion in 2018 to $4.4 billion in 2020, mainly because of a big liquefied natural gas energy project in Mozambique that does not reveal any adaptation activities.
• According to Anil Markandya and Mikel González-Eguino (2018), the costs of loss and damage in low- and middle-income countries could reach between $290 billion to $580 billion a year by 2030.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Despite failing to pay what they owe, G7 countries and their rich bankers demand that Global South countries pay $232 million daily in debt repayments through 2028. This money could otherwise be spent on healthcare, education, gender equality and social protection, as well as addressing the impacts of climate change.

“Wealthy G7 countries like to cast themselves as saviours, but what they are is operating a deadly double standard —they play by one set of rules while their former colonies are forced to play by another. It’s do as I say, not as I do,” said Amitabh Behar, Oxfam International’s interim executive director.

“It’s the rich world that owes the Global South. The aid they promised decades ago but never gave. The huge costs of climate damage are caused by their reckless burning of fossil fuels. The immense wealth built on colonialism and slavery.”

“Each and every day, the Global South pays hundreds of millions of dollars to the G7 and their rich bankers. This has to stop. It’s time to call the G7’s hypocrisy for what it is: an attempt to dodge responsibility and maintain the neo-colonial status quo,” said Behar.

The G7 leaders are meeting at a moment where billions of workers face real-term pay cuts and impossible rises in the prices of basics like food. Global hunger has risen for a fifth consecutive year, while extreme wealth and extreme poverty have increased simultaneously for the first time in 25 years.

Despite a commitment last month from the G7 to phase out fossil fuels faster, Germany is now pushing for G7 leaders to endorse public investment in gas. It has been estimated that the G7 owes low and middle-income countries $8.7 trillion for the devastating losses and damages their excessive carbon emissions have caused, especially in the Global South. After 30 years of deadlock, rich countries agreed at COP26 to establish a loss and damage fund. But huge questions remain about how it will work.

G7 governments are also collectively failing to meet a longstanding promise by rich countries to provide $100 billion per year from 2020 to 2025 to help poorer countries cope with climate change.

In 1970, rich countries agreed to provide 0.7 per cent of their gross national income (GNI) in aid. Since then, G7 countries have left unpaid a total of $4.49 trillion to the world’s poorest countries—more than half of what was promised.

“This money could have been transformational,” said Behar. “It could have paid for children to go to school, hospitals and life-saving medicines, improving access to water, better roads, agriculture and food security, and so much more. The G7 must pay its due. This isn’t about benevolence or charity—it’s a moral obligation.”

Currently, 258 million people across 58 countries are experiencing acute hunger, up 34 per cent over the last year. In East Africa alone, drought and conflict have left a record 36 million people facing extreme hunger, nearly equivalent to the population of Canada. Oxfam estimates that up to two people are likely dying from hunger every minute in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan.

The fortunes of the world’s 260 food billionaires have increased by $381 billion since 2020. Synthetic fertilizer corporations increased their profits by ten times on average in 2022. According to the IMF, the 48 countries most affected by the global food crisis face an additional $9 billion in import bills in 2022 and 2023.

The G7 is home to 1,123 billionaires with a combined wealth of $6.5 trillion. Their wealth has grown by 45 per cent over the past ten years. A wealth tax on the G7’s millionaires, starting at just 2 per cent, and 5 per cent on billionaires, could generate $900 billion a year. This money could be used to help ordinary people in G7 countries and the Global South who are facing rising prices and falling wages.

Oxfam is calling on G7 governments to immediately:

• Cancel debts of low and middle-income countries that need it.
• Return to the 0.7 per cent of GNI aid target, pay off aid arrears, and meet their commitment to providing $100 billion annually to help poorer countries cope with climate change.
• Bring in new taxes on rich individuals and corporations.
• Expedite the reallocation of at least $100 billion of the existing Special Drawing Rights (SDR) issuance to low and middle-income countries and commit to at least two new $650 billion issuances by 2030.

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Notes to Editors

• Download Oxfam’s methodology note. 
• Oxfam calculates that at least an additional $27.4 trillion is needed between now and 2030 to fill financing gaps in health, education, social protection, and tackling climate change in low- and middle-income countries. That equates to an annual financing gap of $3.9 trillion. For more information, download Oxfam’s brief “False Economy: Financial wizardry won’t pay the bill for a fair and sustainable future.”
• Oxfam’s satirical ‘big heads’ are back. Watch Oxfam’s F to Famine film.
• Oxfam’s analysis found that top CEOs got a real-term 9 per cent pay rise in 2022 while workers worldwide took a 3 per cent pay cut.
• Germany is pushing for the G7 to endorse public investment in the gas sector. In April, the G7 agreed to speed up the phase-out of fossil fuels. 
• In 2009, rich countries agreed to provide $100 billion annually by 2020 to help poorer countries cope with climate change. This deadline was then extended to 2025, to set a new global climate finance goal by 2025.
• Although G7 Ministers recently reaffirmed their existing commitment to meet the climate finance target, Oxfam estimates that the G7 could have accumulated a shortfall of up to $72 billion on its ‘fair share’ of the $100 billion goal between 2020 and 2023. To make matters worse, most of the money was provided in the form of loans —often at market rates— adding to the debt crisis across low- and middle-income countries.
• According to the World Food Program’s Global Report on Food Crisis (GRFC), 258 million people in 58 countries and territories faced acute food insecurity at crisis or worse levels (IPC/CH Phase 3-5) in 2022, up from 193 million people in 53 countries and territories in 2021.
• Synthetic fertilizer corporations increased their profits by ten times on average in 2022.
• According to the IMF, the 48 countries most affected by the global food crisis face an additional $9 billion in import bills in 2022 and 2023.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:

Elena Sosa Lerín
Communications Officer
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
elena.sosa.lerin@oxfam.org

Climate change, conflict and the spiralling costs of food and fuel have left already vulnerable communities struggling to cope. South Sudan has suffered a fifth consecutive year of severe flooding which has destroyed crops and homes and left around 70 per cent of the country inundated. Nearly one million people have been forced to flee their homes in search of food and shelter.

In Jonglei, one of the worst-affected states, Marta Kangach, who lost all her cattle and harvest in the floods, told Oxfam: “Currently we are living on shrub leaves along the river, because if you have no food, you have to eat what is available. As humans when you eat anything in little portions, it will sustain you and you won’t die. So, we go out to the bush and pick green leaves to cook.”

The UN humanitarian appeal for South Sudan is just two-thirds funded, with $1.3 billion raised compared with $1.5 billion in 2020 despite the increased number of people in need of help. The World Food Programme was forced to suspend food aid to 1.7 million people earlier this year due to lack of funding.  While international aid and a limited harvest has helped keep people from starvation, the outlook for the next lean season from April – July 2023 is bleak as aid declines, and 1.4 million children are projected to be malnourished.

Latest estimates are that 9.4 million people in South Sudan will be in need of humanitarian assistance in 2023, over three quarters of the population and an increase of 500,000 people from 2022.

Dr Manenji Mangundu, Oxfam South Sudan Country Director, said: “Climate change, compounded by conflict and soaring prices of food and fuel, has pushed South Sudan to the brink of the starvation.

“The world cannot continue to ignore the suffering of millions of people who face a daily struggle to survive.  Funding is urgently needed to save lives now and to ensure people can grow enough food and make a living in order to feed their families.

“The South Sudanese people are paying the price for a climate crisis that rich polluting nations have caused.”

Most states in South Sudan are low-lying and prone to frequent flooding. However, climate change has contributed to more frequent and heavier rainfall. Since 2018, flooding has been recorded at alarming levels destroying farmland and essential infrastructure such as schools, health facilities, roads and bridges. Even when the rains stop, the soil remains saturated, and water levels have not receded. Flooding is now engulfing areas that it hadn’t previously.

Flooding, inaccessible roads and inter-communal conflict as well as the war in Ukraine have contributed to high inflation, leaving food unaffordable for millions of South Sudanese. Prices in some regions of South Sudan are nearly double or treble the prices in the capital Juba, the only area that is well connected to the rest of the region of East Africa. In Pibor, a 50 kg bag of maize flour costs $90 compared with $40 in Juba while 20 litres of cooking oil costs $90 compared with $30 in Juba. However, prices in Juba are inflated too.

Oxfam is urging donors and the international community to step up and meet the urgent $1.7 billion UN appeal for South Sudan. The international agency is also calling for the loss and damage fund agreed at the recent COP 27 to be set up as soon as possible to support countries like South Sudan that are suffering the impacts of a climate crisis they have done nothing to cause.

Oxfam and partners are providing life-saving food, cash, clean water and sanitation supplies in South Sudan despite severe access challenges. Regular food distributions have reached almost 300,000 people, mainly in the former Jonglei State, with the aim to reach 100,000 more by the end of the year. But Oxfam urgently needs $6 million to scale up its operations. How you can help – donate here.

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Notes to editors:

• The latest funding of $1.7 billion UN South Sudan 2022 Response Plan  https://fts.unocha.org/appeals/1098/summary
• The latest IPC projection for South Sudan: https://www.ipcinfo.org/ipc-country-analysis/details-map/en/c/1155997/?iso3=SSD
• South Sudan Humanitarian Needs Overview 2023

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Climate change, conflict, the economic fallouts of COVID-19, and unprecedented food and energy price inflation are creating the perfect storm for the world’s poorest people.

“It is tragic to see the world moving backwards in the fight to end global poverty, hunger and gender inequality,” said Brittany Lambert, Oxfam Canada’s Women’s Rights Policy Specialist. “The funding needed to address today’s record needs is CAD $69.1 billion – 25 per cent more than last year’s estimate. Humanitarian needs are outstripping the aid system’s ability to respond.”

Oxfam Canada is deeply concerned about the global hunger crisis currently unfolding. Today’s UN report confirms that starvation is a real risk for 45 million people in 37 countries. There is a strong connection between rising hunger and accelerating climate change. Recent research by Oxfam showed that extreme hunger has more than doubled in the world’s worst climate hotspots over past six years.

Oxfam is also raising the alarm about what this bleak humanitarian outlook means for women around the world. “Women suffer most during humanitarian disasters due to long-standing inequalities that undermine their ability to cope,” said Lambert. “Women’s rights and progress towards gender equity are threatened with every disaster.”

The deteriorating global situation has set back the goal of achieving gender parity by a whole generation. The estimated time needed to close the global gender gap, previously 99 years, is now 132 years. “Canada’s feminist aid is needed more than ever,” said Lambert, “but funding levels must increase drastically to meet the rising needs.”

Looking forward, we must examine the global systems that are leading to such rapidly growing inequality in the first place. “Our global financial system is benefitting the few at the cost of the many,” said Lambert. “Every day, we see new food and energy billionaires. Yet we can’t mobilize the funding needed to stop people from people starving. There is more than enough money in the world to address today’s humanitarian needs. What is dismally lacking is political courage.”

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Notes to the editor:

• Since 2016 Oxfam, together with 60+ INGOs, UN Agencies and donor governments, has committed to putting communities and local leaders at the heart of humanitarian responses and to making the humanitarian system more efficient and effective. Together with 50+ NGOs we have signed this joint statement in reaction to this GHO report. Read HERE
• How you can help – DONATE HERE.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

The investments of just 125 billionaires emit 393 million tonnes of CO2e each year – the equivalent of Ontario and Alberta combined – at an individual annual average that is a million times higher than the global average for 90 per cent of humanity.

Carbon Billionaires: The investment emissions of the world’s richest people, is a report published by Oxfam today, based on a detailed analysis of the investments of 125 of the richest billionaires in some of the world’s biggest companies and the carbon emissions of these investments. These billionaires have a collective $2.4 trillion stake in 183 companies.

The report finds that these billionaires’ investments give an annual average of 3m tonnes of CO2e per person, which is a million times higher than 2.76 tonnes of CO2e which is the average for those living in the bottom 90 per cent income bracket.

The actual figure is likely to be higher still, as published carbon emissions by companies have been shown to underestimate systematically the true level of carbon impact, and billionaires and companies who do not publicly reveal their emissions, so could not be included in the research, are likely to be those with a higher climate impact.

“These few billionaires together have ‘investment emissions’ that equal the carbon footprints of entire countries like France, Egypt or Argentina,” said Ian Thomson, policy manager at Oxfam Canada. “The major and growing responsibility of wealthy people for overall emissions is rarely discussed or considered in climate policy making. This has to change. These billionaire investors at the top of the corporate pyramid have huge responsibility for driving climate breakdown. They have escaped accountability for too long.”

“Emissions from billionaire lifestyles — with their private jets, mega-mansions and yachts – are thousands of times the average person’s, which is already completely unacceptable. But if we look at emissions from their investments, then their carbon emissions are over a million times greater,” said Thomson.

Unlike average people, studies show the investments of the world’s wealthiest individuals account for up to 70 per cent of their emissions. Oxfam has used public data to calculate the “investment emissions” of billionaires with over 10 per cent stakes in a corporation, by allocating them a share of the reported emissions of the companies in which they are invested in proportion to their stake.

The study also found billionaires had an average of 14 per cent of their investments in polluting industries, such as energy and materials like cement. This is twice the rate of polluting industries included in the Standard and Poor 500. Only one billionaire out of the 183 companies in the sample had more than a 10 per cent stake in a renewable energy company.

“We need COP27 to expose and change the role that big companies and their rich investors are playing in profiting from the pollution that is driving the global climate crisis,” said Nafkote Dabi, Climate Change Lead at Oxfam International. “They can’t be allowed to hide or greenwash. We need governments to tackle this urgently by publishing emission figures for the richest people, regulating investors and companies to slash carbon emissions, and taxing wealth and polluting investments.”

The investment choices of billionaires are shaping the future of our economy, for example, by backing high-carbon infrastructure – locking in high emissions for decades to come. The study found that if the billionaires in the sample moved their investments to a fund with stronger environmental and social standards, it could slash their emissions by 75 per cent.

“The super-rich need to be taxed and regulated away from polluting investments that are destroying the planet. Governments must put also in place ambitious regulations and policies that compel corporations to be more accountable and transparent in reporting and radically reducing their emissions,” said Dabi.

Oxfam has estimated that a wealth tax on the world’s super-rich could raise up to $1.4 trillion a year, vital resources that could help low- and middle-income countries – those worst hit by the climate crisis – to adapt, address loss and damage and carry out a just transition to renewable energy. According to the UNEP, adaptation costs for low- and middle-income countries could rise to $300 billion per year by 2030. African countries alone will require $600 billion between 2020 to 2030. Oxfam is also calling for steeply higher tax rates for investments in polluting industries to deter such investments.

The report says that many corporations are off track in setting their climate transition plans, including hiding behind unrealistic and unreliable decarbonization plans with the promise of attaining net zero targets only by 2050. Fewer than one in three of the 183 companies reviewed by Oxfam are working with the Science Based Targets Initiative. Only 16 per cent have set net zero targets.

Ahead of the deliberations at COP27, Oxfam is calling for the following actions:

• Governments to put in place regulations and policies that compel corporations to track and report on scope 1, scope 2 and scope 3 GHG emissions, set science-based climate targets with a clear road map to reducing emissions, and while at it ensuring a just transition from the extractive, carbon-intensive economy by securing the future livelihoods of workers and the affected communities.
• Governments should implement a wealth tax on the richest people and an additional steep rate top-up on wealth invested in polluting industries. This will reduce the numbers and power of rich people in our society, drastically reduce their emissions. It will also raise billions that can be used to help countries cope with the brutal impacts of climate breakdown and the loss and damage they incur and fund the global shift to renewable energy.
• Corporations should immediately put in place ambitious and time-bound climate change action plans with short-to-medium term targets in line with global climate change objectives, in a view to reaching carbon neutrality by 2050.

“To meet the global target of keeping warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, humanity must significantly reduce carbon emissions, which will necessitate radical changes in how investors and corporations conduct business and how public policy drives them,” said Thomson.

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Notes to the editor:

• Download Oxfam’s report “Carbon Billionaires”.
• Oxfam began with a list of the 220 richest people in the world according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and worked with data provider Exerica to identify a) the per centage ownership these billionaires held in corporations b) the scope 1&2 emissions of these corporations. To calculate the investment portfolios of individual billionaires, we used the analysis by Bloomberg, who provide detailed breakdowns of the sources of billionaire wealth. Here is the methodology note.
• The estimate on the money that could be raise on wealth tax on millionaires, multi-millionaires and billionaires, is through using data from Wealth X and Forbes.
• Recent data from Oxfam’s research with the Stockholm Environment Institute shows that the wealthiest 1 per cent of humanity are responsible for twice as many emissions as the poorest 50 per cent and that by 2030, their carbon footprints are set to be 30 times greater than the level compatible with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement.
• The GHG Protocol greenhouse gas accounting standards, widely used globally, spells out the three categories of gas emissions associated with companies as follows: Scope 1 are direct emissions from the company’s operations. Scope 2 are indirect, where the emissions take place elsewhere. Scope 3 are all other indirect emissions, this includes everything from emissions in the company’s supply chains to employee commuting, to the use of the products they sell by consumers.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

An average of 189 million people per year have been affected by extreme weather-related events in developing countries since 1991 – the year that a mechanism was first proposed to address the costs of climate impacts on low-income countries, according to a new report published today.

The report, The Cost of Delay, by the Loss and Damage Collaboration – a group of more than 100 researchers, activists, and policymakers from around the globe – highlights how rich countries have repeatedly stalled efforts to provide dedicated finance to developing countries bearing the costs of a climate crisis they did little to cause.

Analysis shows that in the first half of 2022 six fossil fuel companies combined made enough money to cover the cost of major extreme weather and climate-related events in developing countries and still have nearly $70 billion profit remaining.

The report reveals that 55 of the most climate-vulnerable countries have suffered climate-induced economic losses totalling over half a trillion dollars during the first two decades of this century as fossil fuel profits rocket leaving people in some of the poorest places on earth to foot the bill.

The report also reveals that the fossil fuel industry made enough super-profit between 2000 and 2019 to cover the costs of climate-induced economic losses in 55 of the most climate-vulnerable countries almost 60 times over.

Finance to address ‘loss and damage’ – the term used to refer to the destructive impacts of climate change that aren’t avoided by mitigation or adaptation – is set to be the defining issue of COP27, the UN climate talks taking place in Sharm El-Sheikh in November, as developing countries call for action after decades of delay.

The report estimates that since 1991, developing countries experienced 79 per cent of recorded deaths and 97 per cent of the total recorded number of people affected by the impacts of weather extremes. Analysis also shows that the number of extreme weather and climate-related events that developing countries experience has more than doubled over that period with over 676,000 people killed.

The entire continent of Africa produces less than four per cent of global emissions and the African Development Bank reported recently the continent was losing between five and 15 per cent of its GDP per capita growth because of climate change.

Lyndsay Walsh, Oxfam’s Climate policy adviser and co-author of the report said: “It is an injustice that polluters who are disproportionately responsible for the escalating greenhouse gas emissions continue to reap these enormous profits while climate-vulnerable countries are left to foot the bill for the climate impacts destroying people’s lives, homes and jobs.

“This is not a future reality, it is happening now, as we are seeing with the devastating floods in Pakistan and unprecedented drought in East Africa.

“But it is not too late. COP27 starts in just two weeks and finance to address loss and damage must be agreed. News that the issue will be on the agenda for COP27 is welcome and an ambitious outcome is critical not only for those dealing with climate impacts in developing countries, but also for maintaining trust and credibility.

“We must end this delay. The best time to start was 31 years ago, the next best time is now.”

At COP26 last year, developing countries were united in calling for the establishment of a Loss and Damage Finance Facility, to ensure a comprehensive approach to climate impacts, but this was shot down by developed countries in favour of a three-year dialogue – the Glasgow Dialogue – with no mandated outcomes.

Professor Saleemul Huq, Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh, said: “As one of the few people who has attended every single COP over the last three decades, I have personally witnessed the resistance from the developed countries to every attempt by the vulnerable developing countries to discuss loss and damage from human-induced climate change. If it doesn’t get on the agenda from COP27 onwards the UNFCCC will have failed in its responsibilities.”

The catastrophic flooding in Pakistan this year, directly affected at least 33 million people and costs were estimated at over $30 billion. Yet the UN humanitarian appeal for the floods is set at only $472.3 million (just over one per cent of what is needed), and only 19 per cent funded. The flood response is not considered to be anywhere near enough to help the millions of people who have lost their livelihoods and homes and face hunger, disease and psychological impacts.

Pakistan will have to take out another IMF loan to help recover from the floods, in contrast, funds from a Loss and Damage Finance Facility would be new and additional and come in the form of grants, to ensure the country was not burdened by debt in the aftermath of a climate-induced disaster.

Every fraction of a degree of further warming means more climate impacts with losses from climate change in developing countries estimated to be between $290 billion and $580 billion by 2030.These estimates do not include non-economic losses and damages, such as psychological impacts and biodiversity loss, which are profound but cannot be translated fully into monetary terms, meaning the true cost is far higher than what is accounted for.

With current global policies projected to result in about 2.7°C warming above pre-industrial levels, and huge gaps between the amount of finance required by developing countries to adapt and what is being provided, the urgent need for finance to address Loss and Damage is clear.

 – 30 –

Notes to editors:

• The full report ‘The cost of delay: why finance to address Loss and Damage must be agreed at COP27’ is available here. (link will go live on 24 October – pdf available on request)
• The Loss and Damage Collaboration (L&DC) is a group of practitioners, researchers, activists, creative practitioners and decision makers working together to ensure that vulnerable developing countries, and the vulnerable people and communities within them, have the support they need to address climate change related loss and damage. L&DC represent a range of organisations including the Climate Leadership Initiative: Empowering the New Generation, the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) and the Pacific Islands Climate Action Network (PICAN).
• ‘Loss and damage’ broadly refers to the consequences of climate impacts which cannot be or have not been avoided through mitigation or adaptation. ‘Loss’ can refer to loss of lives, livelihoods or culture and ‘damage’ can be to infrastructure or ecosystems, among other things.
• Data for the number of extreme weather events, people affected, and deaths were gathered from CRED’s Emergency Disasters database. This is a global database of natural and technological disasters which contains data on the occurrence and effects of more than 21,000 disasters around the world, from 1900 to present.
• Data for fossil fuel profits of six major fossil fuel companies in the first six months of 2022 was gathered from the publicly reported Q1 and Q2 profits of BP, Shell, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Total and Eni.
• The costs of extreme weather events in developing countries in the first six months of 2022 were calculated using Aon’s Global Catastrophe Recap: 1H report.
• Super-profits of the fossil fuel industry from 2000-2019 were estimated using Verbruggen’s 2022 analysis of oil and gas rents, available here. This uses World Bank data, which assesses the annual rents from crude oil, natural gas, and other resources. Numbers are expressed in US dollars in 2020 terms.
• Data for the economic losses in 55 of the most climate-vulnerable countries between 2000 and 2019 was sourced from the V20’s 2022 report.
• A methodology note is available for the report here.
• According to Climate Action Tracker, current policies presently in place around the world are projected to result in about 2.7°C warming above pre-industrial levels.
• Estimates for loss and damage costs in developing countries by 2030 are from Markandya and González-Eguino’s 2018 analysis.
• The UN appeal page for the Pakistan flood response is here.
• Africa emissions from Our World in Data: https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Many rich countries are using dishonest and misleading accounting to inflate their climate finance contributions to developing countries – in 2020 by as much as 225 per cent, according to investigations by Oxfam.

Oxfam estimates between just $21-24.5 billion as the “true value” of climate finance provided in 2020, against a reported figure of $68.3 billion in public finance that rich countries said was provided (alongside mobilized private finance bringing the total to $83.3 billion). The global climate finance target is supposed to be $100 billion a year.

“Rich country contributions not only continue to fall miserably below their promised goal but are also very misleading in often counting the wrong things in the wrong way. They’re overstating their own generosity by painting a rosy picture that obscures how much is really going to poor countries,” said Nafkote Dabi, Oxfam International Climate Policy Lead.

“Our global climate finance is a broken train: drastically flawed and putting us at risk of reaching a catastrophic destination. There are too many loans indebting poor countries that are already struggling to cope with climatic shocks. There is too much dishonest and shady reporting. The result is the most vulnerable countries remaining ill-prepared to face the wrath of the climate crisis,” says Dabi.

Oxfam research found that instruments such as loans are being reported at face value, ignoring repayments and other factors. Too often funded projects have less climate-focus than reported, making the net value of support specifically aiming at climate action significantly lower than actual reported climate finance figures.

Currently, loans are dominating over 70 per cent provision ($48.6 billion) of public climate finance, adding to the debt crisis across developing countries.

“To force poor countries to repay a loan to cope with a climate crisis they hardly caused is profoundly unfair. Instead of supporting countries that are facing worsening droughts, cyclones and flooding, rich countries are crippling their ability to cope with the next shock and deepening their poverty,” said Dabi.

Least Developed Countries’ external debt repayments reached $31bn in 2020.

For example, Senegal, which sits in the bottom third of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change, received 85 per cent of its climate finance in form of debt (29 per cent being non-concessional loans), despite being at moderate risk of falling into debt distress and with its debt amounting to 62.4 per cent of its Gross National Income.        

“A keyway to prevent a full-scale climate catastrophe is for developed nations to fulfil their $100 billion commitments and genuinely address the current climate financing accounting holes. Manipulating the system will only mean poor nations, least responsible for the climate crisis, footing the climate bill,” said Dabi.

“A climate finance system that is primarily based on loans is only worsening the problem. Rich nations, especially the heaviest-polluting ones, have a moral responsibility to provide alternative forms of climate financing, above all grants, to help impacted countries cope and develop in a low carbon way,” said Dabi.

“At the upcoming COP27 climate talks this November, rich countries must urgently commit to scaling up grant-based support to vulnerable countries and to fixing their flawed reporting practices.”

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Notes to the editors:

• Download a full copy of the report, Climate Finance Short Changed Report 2022: The real value of the $100 billion commitment in 2019-20, here:
• The 2020 reported climate finance totalling $83.3 billion included public finance ($68.3 billion), private finance mobilised ($13.1 billion) and export credits ($1.9 billion) in 2020.  Oxfam has assessed the value of finance provided, IE the public finance element. OECD (2022), Climate Finance Provided and Mobilised by Developed Countries in 2016-2020: Insights from Disaggregated Analysis, Climate Finance and the USD 100 Billion Goal, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/286dae5d-en
• Overreporting of loans is incentivising the use of loans which are dominating climate finance provision. According to the latest assessment by the OECD, loans made up 71% of public climate finance in 2019-20– a significant share of which were non-concessional – while only 26% was provided as grants.^{[i]   [i]} OECD (2022a), Climate Finance Provided and Mobilised by Developed Countries in 2016-2020: Insights from Disaggregated Analysis, Climate Finance and the USD 100 Billion Goal, OECD Publishing, Paris.
• Oxfam’s $21-24.5 billion figure includes the estimated grant equivalent of reported climate finance rather than the face value of loans and other non-grant instruments. It also accounts for overreporting of climate finance where action to combat climate change is one part of a broader development project. For more details please check Oxfam methodology note here.
• Senegal’s debt instrument figures are based on 2013-2018 climate finance reports, according to Oxfam “Climate Finance in West Africa” report, 2022. Please also see OECD. (2021). Climate Change: OECD DAC External Development Finance Statistics – Recipient Perspective. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
• Senegal ranks Senegal is 134th out of 182, or in the bottom 30% in terms of vulnerability according to the ND-GAIN Index.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

The report, produced in collaboration with Institut de Recherche en Economie Contemporaine (IREC), shows that bank assets, which include the saving and investments of Canadians, are the biggest source of pollution in the country, well ahead of transportation.

The report also reveals that:

• The total emissions financed in 2020 by Canada’s eight largest banks are more than twice the total carbon footprint of Canada as a whole, and nearly 23 times that of Quebec.
• One medium-sized Canadian bank alone is financing more polluting emissions than the entire Canadian transportation sector.
• Each investor is responsible for financing an average of one-third of a tonne of GHG per year for every $1,000 invested in a Canadian bank.

All the banks examined by Oxfam said they were going to go carbon neutral, but none have presented a real plan to get there, and so far none have disclosed the total emissions financed by their credit and investment portfolios, despite committing to do so.

Oxfam wanted to shine a spotlight on the issue by conducting this study, which is the first to quantify and compare total GHG emissions financed by all portfolios of the eight major Canadian banks.

A disappointing carbon impact ratio

The report also measures “emissions savings” investments made by banks to reduce and prevent GHGs, such as supporting energy efficiency projects or the development of green technologies. It is clear that banks still have a lot of work to do to meet the Paris Agreement climate targets. The report shows that:

• For all banks studied, emissions savings represent only a very small share of the total emissions financed.
• For every 100 tonnes of GHGs financed, banks “save” only five on average.
• To achieve carbon neutrality, “emissions savings” would have to equal 100 per cent of financed emissions, yet no bank has a ratio greater than 10 per cent.

None of the eight major banks have committed to withdrawing from the fossil fuel sector in the short or medium term. Even more worrying is the fact that they all present themselves as having sustainable finance projects or “green” investment activities aimed at decarbonizing the extraction, transformation, or consumption of fossil fuels.

Many mutual funds and exchange-traded funds offered by these banks, including funds focused on environmental, social, and governance principles (or so-called “green” funds) are still not aligned with the Paris Agreement targets to address climate change.

Six recommendations for banks and government

Oxfam is calling on the federal government to do more by developing the regulatory framework necessary for sustainable finance. The report makes six recommendations to governments and financial regulators and supervisors to help banks become key players in a greener and more just society.

Oxfam recommends that:

• Canadian banks disclose the carbon footprint of all their investments, not just their operations.
• Banks take climate risk into consideration in their investments.
• Banks be required by 2025 to publish an action plan to achieve carbon neutrality in their portfolios by 2050, with specific details on how they will achieve this objective.
• The federal government introduce clear standards for regulating financial products that are considered green, sustainable, or responsible, following the example of the European Union.
• Canadian federal and provincial governments, as well as their Crown corporations and other financial entities, fully divest from the fossil fuel sector by 2025.
• The final recommendations of Canada’s Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance be put into effect and that the proposed federal Climate-Aligned Finance Act (S-243) be adopted and implemented.

The report was submitted to each of the eight banks prior to its release. Oxfam-Québec and the finance sector agree that climate change is a collective responsibility, and that each individual has the power to influence and take action.

“To create an impact that is significant and rapid enough to achieve Quebec and Canada’s climate objectives, the big players have to get on board faster,” says Caron. “Our banks and large financial sector companies need to come out of the shadows and become key contributors in the fight against climate change.”

Canada has a duty to build a just and sustainable future, and it is up to us to demand it. Oxfam-Québec has launched a petition calling on Canada to stop financing polluting projects. Together, we can create a climate of justice and invest in an equitable future.

– 30 –

Notes to editors:

• The summary of the report is available here
• The full report is available here.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

According to a new Oxfam study today, Climate Finance in West Africa, 62 per cent of $11.7 billion declared by donors between 2013 and 2019 have been mostly in the form of loans, which will have to be repaid, many with interest, aggravating the debt crisis in most West African countries.

Climate finance is a highly-contentious issue that again threatens the success of the crucial UNFCCC climate talks in Egypt this November. Oxfam and a hundred African civil society organizations are concerned that African countries will come to the summit with little confidence that donors will honor their repeated promises to mobilize 100 billion a year for climate action in developing countries (a target that has been missed by $16.7 billion in 2020).

These organizations are calling on rich countries – historically responsible for climate change – to assume their fair share to help the region face the escalating climate crises that has hit the African continent.

The report warns that rich countries are increasingly using loans to help West African countries cope with climate change. Between 2013 and 2019 loans have increased by 610% from $243 million to $1.72 billion. By comparison, grants have only increased by 79 per cent. Among the donors that have made the most use of loans as a proportion of their total climate financing are the World Bank (94%), France (94%), Japan (84%), the African Development Bank (AfDB) (83%) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) (79%).

“At a time when West Africa is reeling from multiple crises including climate, hunger, and security, these financial flows are grossly inadequate and not what was promised. Many of these are now loans that actually reduce countries’ capacity to cope. Most countries are falling into a spiral of debt and poverty, which runs counter to the spirit of climate justice. The consequences are disastrous for millions of people who are paying the price for the impacts of climate change yet not responsible for it,” said Assalama Dawalack Sidi, Oxfam’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa.

The consequences on debt and the capacity of countries to provide basic services to populations facing multiple crises are very real. For example:

• Although Niger (7th most vulnerable country in the world to climate change), Mali (13th most vulnerable), and Burkina Faso (24th most vulnerable) all face a risk of debt distress, they have received a sizable share of climate finance in the form of loans and debt: 51 per cent, 43 per cent, and 41 per cent, respectively. These countries are already being pushed into a new wave of austerity measures by the IMF and are planning combined budget cuts of $7.2 billion by 2026 which will further limit their ability to invest in quality public services and protection for their citizens.
• Ghana currently receives 40 per cent of its climate finance in the form of loans and debt, despite already being at high risk of debt distress. In 2019, Ghana was spending 55 times more on debt servicing than on agriculture. It is planning a $23.3 billion budget cut by 2026.

Oxfam believes that funding in West Africa should focus on adaptation measures, rather than mitigation given the region is a very low contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. However, there is an 82 per cent gap between the adaptation funding reported in 2019 and the needs expressed by West African countries.

Chad, the world’s most vulnerable and least prepared country for climate change, has the largest funding gap for adaptation with 95 per cent of its financial needs not covered ($1.49 billion of $1.57 billion per year) by 2030.

These findings are all the more alarming given that hunger is increasing at an unprecedented rate in the region, in part driven by droughts that are becoming more frequent and severe as rainfall becomes more erratic and unpredictable. There has been a 154 per cent increase in the number of people now food insecure between March-May 2022 compared to the five-year average between 2017-2021.

“We demand that all donors urgently increase their climate financing and honor their promises. These funds must be disbursed as grants not loans and must respond to the priorities and adaptation needs of recipient countries and their communities,” said Sidi.

The report’s recommendations support the recent joint statement by two dozen African leaders meeting earlier this month at a forum in Cairo, where they urged the richest countries to uphold their aid pledges so the continent can tackle the effects of climate change for which it shares little blame.

The report is being published ahead of citizen caravans organized by about 100 African civil society organizations, including Oxfam, that will travel across 23 countries on the continent to Egypt. The caravans will mobilize communities and policy makers along the way to highlight the harm that climate change is causing to Africa and demand more justice in climate finance.

“As Africa heats up, African communities’ temperature is rising too. Today, people are uniting to demand more climate justice. The international community, and rich donors in particular, must urgently hear their cries,” said Sidi.

– 30 –

Notes to the editors:

• Download the report Climate Finance in West Africa: Assessing the State of Climate Finance in One of the the World’s Regions Worst Hit by the Climate Crisis. The eight West African countries analyzed are Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ghana and Nigeria.
• All dollar figures are in USD.
• The levels of climate finance reported by global donors in 2019 ($2.5 billion) represent only 12.7% of the average annual financial needs for external climate finance expressed by West African countries in their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) (covering the period 2021-2030). However, when considering Climate-specific net assistance (CSNA), current public funding that can be considered relevant for climate action would fall to 7.1% of average annual needs between 2021 and 2030, representing an alarming climate finance gap of 92.9%. The CSNA is a method of calculating climate finance developed by Oxfam, designed to be more equitable than the tools currently used by donors. The CSNA estimate includes 100% grants and grant equivalent of loans, guarantees and other debt instruments.
• Oxfam’s estimate of net climate-specific aid is based on climate-related development finance as documented by the OECD.
• See the Aggregate trends of climate finance provided and mobilized by developed countries in 2013-2020 against the 100 billion annual target, OECD, 2022.
• Follow the caravans for the climate in Africa that will crisscross 23 African countries (Senegal, Benin, Niger, Ghana, Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, DRC, Gambia, Guinea, Malawi, Mauritania, Mozambique, South Africa, South Sudan, Togo, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Somalia) and will converge in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, at the time of the world climate conference (COP 27) from November 7 to 18, 2022. These caravans are a catalyst for the demands of African populations -especially youth and women- on climate finance (loss and damage, adaptation, and mitigation). They are organized by civil society organizations such as Young Volunteers for the Environment (YVE), CIDSE – International family of Catholic social justice organizations and a hundred others, with the support of Oxfam.
• According to Government Spending Watch, in Ghana in 2019, total public debt service (external and domestic) reached 75 percent of government revenue, with domestic debt accounting for two-thirds.
• The Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative (ND-GAIN) index assesses a country’s vulnerability to climate disruption and its ability to mobilize investment. Chad is ranked 182nd out of 182 countries.
• While some loans are concessional, Oxfam is even more concerned by the high prevalence of non-concessional finance among some donors, especially the AfDB ($454m; 43% of its total), United States ($308m; 39% of total), the GCF ($229m; 73% of total), France ($167m; 13% of total), and the EIB ($137m; 68% of total).
• The newly released report by World Bank Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) for the G5 Sahel region estimates that up to 13.5 million people across the Sahel could fall into poverty due to climate change-related shocks by 2050 if urgent climate adaptation measures are not taken.
• 14 out of 16 West African countries plan to reduce their national budgets by a total of $69.8 billion between 2022 and 2026 due to pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) through its COVID-19 loans., based on the World Economic Outlook Database of the IMF and Oxfam’s analysis Adding Fuel to Fire: how IMF’s demands for austerity will drive up inequality worldwide.
• According to calculations based on World Bank databases, an individual living in West Africa emits only 0.43 tons of CO2 per year. In comparison, a U.S. citizen emits 15.2 tons, with the global average being 4.5 tons.
• Oxfam’s report HUNGER IN A HEATING WORLD: How the climate crisis is fuelling hunger in an already hungry world shows that climate change is deepening hunger in 10 of the world’s worst climate hotspots, including Burkina Faso and Niger. For food security projections, see the Food Security and Nutrition Working Group (FSNWG) estimates.
• African nations meeting in Cairo from 7 to 9 September call for climate change funding ahead of COP27.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Ten of the world’s worst climate hotspots – those with the highest number of UN appeals driven by extreme weather events – have suffered a 123 per cent rise in acute hunger over just the past six years, according to an Oxfam report published today.

Gabriela Bucher, Oxfam International Executive Director, said: “Climate change is no longer a ticking bomb, it is exploding before our eyes. It is making extreme weather such as droughts, cyclones, and floods – which have increased five-fold over the past 50 years – more frequent and more deadly.”

The brief Hunger in a heating world found that those 10 climate hotspots – Somalia, Haiti, Djibouti, Kenya, Niger, Afghanistan, Guatemala, Madagascar, Burkina Faso, and Zimbabwe – have repeatedly been battered by extreme weather over the last two decades. Today, 48 million people across those countries suffer acute hunger (up from 21 million in 2016), and 18 million people of them are on the brink of starvation.

“For millions of people already pummelled down by ongoing conflict, widening inequalities, and economic crises, repeated climate shocks are becoming a backbreaker. The onslaught of climate disasters is now outpacing poor people’s ability to cope, pushing them deeper into severe hunger,” said Bucher.

For example:

• Somalia is facing its worst drought on record, and famine is expected to unfold in two of its districts: Baidoa and Burhakaba. One million people have been forced to flee their homes due to the drought. The country ranks 172^nd out of 182 countries in terms of its readiness to cope with climate change.
• In Kenya, the current drought has killed nearly 2.5 million livestock and left 2.4 million people hungry, including hundreds of thousands of children severely malnourished.
• In Niger, 6 million people are facing acute hunger today (up 767 per cent from 2016). Cereal production has crashed by nearly 40 per cent, as frequent climatic shocks on top of ongoing conflict have made harvesting increasingly difficult. Production of staple foods such as millet and sorghum could plummet even further by 25 per cent if global warming surpasses 2°C.
• Burkina Faso has seen a staggering 1350 per cent rise in hunger since 2016, with more than 3.4 million people in extreme hunger as of June 2022 due to armed conflict and worsening desertification of crop and pastoral lands. Global warming above 2°C would likely decrease cereal yields like millet and sorghum by 15 – 25 per cent.
• In Guatemala, a severe drought has contributed to the loss of close to 80 per cent of the maize harvest and devastated coffee plantations.

Climate-fuelled hunger is a stark demonstration of global inequality. Countries that are least responsible for the climate crisis are suffering most from its impact and are also the least resourced to cope with it. Collectively responsible for just 0.13 per cent of global carbon emissions, the 10 climate hotspots sit in the bottom third of countries least ready for climate change.

In contrast, polluting industrialized nations such as those of the G20 – which control 80 per cent of the world’s economy – are together responsible for over three-quarters of the world’s carbon emissions.

Leaders of these nations continue to support mega-rich polluting companies that are often big supporters of their political campaigns. Fossil fuel companies’ daily profits have averaged $2.8 billion over the last 50 years. Less than 18 days of those profits would fund the entire UN humanitarian appeal for 2022 of $49 billion.

Important policy changes are equally needed to address the double crisis of climate and hunger. Unless massive and immediate action is taken, hunger will continue to spiral.

“Ahead of UN General Assembly meetings this week, and COP 27 in November, leaders especially of rich polluting countries must live up to their promises to cut emissions. They must pay for adaptation measures and loss-and-damage in low-income countries, as well as immediately inject lifesaving funds to meet the UN appeal to respond to the most impacted countries.

“We cannot fix the climate crisis without fixing the systemic inequalities in our food and energy systems. Increasing taxation on super polluters could easily cover the cost. Just 1% of the fossil fuel companies’ average annual profit would generate $10 billion, enough to cover most of the shortfall in funding the UN humanitarian food security appeal,” Bucher said.

Cancelling debt can also help governments free up resources to invest in climate mitigation.

“Rich and most polluting nations have a moral responsibility to compensate low-income countries most impacted by the climate crisis. This is an ethical obligation, not charity,” said Bucher.

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Notes to the editors: 

• Download Oxfam report Hunger in a Heating World.
• The FSIN began producing the Global Reports on Food Crises in 2017. Sum of the population in IPC3+ food insecurity in the ten countries in 2016 (See GRFC 2017, p. 21) was 21.3 million and in 2021 (See GRFC 2022, pp. 30 – 33) was 47.5. The percent rise is therefore 123%.
• The calculations of those facing starvation in the 10 countries is based on the total number of people at IPC 4 level of food insecurity and above in 2021, according to the GRFC 2022, see Understanding IPC classification
• The 10 worst climate hotspots were calculated looking at countries with the highest number of extreme weather-related UN appeals since 2000, where climate was classified as a “major contributor” to these appeals.  Source: Oxfam’s “Footing the Bill” report May 2022.
• The 10 countries had the highest number of appeals linked to extreme weather, where climate was a major contributor to the appeal, according to the methodology outlined in the Oxfam (2022) Technical Note UN Humanitarian Appeals linked to Extreme Weather, 2000-2021.
• The figure on fivefold increase in climate disasters is according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Water Extremes (1970–2019) (WMO-No. 1267), Geneva.
• The sum of cumulative carbon emissions of the 10 climate hotspots for 2020 is 0.002 trillion tons of carbon – that is 0.13% of the world emissions (1.69 trillion tons of carbon) in same year. Source Our World in Data.
• The sum of cumulative carbon emissions of the G20 countries for 2020 is 1.299570755 trillion tons of carbon, which is 76.60% of global carbon emissions (1.696524177 trillion tons). Source Our World in Data.
• The rank of 10 climate hotspots is 34% according to calculations of percentiles of the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative (ND-GAIN) index scores of the 10 climate hotspots. ND-GAIN scores for 2020 retrieved from the ND-GAIN website.
• For the fossil fuel industry’s daily average of $2.8 billion in profits over the last 50 years, which is also an annual average of $1.022 trillion, we used this 2022 article from the Guardian: Revealed: oil sector’s ‘staggering’ $3bn-a-day profits for last 50 years. Based on the daily average, we calculated that less than 18 days of company profits would cover the full UN global humanitarian appeal for 2022 of $48.82 billion. We used the annual average of $1 trillion to calculate the returns from an extra 1% tax on fossil fuel profits ($10 billion). The Guardian (2022). Revealed: oil sector’s ‘staggering’ $3bn-a-day profits for last 50 years.
• UN humanitarian appeal for 2022 is found at https://fts.unocha.org/appeals/overview/2022, last visited 30 August 2022. The food security portion of the appeal is $15.9 billion, of which $10.4 billion is unfunded as of 8 September 2022.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

“This IPCC report pulls no punches. The bleak and brutal truth about global warming is this: barring action on a sweeping scale, humanity faces worsening hunger, disease, economic collapse, mass migration of people and unbearable heat. It’s not about taking our foot off the accelerator anymore — it’s about slamming on the brakes. A warming planet is humanity’s biggest emergency.

“No amount of adaptation can compensate for the terrible consequences of failing to hit the Paris goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C. This is a survival target and it remains within our grasp, but just barely. After a dip in 2020, carbon emissions that fuel climate change have bounced back to pre-pandemic levels. We need extraordinary cuts in the use of fossil fuels to meet our emissions targets, and that entails a dramatic shift towards sustainable renewable energy. The recent push to increase production of oil, gas and coal and backtrack on climate measures because of the crisis in Ukraine — and even to delay net-zero — is shortsighted folly.

“Climate change is causing extreme weather disasters now and their costs are piling up. But these costs do not hit everyone equally. People living in poverty are suffering first and worst. Farmers in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia have lost crops and entire herds of livestock to an exceptionally long and severe drought. Millions of people in East Africa are now on the brink of a hunger catastrophe. Meanwhile the richest people who have massive carbon footprints are turning up the air-conditioning on their mega yachts.

“The other clear message from this report is that every single action to cut emissions counts and every fraction of a degree matters. The world is currently heading for 2.7°C of warming under current plans. That is a death sentence for climate-vulnerable countries like Vanuatu and Bangladesh. Wealthy countries are disproportionately responsible for the climate crisis and they have the double responsibility to both cut emissions at home and to support developing countries with the costs of replanting crops and rebuilding homes after storms, and moving from dirty energy forms to cleaner, lower-carbon ones.

“This monumental climate report is distressing but it is not surprising. Scientists and the IPCC have been warning governments of this danger for decades. Our future lies in the decisions we make today. We cannot tackle climate change later. We must clamp down on emissions now or face more catastrophic climate disasters, season after season.”

– 30 –

Notes to editors:

• Photographs and video from East Africa are available for download. As many as 28 million people across East Africa at risk of extreme hunger.
• 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. For low-income countries, the consequences of climate change could be much greater.
• Canada says it could increase oil and gas exports this year by up to 300,000 barrels per day in response to the crisis in Ukraine, while Italy could reopen shuttered coal plants. In Germany, plans for phasing out coal power are being questioned. The US administration is asking domestic oil and gas producers to increase production, and Norway plans to provide new licenses for gas and oil exploration in the Arctic. In the UK, the Government’s net-zero agenda is facing opposition.
• Climate pledges for 2030, including new or updated NDCs and other 2030 commitments, reduce projected 2030 emissions by only 7.5 percent —far short of the 30 percent needed to keep the global average temperature rise to 2°C and 55 percent required for 1.5°C.
• The richest one percent were responsible for 15 percent of emissions added to the atmosphere between 1990 and 2015 ―more than all the citizens of the EU and more than twice that of the poorest half of humanity (7 per cent). The richest 10 per cent accounted for over half (52 per cent) of emissions during this time. For more information, download Oxfam’s report “Confronting Carbon Inequality”.
• According to Boat International, the superyacht industry has largely shrugged off the COVID-19 pandemic to record a third year of consistent order book growth. The 2022 Global Order Book records 1,024 projects in build or on order, a rise of 24.7 per cent on last year’s 821.
• As of 2015, countries in the Global North were responsible for 92 percent of excess carbon emissions and 92 percent of climate breakdown. By contrast, most countries in the Global South were within their boundary fair shares.
• The carbon footprints of the richest 1 per cent of people on Earth is set to be 30 times greater than the level compatible with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement in 2030. Download “Carbon Inequality in 2030” for more information.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

As many as 28 million people across East Africa face severe hunger if the March rains fail. With the unfolding crisis in Ukraine taking their attention, there is a real danger that the international community will not respond adequately to the escalating hunger crisis in East Africa until it is too late, Oxfam warned today.

A massive ‘no regrets’ mobilization of international humanitarian aid is needed now to avert destitution and to help the 21 million people already facing severe levels of hunger in the midst of conflict, flooding, and a massive two-year drought – unprecedented in 40 years – in countries across East Africa.

“East Africa faces a profoundly alarming hunger crisis. Areas of Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan and beyond are experiencing a full-scale catastrophe. Women and girls are most vulnerable to hunger since they often eat last and least and face more economic insecurity,” said Brittany Lambert, Oxfam Canada’s Women’s Rights Policy Specialist.

“The repercussions of the Ukrainian conflict on the global food system will reverberate around the globe, but it is the poorest and most vulnerable people who will be hit hardest. Last year Canada endorsed the G7 Famine Prevention and Humanitarian Crises Compact, but so far these promises haven’t translated into the urgent funding needed to avert catastrophe in the world’s hungriest countries.”

COVID-19-related hikes in global food and commodity prices were already undermining the options available to heavily indebted African governments to resolve the mass hunger facing their people. However, the crisis in Ukraine will have catastrophic new consequences as it already pushes up food and commodity prices beyond what East African governments can afford.

Countries in East Africa import up to 90 per cent of their wheat from Ukraine and Russia. As disruptions begin to affect the global trade in grains, oil, transport and fertilizer, food prices are beginning to skyrocket. They hit an all-time high last week. In Somalia, the prices for staple grains were more than double those of the previous year.

In 2010-11, similar spikes in food prices pushed 44 million more people worldwide into extreme poverty, and indications are that the food-price inflation happening now will be even worse.

“Famine does not happen unexpectedly. It comes after months of ignored warnings and international indifference. Let’s not wait until it’s too late,” said Bucher.

• Over 13 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia have been displaced in search of water and pasture, just in the first quarter of 2022. Millions of others had to flee their farmlands and homes by conflicts especially around Ethiopia – where 9.4m people now need urgent humanitarian aid.
• The region has suffered from the worst plague of locusts in 70 years and flash flooding that have affected nearly a million people in South Sudan.
• Kenya has suffered a 70 per cent drop in crop production and has declared a national disaster with 3.1m people in acute hunger, now in need of aid. Nearly half of all households in Kenya are having to borrow food or buy it on credit.
• Ethiopia is facing its highest level of food insecurity since 2016, in Somali region alone 3.5m people experience critical water and food shortage. Almost a million livestock animals have died, leaving pastoralists who entirely depend on herding for survival with nothing. Women tell us heart-breaking stories about having to skip meals so that they can feed their children.
• More than 671,000 people have recently migrated away from their homes in Somalia because nearly 90 per cent of the country is in severe drought. This will likely leave almost half of Somali children under five acutely malnourished.
• In South Sudan, an estimated 8.3 million people will face severe food insecurity this lean season (May-July) as climatic and economic shocks intensify.

Despite alarming need, the humanitarian response is woefully underfunded. Only 3 per cent of the total $6bn UN 2022 humanitarian appeal for Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan, has been funded to date. Kenya has only secured 11 per cent of its UN flash appeal to date.

Idris Akhdar from WASDA a 21-year Kenyan partner with Oxfam, from Wajir County, North Eastern Kenya said: “Our team have met desperate people. People who are hungry, who are thirsty, and who are about to lose hope. In the last few days, I have seen across the region – Somali region in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya – the same hunger and destitution all over. We appeal to the international community to help.”

Oxfam together with local partners, is redoubling its support for those impacted by the East African hunger crisis, aiming to reach over 1.5 million people most in need with lifesaving water, cash, shelter and sanitation facilities. Oxfam will help people to build rebuild their lives from these climatic shocks.

“East Africa cannot wait. The hunger crisis, fuelled by changes in our climate and COVID-19, is worsening by the day. Oxfam is calling on all donors to urgently fill the UN humanitarian appeal funding gap, and to get funds as quickly as possible to local humanitarian organizations. The governments and warring parties in conflict zones need to ensure humanitarian agencies like Oxfam can safely reach the most vulnerable people,” said Oxfam International’s Executive Director Gabriela Bucher.

“We call upon the governments especially from grain exporting countries to do all they can to find suitable alternatives to the imminent disruption in the supply chain from Ukraine towards low-income, food-import dependent countries. And – as we witness the tremors triggered by the failure in international efforts to tackle the climate crisis – we underscore the need to ramp up action on climate adaptation and mitigation,” said Bucher.

– 30 –

 Notes to Editors:

• Oxfam’s Executive Director Gabriela Bucher will be holding a global press conference on March 22, 2022 from 3pm-5pm EAT (12 noon-2pm GMT) at Oxfam headquarters, Atrium building, Chaka Road, Nairobi, Kenya. Live zoom link available to all journalists HERE Gabriela will be available for interviews.
• Oxfam has new exclusive stories people in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, including b-rolls, interviews in VNR and photos available HERE.
• Oxfam partners In Kenya: ASAL Humanitarian Network; in Northern Ethiopia: ORDA in Amhara, APDA in Afar Regions; in Somalia: Kaalo, WASDA, SADO, SSWC, ADESO; and in South Sudan: SALT, DARD, YWCA.
• Figures on extreme coping mechanisms are from WFP food security analysis monitoring survey. Data is collected on a rolling basis. For more details on the methodology kindly check the Hunger Map.
• “Climate change and La Niña are working together to produce prolonged and persistent dryness.” Source: The World Food Programme and the Multi Agency in East Africa
• Displacement figures in Somalia from the UN Humanitarian Bulletin January 2022
• Data on the UN Humanitarian appeal from Source: UNOCHA , accessed March 14, 2022. Data on Kenya’s appeal based on UN flash Appeal initially raised for October 2021-March 2022.
• Figures on food price increase in 2010- 2011 are from Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, April 2011 and the World Bank Feb 201
• South Sudan food insecurity projections are from South Sudan Food Security & Livelihood Cluster Analysis Report, February 2022.

Oxfam response in East Africa:

• In South Sudan: Oxfam has provided support to over 400,000 people and aims to reach and additional 240,000 people with safe water, sanitation and hygiene services and promotion, cash grants for families to buy food and other essentials, and livelihood support like seeds, tools, fishing kits.
• In Somalia, Oxfam aims to reach 420,000 people this year with lifesaving water, sanitation and health support, including drilling boreholes in water insecure areas, distributing hygiene kits, providing materials to help protect communities from water borne diseases, and distributing cash, seeds tools, and training farmers in small scale greenhouse farming. Oxfam will also support livestock treatment and vaccination campaigns together with the Ministry of Livestock, train community protection volunteers on gender-based violence issues, and distribute solar lamps to protect women and girls at night. To date we have reached over 260,000 people.
• In Kenya, Oxfam is currently supporting 40,000 people and planning to expand the support to approximately 240,000 people with cash transfers for food and other essential items and water, sanitation and hygiene activities such as repairing water points and boreholes to provide access to clean, safe water and hygiene promotion campaigns.
• In Ethiopia, Oxfam has supported 170,000 people in Northern Ethiopia with lifesaving clean water, food, and cash assistance, particularly in conflict affected areas in South Tigray, Central Tigray, Amhara and Afar. Oxfam aims to reach an additional 750,000 women, men and children in Northern Ethiopia with emergency food packages, livelihoods assistance, clean water, sanitation and hygiene kits and protection until March 2023. Together with our partners, we are also scaling up response in the Somali Region to respond to the effects of the drought.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

“This catalogue of pain, loss and suffering must be a wake-up call to everyone. The poorest who have done the least to contribute to climate change are suffering the most and wealthy countries have a moral responsibility to help those communities adapt.

“Inequality is at the heart of today’s climate crisis — in the little over 100 days since COP26, the richest one per cent of the world’s population have emitted much more carbon than the population of Africa does in an entire year. The super-rich are racing through the planet’s small remaining carbon budget for limiting global warming to 1.5°C. Clearly, the time has come to claw back their outsized wealth, power and consumption through wealth taxes or targeted taxes on carbon-hungry luxury goods like private jets and mega yachts.

“Despite doubling its international climate finance package over the next five years, Canada still falls short of contributing its fair share towards climate adaptation and mitigation internationally. Nor has the federal government committed to introducing a wealth tax in Canada, despite its potential to raise billions of dollars annually from billionaires and multi-millionaires to reduce inequality and help fight climate change. New luxury taxes promised in last year’s federal budget are a small step in the right direction but not nearly enough.

“People living in the most affected countries do not need this report to tell them that the climate has changed.

“Regardless of how quickly governments and corporations cut carbon emissions, some warming is already baked-in from our past behaviour. It’s short-sighted — and too late — to focus almost exclusively on mitigation. Billions of people need early warning systems, access to renewable energy and improved crop production now, not after we bring emissions under control.

“Only a fourth of all climate finance to vulnerable countries is for adaptation. The recent agreement at COP26 to double adaptation finance to $40 billion by 2025 will help, but it’s nowhere near enough. The UN estimates that developing countries need $70 billion every year to adapt and those costs are not falling. Rich countries are overwhelmingly responsible for the climate crisis and must do more to support women and girls living in poverty who struggle to meet their daily needs let alone prepare for the future.

“Canada dedicates only 40 per cent of its international climate finance to adaptation, falling short of the 50 per cent called for by many climate experts and humanitarian organizations. In a positive sign earlier this month, international development minister Harjit Sajjan announced $300 million in international assistance for climate action in sub-Saharan Africa, of which $20 million is targeted to women’s rights and climate adaptation. And, by the end of March, environment and climate change minister Steven Guilbeault is expected to deliver a detailed plan on how Canada will achieve its 2030 emission reduction target.

“The other clear message from this report is that we are all in the driver’s seat. Our foot is on the accelerator and every squeeze produces more harmful gases and higher temperatures. Every ton of carbon we avoid increases the chances of a liveable planet — there is a huge difference between 1.5°C and 1.6°C of heating.

“We must adapt, and we must ensure the planet remains adaptable. Because runaway global heating will only lead to events that we cannot build back from — deaths, submerged homes, unfarmable wastelands, and mass migrations of desperate people.”

– 30 –

Notes to editors:

• Since COP26, the world’s richest one per cent (79 million people) have emitted an estimated 1.7 billion tons in carbon emissions. This is more than the continent of Africa emits in an entire year, home to almost 1.4 billion people. According to the Global Carbon Project, Africa’s consumption emissions for 2019 (latest year available) were 1.03 billion tons (1.03 billion tons divided by 365 x 107 = 294 million tons emitted by Africa in 107 days). Calculations were made using Oxfam and the Stockholm Environment Institute’s Confronting Carbon Inequality report.
• Recent data from Oxfam shows that the wealthiest one per cent of humanity are responsible for twice as many emissions as the poorest 50 per cent, and that by 2030, their carbon footprints are in fact set to be 30 times greater than the level compatible with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement.
• According to Boat International, the superyacht industry has largely shrugged off the COVID-19 pandemic to record a third year of consistent order book growth. The 2022 Global Order Book records 1,024 projects in build or on order, a rise of 24.7 per cent on last year’s 821.
• According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), developed countries provided only around $80 billion in climate finance in 2019. While the UN Secretary-General, Oxfam and others have called for half the money to be spent on adaptation, only about a quarter of total climate finance goes to adaptation.
• The UN Environment Program (UNEP) estimates that annual adaptation costs in developing countries are expected to reach $140 to $300 billion in 2030 and $280 to $500 billion in 2050.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Nearly 90 per cent of Somalia is now in a severe drought, following three consecutive failed rain seasons. Some areas facing their driest season in 40 years. Nearly 3.5 million people are already acutely food insecure and millions more are now at risk of going hungry by the beginning of next year.

With no respite in sight, pastoralists’ chance for planting next season’s crops or finding grazing land for livestock is vanishing.

“People in Jubaland in the South, Gedo, Mudug, Nuugal, Bari, Toghdheer and Sool have been the hardest hit. Some have already experienced intense drought for more than a year and have had to watch their livestock, crops and savings perish in front of their eyes. They urgently need lifesaving water, food and cash,” said Amjad Ali, Oxfam Country Director in Somalia.

Most natural water sources have dried up, pushing up the price of potable water. The price of a 200-litre water drum jumped above the five-year average by 45 per cent in Gaalkacyo, Mudug Region, 70 per cent in Jilib, Middle at Juba Region, and 172 per cent in Garowe, Nugaal Region, last October.

Persistent climate-fuelled drought, compounded by ongoing conflict, locusts and COVID-19, has fueled hunger in Somalia and will leave 7.7 million people – nearly half the population – in urgent need of humanitarian assistance by 2022. This is a 30 per cent rise since 2021. Somalia already ranks highest in the world Global Hunger Index with over half its population suffering from extremely alarming levels of hunger and malnutrition.

Oxfam and partners have already reached nearly 185,000 of the most vulnerable people across the country, with clean water and sanitation, food and rehabilitation programs.

Aydrus Daar, Executive Director of WASDA, one of Oxfam’s local partner organizations, said: “I have been involved in droughts since 1991 and I have never seen a drought that has impacted people as badly as has this one. Many pastoralists have lost 100 per cent of their livestock. This has never occurred in living history. Our biggest concern is an imminent famine.”

To help prevent a worsening catastrophe, Oxfam and partners aim to double the number of people reached, providing the most vulnerable in South Central Somalia, Somaliland, and Puntland, with lifesaving water, food and cash in the next six months. Oxfam also aims to help communities rebuild their lives and adapt to the cyclical expected climate disasters.

“In the 2011 drought crisis an estimated 50,000–100,000 people lost their lives. Despite the warnings, the international humanitarian system did too little too late. We must make sure that history does not repeat itself. We must act now. More than a third of the humanitarian appeal for Somalia this year is unfunded,” said Amjad Ali, Country Director of Oxfam in Somalia.

Oxfam urgently needs $15 million to help boost its humanitarian response in Somalia and save lives.

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Notes to the editor:

• More than 2.8 million people in 66 of the country’s 74 districts (which is 89 per cent of the country) have been affected by severe drought; nearly 133,000 displaced in search of food, water and pasture. Source: UNOCHA Somalia Drought Snapshot as of 2 December 2021
• According to CHIRPS remote-sensing data, rainfall totals rank among the driest on the 40-year record in Lower and Middle Juba, Gedo, Mudug, Nugaal, and southern Bari regions
• Four million people are estimated to be in IPC3 or above by December 2021. 3.7 million are in stressed livelihoods and face high risk of going hungry. Source: Somalia: Acute Food Insecurity Situation July – September 2021 and Projection for October – December 2021
• Somalia tops the Global Hunger Index in 2021 with 50.8 points, a 12.6 per cent drop since 2020.
• FEWSNET: Somalia Food Security Outlook September 2021
• Somalia Humanitarian Overview: https://gho.unocha.org/somalia
• Oxfam’s report (2012) A Dangerous Delay: The cost of late response to early warnings in the 2011 drought in the Horn of Africa outlines the number of people who were facing catastrophic levels of food security – or famine like conditions. IPC5.

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For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

“Here in Glasgow, the world’s poorest countries are in danger of being lost from view, but the next few hours can and must change the course we are on. What’s on the table is still not good enough.

“We need the strongest possible outcome to ensure governments come back next year with strengthened emission reduction targets that will keep 1.5 degrees alive. And decisive progress on finance to help countries adapt and for the loss and damage endured. It is of deep concern that developing countries’ proposal for a loss and damage finance facility has not been included in this new draft.

“Negotiators should come back to the table armed with cans of Irn Bru and stop at nothing to get an ambitious deal over the line.”

– 30 –

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

“This draft COP decision text is too weak. It fails to respond to the climate emergency being faced by millions of people now, who are living with unprecedented extreme weather and being pushed further into poverty.

“It fails to include clear and unambiguous commitment to increase the ambition of 2030 emission reduction targets next year to keep 1.5 degrees alive. Emissions are rising, not falling and current commitments are way off track for keeping this goal within reach.

“There are just two days left to negotiate a better deal. One that commits to increase adaptation finance to 50 per cent by 2025, takes seriously developing country demands for finance for loss and damage, and sends the strongest possible signal emission reduction targets will increase next year in line with 1.5 degrees.”

– 30 –

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

The carbon footprints of the richest one per cent of people on Earth is set to be 30 times greater than the level compatible with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement in 2030, according to new research out today. It comes as delegates grapple with how to keep this goal alive at the COP26 meeting in Glasgow.

In 2015, governments agreed to the goal of limiting global heating to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, but current pledges to reduce emissions fall far short of what is needed. To stay within this guardrail, every person on Earth would need to emit an average of just 2.3 tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030 – this is roughly half the average footprint of every person on Earth today. Canada ranks as one of the world’s top ten major emitters, and it also has one of the world’s highest levels of per capita emissions. Yet even within Canada – as with other countries – individuals’ carbon footprints vary. Across countries, the carbon-intensive lifestyles of the wealthiest individuals are pushing the world in the wrong direction when it comes to limiting climate change.

Today’s study, commissioned by Oxfam based on research carried out by the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), estimates how governments’ pledges will affect the carbon footprints of richer and poorer people around the world. It treats the global population and income groups as if they were a single country. It finds that by 2030:

• The poorest half of the global population will still emit far below the 1.5°C-aligned level in 2030.
• The richest one per cent and 10 per cent of people are set to exceed this level by 30 times and nine times respectively.
• Someone in the richest one per cent would need to reduce their emissions by around 97 per cent compared with today to reach this level.

But in a sign that the 2015 Paris Agreement is having some impact, the middle 40 per cent are on course for per capita emissions cuts of nine per cent from 2015 to 2030. This is a turnaround for a group, which is mostly made up of citizens in middle-income countries like China and South Africa that saw the fastest per capita emissions growth rates from 1990 to 2015.

Looking at total global emissions, instead of per capita emissions, the richest one per cent – fewer people than the population of Germany – are expected to account for 16 per cent of total global emissions by 2030, up from 13 per cent in 1990 and 15 per cent in 2015. The total emissions of the richest 10 per cent alone are set to exceed the 1.5°C-aligned level in 2030, regardless of what the other 90 per cent do.

Anya Knechtel, Climate Policy Specialist at Oxfam, said: “From space tourists to jet-setting socialites, the world’s billionaires are fuelling their carbon intense lifestyles at the expense of the world’s poor. While the world’s richest 1 per cent appear to feel they have a free pass to pollute, they are far exceeding their carbon budget and pushing the earth’s climate into a tailspin. Meanwhile, those who are least responsible for the climate crisis are paying the highest price. The impacts of climate change are pushing more and more women and children into poverty and hunger, and exposing millions of people to the devastating impacts of floods, droughts and extreme weather. While climate scientist raise the alarms on the dangers each fraction of degree of global warming will cause, in just nine years the emissions of the world’s wealthiest 10 per cent alone could push the world past the1.5 degrees limit set out in the Paris Agreement. While the wealthy may be able to buffer the effects of climate change for a time, the rest of the world cannot. Carbon inequality highlights the injustice of the climate crisis, and unless governments take measures to address emissions and inequities, disparities will only worsen.”

The geography of global carbon inequality is set to change too, with a larger share of the emissions of the world’s richest one per cent and 10 per cent linked to citizens in middle income countries. By 2030, Chinese citizens will be responsible for almost a quarter (23 per cent) of the emissions of the richest one per cent, US citizens for a fifth (19 per cent) and Indian citizens for a tenth (11 per cent).

Tim Gore, author of this briefing and Head of the Low Carbon and Circular Economy program at IEEP, said: “The global emissions gap to keep the 1.5°C Paris goal alive is not the result of the consumption of most of the world’s people: it reflects instead the excessive emissions of just the richest citizens on the planet. To close the emissions gap by 2030, it is necessary for governments to target measures at their richest, highest emitters – the climate and inequality crises should be tackled together. That includes both measures to constrain luxury carbon consumption like mega yachts, private jets and space travel, and to curb climate-intensive investments like stock-holdings in fossil fuel industries.”

Emily Ghosh, Scientist at Stockholm Environment Institute says: “Our research highlights the challenge of ensuring a more equitable distribution of the remaining and rapidly diminishing global carbon budget. If we continue on the same trajectory as today the stark inequalities in income and emissions across the global population will remain, challenging the equity principle at the very heart of the Paris Agreement. Analysis of carbon inequality must urgently be put at the center of governments efforts to reduce emissions.”

Oxfam said world leaders should focus on targeting deeper emissions cuts by 2030, in line with their fair share, and ensure that the richest people worldwide and within countries make the most radical cuts. The richest citizens have the potential to speed up this process dramatically, both by leading greener lifestyles but also by directing their political influence and investments towards a low-carbon economy.

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Notes to editors:

• For an embargoed copy of the briefing Carbon Inequality in 2030: Per capita consumption emissions and the 1.5C goal
• The report was commissioned by Oxfam and authored by Tim Gore, IEEP, based on research carried out by IEEP and SEI.
• The researchers involved in this study will be available for a virtual Q&A at 2pm GMT on Thursday, November 4. Spaces are limited. Please register for a place: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAtdO6trz4vH9MLR3hUR4NtWLtyb0t4mBFD
• Today’s briefing is based on an analysis of the impact of unconditional Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted up to September 2021 under the Paris Agreement on the per capita consumption emissions of different global income groups.

• The UNEP Emissions Gap Report 2021 estimates that total global emissions will need to fall to approximately 18 Gt CO2 (25 Gt CO2e) per year by 2030, on a pathway to net zero emissions by mid-century, in order to have a reasonable chance of limiting global heating to 1.5°C. This works out to approximately 2.3 tonnes CO2 per person per year (per capita emissions) in 2030.
• By 2030, the global population is projected to be approximately 7.9 billion people. This will comprise approximately 80 million people in the top one per cent, 800 million in the top 10 per cent, 3.4 billion in the ‘middle 40 per cent’ and four billion in the poorest 50 per cent.
• By 2030, you would need an annual income (expressed in $2011 purchasing power parity) of more than $172,000 to be in the richest one per cent; more than $55,000 to be in the richest 10 per cent; more than $9,800 to be in the middle 40 per cent; or less than $9,800 to be in the poorest half of the global population.
• This briefing builds on last year’s report from Oxfam and SEI which estimated that the richest one per cent of people on Earth is responsible for twice the carbon emissions of the poorest 50 per cent from 1990 to 2015.
• Carbon emissions per passenger for an 11-minute space flight are estimated to be at least 75 tonnes, according to a recent report by Lucas Chancel. People in the poorest billion emit less than one tonne of carbon per year.
• The Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) is a sustainability Think Tank working with stakeholders across EU institutions, international bodies, academia, civil society and industry. Our team of economists, scientists and lawyers produce evidence-based research and policy insight (ieep.eu).
• The Stockholm Environment Institute is an international non-profit research and policy organization that tackles environment and development challenges.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Notes to editors:

This analysis comes ahead of informal climate talks between world leaders at the UN General Assembly later today – a key moment to get the target back on track ahead of the landmark COP26 UN Climate Summit in Glasgow in November. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released new data on Friday showing that developed countries provided only around $80 billion in climate finance in 2019.

Based on current pledges, Oxfam estimates that wealthy governments will continue to miss the $100-billion goal and reach only $93 to $95 billion per year by 2025, five years after the goal should have been met. The shortfall means that climate-vulnerable countries will have missed out on between $68 billion and $75 billion in total over the six-year target period.

Extreme weather is already killing five million people every year – accounting for more than nine per cent of global deaths – and this is expected to increase as heat-related deaths rise due to climate change. Climate change could trigger economic losses double that of the pandemic, but it is not being treated with the same urgency as COVID-19. In 2020, the EU, UK, US, Canada, Australia and Japan spent more than $15 trillion on COVID-19 recovery packages ―equivalent to meeting the climate finance goal 151 times over.

Canada has invested over CAD$397 billion in COVID-response measures since January 2020, equating to over three times the annual global commitment to climate finance. By comparison, Canada pledged CAD$5.3 billion over five years in climate finance to help developing countries address climate change and support a green recovery. While Canada was among the few countries to increase its pledge in recent months, total funding commitments still fall short of closing the gap on climate finance as G7 leaders promised to do at the G7 summit in June.

At the request of the COP26 Secretariat, Canada agreed to co-lead work on building a climate finance action plan ahead of COP26 in November that would see developed countries deliver on their commitment of $100 billion per year through 2025. Yet with the outcome of Canada’s election to be determined and political leaders focused on Canadian voters rather than partner nations, it remains to be seen if Canada will deliver on this commitment.

Anya Knechtel, Oxfam Canada’s Climate Policy Specialist, said: “For those whose livelihoods and futures are most at risk from climate change, equitable access to promised climate finance is critical to supporting their efforts to adapt to increasing climate impacts. Our next government should step up in its role to co-lead the push for climate finance. It should also stand up for Canada’s feminist principles by calling on all countries to deliver gender- and youth-responsive finance and support for local organizations that can lead on initiatives that address the diverse needs of their communities.”

Oxfam has already raised serious concerns about how wealthy countries are currently allocating climate finance:

• While the UN, Oxfam and others have called for half of climate finance to be spent on adaptation, based on existing pledges by donor countries, only about a quarter ($26-27 billion) of total climate finance in 2025 will be spent helping developing countries build resilience and adapt to worsening climate impacts.
• In 2019, 70 per cent of public climate finance was given out as loans instead of grants. This seems set to continue through to 2025, which will push developing countries further into debt at a time when the pandemic has pushed an additional 150 million people into extreme poverty.

Climate finance is a key pillar of the Paris Agreement that can help to deliver on an agenda of climate justice for vulnerable countries and people who are on the frontlines of a crisis for which they bear little responsibility. The climate crisis has been fuelled by carbon emissions of wealthy nations and individuals, yet its impacts are shaped by intersecting injustices and inequities. Women, young people and Indigenous peoples in all their diversity – especially those living in poverty – are disproportionately affected by climate change in terms of its impacts on health, education, livelihoods and well-being. Yet their voices remain underrepresented in climate policy negotiations, and their access to resources limited.

Delivering on climate finance commitments is imperative. According to the UN Environment Program (UNEP), developing countries’ annual adaptation costs alone could reach $140 billion to $300 billion per year by 2030 and $280 billion to $500 billion by 2050 as climate-related risks and disasters increase. In 2020, which tied for the hottest year on record, 98.4 million people worldwide were affected by floods, storms and other climate-related disasters, and economic losses totalled at least $171 billion. Yet while high-income countries turn their attention to accelerating their COVID-recovery, developing countries are left struggling to address the impacts of both COVID-19 and climate change – with insufficient resources to manage either.

Nafkote Dabi, Oxfam International’s Global Climate Policy Lead, said: “The pandemic has shown that countries can swiftly mobilize trillions of dollars to respond to an emergency — it is clearly a question of political will. Let’s be clear: we are in a climate emergency. It is wreaking havoc across the globe and requires the same decisiveness and urgency. Millions of people from Senegal to Guatemala have already lost their homes, livelihoods and loved ones because of turbo-charged storms and chronic droughts, caused by a climate crisis they did little to cause. Wealthy nations must live up to their promise made twelve years ago and put their money where their mouths are. We need to see real funding increases now.”

With the COP26 UN climate talks in Glasgow just over a month away, Oxfam Canada and Oxfam-Quebec are calling on wealthy countries to urgently increase their pledges of climate finance to deliver on their target. At least 50 per cent of climate finance should be spent on adaptation in developing countries, and targeted funding should be directed to local women’s rights and youth organizations undertaking gender- and youth-responsive initiatives to ensure climate finance helps to build resilience to climate change across all communities.

– 30 –

Notes to editors:

• Unless indicated, all dollar values are in US currency. Oxfam’s methodology note and datasheet are available on request.
• In 2009, developed countries agreed to contribute $100 billion a year in climate finance to poorer countries by 2020. At the Paris climate summit in 2015 (COP21), this goal was extended to last through to 2025. Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, they agreed to negotiate a yet-higher amount that would kick in from 2025.
• Climate Week NYC is taking place 20-26 September. UN Secretary-General António Guterres and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will convene a closed-door meeting of world leaders at the UN General Assembly later today (Monday).
• A study led by Monash University and published in the Lancet Planetary Health estimates that more than five million extra deaths a year can be attributed to abnormal hot and cold temperatures. The study found deaths related to hot temperatures increased in all regions from 2000 to 2019, indicating that global warming due to climate change will make this mortality figure worse in the future.
• The economies of the G7 nations could see an average loss of 8.5 per cent 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.
• The IMF’s Fiscal Monitor Database summarizes the key fiscal measures governments have announced or taken in selected economies in response to COVID-19.

• The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reported that total military expenditure rose to $1,981 billion in 2020 (nearly $2 trillion or $2,000 billion), an increase of 2.6 per cent from 2019.
• Oxfam’s Climate Finance Shadow Report 2020 estimates that 80 per cent ($47 billion) of all reported public climate finance (2017-18) was not provided in the form of grants, but mostly as loans and other non-grant instruments. Around half of this ($24 billion) was non-concessional, offered on ungenerous terms requiring higher repayments from poor countries. Oxfam calculated that the ‘grant equivalent’ ―the true value of the loans once repayments and interest are deducted― was less than half of the amount reported.
• According to NASA, 2020 was the hottest year on record, effectively tying 2016, the previous record.
• The UN Environment Program (UNEP) estimates that annual adaptation costs in developing countries are expected to reach $140-300 billion in 2030 and $280-500 billion in 2050.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

“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. Governments must use law to compel this urgent change. Citizens must use their own political power and behaviors to push big polluting corporations and governments in the right direction. There is no Plan B.

“The world’s highest-level of political and scientific consensus, the IPCC, describes humanity’s slimmest chance to keep global warming to 1.5°C and avert planetary ruin. It sets the agenda for a make-or-break climate summit in Glasgow later this year. This report is yet more unimpeachable proof that climate change is happening now, and that global warming is already one of the most harmful drivers of worsening hunger and starvation, migration, poverty and inequality all over the world.

“In recent years, with 1°C of global heating, there have been deadly cyclones in Asia and Central America, floods in Europe and the UK, huge locust swarms across Africa, and unprecedented heatwaves and wildfires across the US and Australia ―all turbo-charged by climate change. Over the past 10 years, more people have been forced from their homes by extreme weather-related disasters than for any other single reason ―20 million a year, or one person every two seconds. The number of climate-related disasters has tripled in 30 years. Since 2000, the UN estimates that 1.23 million people have died and 4.2 billion have been affected by droughts, floods and wildfires.

“The richest one percent of people in the world, approximately 63 million people, are responsible for more than twice as much carbon pollution as the 3.1 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity. The people with money and power will be able to buy some protection against the effects of global warming for longer than people without those privileges and resources ―but not forever. No one is safe. This report is clear that we are at the stage now when self-preservation is either a collective process or a failed one.

“Global warming is a base factor behind all of today’s huge regressions in human development. The main perpetrators of global warming ―that is, rich countries that have reaped massive wealth by burning fossil fuels― must be the ones to cut their emissions first, fastest and furthest. They must also pay their climate debt to developing countries by scaling up finance to help them adapt to the effects of climate change and transition to clean energy. Other major polluters don’t get a free pass and must also drastically cut emissions. The world has as much to gain in terms of human safety, development, opportunity and jobs by running a global economy on renewables, as it has to lose in continuing dirty business-as-usual.

“Very few nations ―and none of the world’s wealthy nations― have submitted climate plans consistent with keeping warming below 2°C, let alone 1.5°C. If global emissions continue to increase, the 1.5°C threshold could be breached as early as the next decade. The IPCC report must spur governments to act together and build a fairer and greener global economy to ensure the world stays within 1.5°C of warming. They must cement this in Glasgow. Rich country governments must meet their $100 billion-a-year promise to help the poorest countries grapple with the climate crisis ―according to Oxfam, not only have they failed to deliver on their promise, but over-inflated reports of their contributions by as much as three times.”

– 30 –

Notes to editors:

• Extreme weather-related disasters were the number one driver of internal displacement over the last decade, forcing more than 20 million people a year ―one person every two seconds― to leave their homes. For more information, download Oxfam’s briefing Forced from Home.
• According to the UN, a sharp rise in the number of droughts, floods and wildfires has claimed 1.23 million lives and affected 4.2 billion people since 2000.
• The richest one percent were responsible for 15 percent of emissions added to the atmosphere between 1990 and 2015 ―more than all the citizens of the EU and more than twice that of the poorest half of humanity (7 percent). The richest 10 percent accounted for over half (52 percent) of emissions during this time. For more information, download Oxfam’s report Confronting Carbon Inequality.
• Oxfam’s Climate Finance Shadow Report 2020 offers an assessment of progress towards the $100 billion goal. It considers how climate finance is being counted and spent, where it is going, how close we are to the $100 billion goal, and what lessons need to be learned for climate finance post-2020.
• Oxfam recently reported that there has been a six-fold increase in people suffering famine-like conditions since pandemic began.
• Oxfam supports a range of climate projects across the world, and works with local communities most impacted by the climate crisis. For example, we are helping rural farming communities in Uganda and Zimbabwe build resilience against the effects of changing rainfall patterns, supporting Indigenous people and communities to defend their forest and land rights in the Amazon, restoring degraded lands through agroforestry in the Sahel and Bolivia, and helping rural farming communities in Timor-Leste earn a decent income.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Canada’s economy could shrink by 6.9 per cent annually by 2050 without more ambitious climate action, according to Oxfam’s analysis of research by the Swiss Re Institute. Across G7 nations, the impacts of climate change could cause economies to contract by an average of 8.5 per cent annually by 2050 ― equivalent to $4.8 trillion. Oxfam is calling on Canada and other G7 leaders, who are meeting in the UK later this week, to cut carbon emissions more quickly and steeply.

Oxfam found the potential loss in GDP across G7 nations is double that of the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic has caused G7 economies to shrink by an average of 4.2 per cent, resulting in staggering job losses — especially for women, who have also shouldered increased care responsibilities — and required some of the largest economic stimulus packages ever seen. Yet, G7 economies are expected to bounce back from the short-term effects of the pandemic. In contrast, the effects of climate change will be seen every year, and are already having disproportionate impacts on women around the world due to gender inequalities that increase their vulnerability to climate-related risks and disasters.

Swiss Re modelled how climate change is likely to affect economies through gradual, chronic climate risks such as heat stress, impacts on health, sea level rise and agricultural productivity. All of the 48 nations in the study are expected to see an economic contraction, with many countries predicted to be hit far worse than the G7. For example, by 2050:

• India, which was invited to the G7 summit, is projected to lose 27 per cent from its economy;
• Australia, South Africa and South Korea, also invited, are projected to lose 12.5, 17.8 and 9.7 per cent respectively;
• The Philippines is projected to lose 35 per cent;
• Colombia is projected to lose 16.7 per cent.

Oxfam warns that for low-income countries the consequences of climate change could be much greater. A recent study by the World Bank suggested that globally, between 32 million and 132 million additional people will be pushed into extreme poverty by 2030 as a result of climate change.

The economic case for climate action is clear ― we need Canada and other G7 governments to increase climate finance and take dramatic action to cut emissions in the next nine years.

Anya Knechtel, Climate Policy Specialist at Oxfam Canada, said: “As a G7 nation, Canada needs to step up to the challenge of creating a safer, more liveable planet for all. The economic turmoil projected in wealthy G7 countries is only the tip of the iceberg: developing countries are expected to see increasing hunger, displacement and deaths as a result of extreme weather and other climate impacts, with women, Indigenous peoples, and others whose livelihoods depend on climate-vulnerable resources being particularly harmed. Prime Minister Trudeau and other G7 leaders need to make this year a turning point in taking action to cut emissions more quickly and increase climate finance.”

Canada and other G7 governments are collectively falling short on delivering a longstanding pledge by developed countries to provide $100 billion per year to help poor countries respond to the climate crisis. Oxfam estimates the G7’s current commitments amount to $36 billion in public climate finance by 2025, with only a quarter ($8-10 billion) of that for adaptation. Canada has yet to announce whether it will increase its climate finance commitment, or whether it will offer greater support in the form of grants to countries seeking to undertake gender-responsive climate adaptation amidst spiralling debts made worse by the pandemic.

At the Earth Day Summit, Canada announced a new commitment of 40 to 45 per cent emissions reduction by 2030 from 2005 levels, but this target falls short of Canada’s fair share of global reductions needed to limit warming below 1.5°C. Oxfam is calling on Canada to immediately raise its emission reduction commitments to deliver its fair share of the global reductions needed to keep global warming below 1.5°C.

Achieving Canada’s fair share would require cutting domestic emissions by at least 60 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, as well as doubling current climate finance commitments in the near term and further ramping up climate financing over time to help developing countries reduce emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Canada and other G7 nations are some of the world’s largest historical emitters ― responsible for a third of all CO2 emissions since 1990 ― and they should be leading by example through action on the climate crisis in this crucial year.

– 30 –

Notes to editors:

Summary of GDP projections and climate pledges of G7 nations:

• The Swiss Re Group is one of the world’s leading providers of reinsurance, insurance and other forms of insurance-based risk transfer, working to make the world more resilient. It anticipates and manages risk – from natural catastrophes to climate change, from ageing populations to cybercrime. The aim of the Swiss Re Group is to enable society to thrive and progress, creating new opportunities and solutions for its clients. Headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, where it was founded in 1863, the Swiss Re Group operates through a network of around 80 offices globally.
• Projections of GDP loss are from Swiss Re Institute’s Economics of Climate Change The authors modelled the economic impacts of climate change on 48 countries in four different temperature paths and used different impact scenarios to account for the large parameter uncertainty and missing climate impact channels usually present in the climate economics literature. The projections used in this press release assume high stress factors and global warming of 2.6°C by mid-century, which is a level of warming that could be reached based on current policies and climate pledges from all countries. All figures relate to real GDP. The GDP projections compare a warmer world with a world unaffected by climate change.
• GDP losses in G7 countries as a result of the pandemic are from the UK’s Office for National Statistics and refer to real GDP between October 2019 and September 2020.
• World Bank projections of the number of people who will be pushed into extreme poverty are here.
• Estimates of climate finance were calculated by Oxfam and include pledges of public climate finance, not ‘mobilized’ private finance.
• Cumulate CO2 emissions for all countries was 803.84 billion tonnes in 1990 and 1,650 billion tonnes in 2019, a difference of 849.08 billion. Cumulative CO2 emissions for the G7 nations combined was 461.2 billion tonnes in 1990 and 740.39 billion tonnes in 2019, a difference of 279.17 billion. G7 nations made up 32.88 per cent of all emissions since 1990. Source: Our World in Data: https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Around 142,00 hectares of land and crops and over 16,000 houses have been washed away or destroyed, forcing people to seek shelter in schools, mosques and churches with little or no water and sanitation facilities.

Rotafina Donco, Country Director for Oxfam in Mozambique said: “We are dealing with a multifaceted humanitarian disaster that could spiral quickly out of hand if people don’t get urgent help.”

Oxfam, together with partners from the COSACA Humanitarian Consortium, have started distribution of lifesaving clean water, as well as, soap, hygiene and dignity kits to people most affected.

The cyclone has hit Mozambique at a time the country was already battling to contain the spread of COVID-19. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced and are squashed in small camps with no masks, preventive material or clean water.

“In such settings, there is high risk of a COVID-19 outbreak as well as the spread of diseases such as cholera,” Donco added.

Cyclone Eloise is the fourth cyclone to hit Mozambique in two years. Cyclone Idai and Kenneth in 2019, have together killed hundreds of people, displaced thousands, and destroyed homes, crops and property worth more than $700 million (USD). Currently, Cyclone Eloise has had a more devastating impact than Tropical Storm Chalane – which hit the country in 2020 – and will totally devastate any recovery from the effects of these previous consecutive cyclones.

“Mozambique’s stronger and more frequent cyclones show how destructive these human-caused climate disasters are becoming to the most vulnerable people,” says Nellie Nyangwa, Regional Director, Oxfam in Southern.

“Once again, people least responsible for the climate crisis – including women and children – are bearing the greatest burden of its effects.”

Oxfam calls for the international community to immediately support humanitarian efforts to help save lives, as any slight delay in humanitarian aid could be a devastating blow to the already dire situation. Oxfam urgently needs funds to provide clean water, sanitation and hygiene support as well as food assistance to 52,600 people in Buzi district, Beira and Nhamatanda.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Starting in mid-December, South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda are likely to suffer from below average rainfall as a result of a strong La Niña, which could result in millions more people going hungry in 2021.

Lydia Zigomo, Oxfam in Horn, East, and Central Africa Regional Director, said: “The forecasted dry season will be the last straw for many, devastating their remaining crops and cutting their lifeline of food and income.”

The climate crisis is causing erratic weather patterns across the world including longer and more severe droughts across the Horn, East and Central Africa region. It is likely to increase the frequency and strength of La Nina events. Any rainfall that does come is likely to arrive in heavier bursts devastating crops by flooding or washing away recently planted seeds and seedlings.

Farmers, who make up almost 80 per cent of the region’s population, have already been hit hard by severe floods and the biggest desert locust swarms in 70 years – both supercharged by the climate crisis – as well as the economic fallout of COVID-19 pandemic.

Since January, locusts have caused $8.5 billion worth of damage across the region including to nearly 100,000 hectares of cropland in Somalia, an estimated 200,000 hectares in Ethiopia and about 70,000 hectares in Kenya,  starving livestock and causing food shortages.

The infestation in Ethiopia is feared to be the worst on record and threatens the ‘meher’ harvest, which contributes 80 per cent of the country’s total harvest. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization, swarms are expected to move south in Somalia and Ethiopia, reaching northern Kenya from mid-December. A single swarm can contain up to 150 million locusts per square kilometre of farmland.

Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and Tanzania were responsible for less than 0.2 per cent of the global carbon emissions between 1990-2015 . The top 10 most polluting countries, including US, China and Japan were responsible for 500 times more carbon emissions in the same period.

Zigomo added: “The incredible resilience of the most vulnerable people across the Horn, East, and Central Africa is being tested to breaking point by a combination of disasters that are not of their making.

“Urgent action is needed to provide the assistance desperately needed by millions of hungry people.

“World leaders must also commit to more ambitious cuts in carbon emissions to prevent an even more catastrophic rise in global temperatures. Rich polluting industrial nations need to provide more climate finance to help poor communities – and particularly farming communities – adapt to a changing climate. They should also support vulnerable countries with new sources of international finance for loss and damage caused by more extreme and erratic weather.”

Oxfam and its partners are supporting more than 897,000 people in Ethiopia, Uganda, South Sudan, Somalia, and Tanzania with food, clean water, sanitation, cash assistance and seeds. Oxfam has also reached 3.5 million people in September and 2.6 million in October with COVID-related support.

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Notes to Editors 

• The total cumulative emissions of South Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda between1990 – 2015 amounted to only 0.89GtCO2.
• The top 10 emitting countries in terms of cumulative emissions 1990-2015 were: US, China, Japan, Russia, India, Germany, UK, Italy, Canada, France. Together they emitted about 468GtCO2 over the 25 years period.
• La Niña refers to cooler than usual ocean temperatures in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean, which occurs on average every 3 – 7 years, and usually affects temperatures, precipitation, and storm patterns in many parts of the world. In East Africa, La Niña results in drier than usual seasons. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) the current La Niña event could last until 2021 and is expected to be moderate to strong.
• The climate crisis is causing longer and more severe droughts across the Horn, East, and Central Africa region, and is likely to increase the frequency and strength of La Nina events, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecasts.
• Source for agriculture population in East Ethiopia is now the epicentre of the locust crisis. Swarms are moving both towards Somali region but also towards Eritrea and further north to eastern Sudan. If rains continue, we might have another generation developing with 3 generations breeding between now and April 2021 (FAO) Locustwatch.
• The pandemic has been having a devastating impact on already fragile livelihoods and unstable economies in the region. Some of these impacts include reduced agricultural productivity, weak supply chains, increased cross border trade tensions, limited employment prospects.
• With just 1C of warming, the climate crisis is causing longer and more severe droughts across the Horn, East and Central Africa region, and is likely to increase the frequency and strength of La Nina events. Without urgent action scientists predict at least 3C of warming by the end of the century.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

At least two million people or 400,000 families have been affected, with thousands of homes damaged or destroyed, and at least 10 people killed, according to the latest government figures. The intense storm also caused major damage to crops, with an estimated 20,000 farmers impacted.

The world’s strongest typhoon this year has now passed through the Philippines and weakened after hitting the densely populated capital, Manila, early this morning.

Oxfam Philippines’ Humanitarian Lead Rhoda Avila said:

“We have experienced terrible wind speeds, lashing rains and devastating flooding. Buildings have been destroyed and whole villages are under water and mudflows. We will be conducting assessments of affected areas with our partners as soon as we can get access, but conditions are very difficult. Roads are flooded and power is down in many areas making communications with some parts impossible. We also have to work with the threat of COVID-19 transmission in mind to protect both our emergency response teams and the people they are helping.”

Oxfam has been trialling a new disaster relief system in various parts of the country. B-READY identifies vulnerable people in several communities who are likely to be affected when a typhoon sweeps through their community. Once the exact path of the typhoon is confirmed, cash transfers to those people are then triggered to enable them to prepare by securing their properties and ensuring they have enough provisions to get through the first few days.

Oxfam is working with local partners Humanitarian Response Consortium, Aksyon sa Kahandaan sa Kalamidad at Klima (AKKMA) and Philippine Support Service Agencies (PHILSSA), Community Organizers Multiversity (COM), and People’s Disaster Risk Reduction Network (PDRRN).

Super Typhoon Goni (known locally as Rolly) is the Philippines’ 18th tropical cyclone for 2020.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Siony is expected to make landfall in Cagayan Valley (in the northeast of the island of Luzon) later this week, according to the state weather bureau PAGASA. Cagayan Valley is the same area ravaged by Mangkhut, a powerful super typhoon, in September 2018, the strongest storm that year.

An average of 20 tropical cyclones form within or enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility each year. Goni is the third consecutive typhoon in two weeks.

– 30 –

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Oxfam’s Climate Finance Shadow Report 2020 estimates that donors reported $59.5 billion USD per year on average in 2017 and 2018 – the latest years for which figures are available. But the true value of support for climate action may be as little as $19 to $22.5 billion per year once loan repayments, interest and other forms of over-reporting are stripped out. Oxfam’s analysis is being released ahead of a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on developed countries’ progress towards the goal of providing $100 billion in climate finance per year by 2020.

An astonishing 80 per cent ($47 billion) of all reported public climate finance was not provided in the form of grants – mostly as loans. Around half ($24 billion) of this finance was non-concessional, offered on ungenerous terms. Oxfam calculated that the ‘grant equivalent’ – the true value of the loans once repayments and interest are deducted – was less than half of the amount reported.

Oxfam’s estimate of $19 to $22.5 billion also accounts for over-reporting of climate finance where action to combat climate change was only part of a broader development project.

The analysis also raises serious concerns about how developed countries are allocating climate finance. Of total reported public climate finance in 2017-18, Oxfam estimates:

• Around a fifth (20.5 per cent) of funding went to the Least Developed Countries and just 3 percent to Small Island Developing States, which face the gravest threat from climate change and have the fewest resources to cope.
• Only a quarter (25 per cent) of funding was spent helping countries adapt to the impacts of the climate crisis while 66 per cent of funds were spent helping countries cut emissions. However, the volume of funding for adaptation rose significantly from $9 billion per year in 2015–16 to $15 billion in 2017–18.

Tracy Carty, Senior Policy Advisor on Climate Change at Oxfam and one of the report authors said: “Climate finance is a lifeline for communities facing record heatwaves, terrifying storms and devastating floods. Even as governments struggle with COVID-19, they must not lose sight of the mounting threat from the climate crisis.

“The excessive use of loans in the name of climate assistance is an overlooked scandal. The world’s poorest countries, many of whom are already grappling with unsustainable debts, should not be forced to take out loans to respond to a climate crisis not of their making.”

The analysis also shows that some countries are better than others at providing climate finance in the form of grants, rather than loans. France provided almost 97 per cent ($4.6 billion) of its bilateral climate finance as loans and other non-grant instruments, with a grant equivalent value of just $1.3 billion (27 per cent). By comparison Sweden, Denmark and the UK provided the vast majority of their climate finance as grants.

Japan claimed investments in an ‘efficient’ coal fired power station in Bangladesh as climate finance, although in line with previous OECD reports on climate finance this is not included in Oxfam’s $59.5 billion estimate.

Carty said: “Developed countries should provide more climate finance in the form of grants instead of loans, allocate more finance for adaptation and prioritize the most vulnerable countries – including Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States. They should also use the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow next November as an opportunity to set a new path for climate finance beyond 2020 by agreeing robust common accounting standards, and a specific finance goal for adaptation.”

Climate finance could be funded through a range of sources including redirecting some fossil fuel subsidies which cost governments over $320 billion in 2019 alone.

– 30 –

Notes to editors:

•  Download a full copy of the report – Climate Finance Shadow Report 2020: Assessing progress towards the $100 billion commitment.
• The analysis comes ahead of updated estimates and analysis of climate finance provided and mobilized by developed countries prepared by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) expected in the coming weeks.
• In 2009, developed countries committed to mobilize $100 billion per year in climate finance by 2020 to support developing countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change and reduce their emissions. At the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow next year, nations will begin negotiations on a new goal or goals to replace this commitment from 2025.
• The figure of $59.5 billion is an average of the climate finance reported in 2017 and 2018 towards the $100 billion goal by developed country governments, multilateral development banks, multilateral climate funds and other organisations as reported to the UNFCCC and the OECD. They are the most recent figures available.
• Oxfam’s $19 to $22.5 billion figure includes the estimated grant equivalent of reported climate finance rather than the face value of loans and other non-grant instruments. It also accounts for over-reporting of climate finance where action to combat climate change is only part of a broader development project.
• This is Oxfam’s third Shadow Climate Finance Report. Reported public climate finance has increased from $44.5 billion per year in 2015 and 2016 (OECD) to an estimated $59.5 billion per year in 2017 and 2018. Oxfam’s estimate of net, climate specific assistance showed a more modest rise from $15 to $19.5 billion per year in 2015 and 2016 to $19 to $22.5 billion in 2017 and 2018.
• According to the International Energy Agency fossil fuel subsidies cost governments over $320 billion in 2019.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

The report, ‘Confronting Carbon Inequality’, is based on research conducted with the Stockholm Environment Institute and is being released ahead of the Canadian government’s Throne Speech this week, which Prime Minister Trudeau says will include an “ambitious green agenda” for a “long-term recovery” from the COVID-19 pandemic and a response to the climate crisis.

The report assesses the consumption emissions of different income groups between 1990 and 2015 – 25 years when humanity doubled the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It found:

• The richest 10 per cent accounted for over half (52 per cent) of the emissions added to the atmosphere between 1990 and 2015. The richest one per cent were responsible for 15 per cent of emissions during this time – more than all the citizens of the EU and more than twice that of the poorest half of humanity (seven per cent).
• In Canada: The richest 10 per cent of Canadians were responsible for about a quarter (24%) of national cumulative carbon emissions between 1990 and 2015, nearly as much as the poorest 50% of Canadians (29%).
• During this time, the richest 10 per cent globally blew one third of our remaining global 1.5C carbon budget, compared to just 4 per cent by the poorest half of the population. The carbon budget is the amount of carbon dioxide that can be added to the atmosphere without causing global temperatures to rise above 1.5C – the goal set by governments in the Paris Agreement to avoid the very worst impacts of uncontrolled climate change.
• Global annual emissions grew by 60 per cent between 1990 and 2015. The richest five per cent were responsible for over a third (37 per cent) of this growth. The total increase in emissions of the richest one per cent was three times more than that of the poorest 50 per cent.
• In Canada, national consumption emissions grew by nearly 20 per cent in this time, a third of which was due to the richest 10 per cent of Canadians. Today, the per capita consumption footprints of the richest one per cent in Canada are 100 times higher than that of the poorest 50 per cent of the world. If you take one person from the five per cent richest in Canada, that person emits on average as much as 470 other persons from the world’s poorest five per cent.

Tim Gore, Head of Climate Policy at Oxfam and author of the report said: “The over-consumption of a wealthy minority is fuelling the climate crisis yet it is poor communities and young people who are paying the price. Such extreme carbon inequality is a direct consequence of our governments decades long pursuit of grossly unequal and carbon intensive economic growth.”

Carbon emissions are likely to rapidly rebound as governments ease COVID-related lockdowns. If emissions do not keep falling year on year and carbon inequality is left unchecked, the remaining carbon budget for 1.5C will be entirely depleted by 2030. However, carbon inequality is so stark the richest 10 per cent would blow the carbon budget by 2033 even if all other emissions were cut to zero.

How can the Canadian government tackle both extreme inequality and the climate crisis?

• By having targeted federal programs for women and gender-diverse people to access green jobs and green business development opportunities, particularly those who are already experiencing economic insecurity and marginalization due to race, age, disability and Indigenous identity.
• Making major new investments in care sectors to create decent jobs in child care and long-term care, which are already low-carbon sectors.
• Incorporating a wealth tax on the richest individuals in Canada, to address economic inequality and reduce carbon emissions from the wealthiest one per cent.
• Contributing Canada’s fair share to international climate financing to assist developing countries with the climate crisis.
• Committing to increase the price of carbon in Canada significantly in future years and enacting federal climate accountability legislation to require governments to live within carbon budgets.
• Introducing a Just Transition Act in Parliament by the end of 2020, focusing on diversification and energy transition planning in regions of Canada where workers and communities have become overly dependent on fossil fuel extraction.

According to Diana Sarosi, Director of Policy and Campaigns at Oxfam Canada: “We need a feminist recovery based on economic, gender and climate justice. To tackle carbon inequality, Canada’s recovery plan should curb carbon emissions of the super wealthy and instead invest in the care sector as a building block of a low carbon economy and support developing countries in mitigating and adapting to climate change.”

During 2020, and with around 1C of global heating, climate change has fuelled deadly cyclones in India and Bangladesh, huge locust swarms that have devastated crops across Africa and unprecedented heatwaves and wildfires across Australia and the US. No one is immune but it is the poorest and most marginalized people who are hardest hit.

‘Confronting Carbon Inequality’ estimates that the per capita emissions of the richest 10 per cent will need to cut their emissions by 90 per cent by 2030 to keep the world on track for just 1.5C of warming – this is equivalent to cutting global annual emissions by a third. Even reducing the per capita emissions of the richest 10 per cent to the EU average would cut annual emissions by over a quarter.

– 30 –

Notes to editors:

• The media brief ‘Confronting Carbon Inequality’ and the full research report and data on which is it based is available here and Canadian-specific data can be found here.
• The poorest 50 per cent of humanity comprised approximately 3.1 billion people on average between 1990 and 2015, the richest 10 per cent comprised approx. 630 million people, the richest five per cent approx. 315 million people, and the richest one per cent approximately 63 million people.
• In 2015, around half the emissions of the richest 10 per cent – people with net income over $38,000 are linked to citizens in the US and the EU and around a fifth with citizens of China and India. Over a third of the emissions of the richest one per cent – people with net income over $109,000 are linked to citizens in the US, with the next biggest contributions from citizens of the Middle East and China. Net incomes are based on income thresholds for 2015 and represented in $ 2011 PPP (purchasing power parity).
• The research is based on estimations of consumption emissions from fossil fuels i.e. emissions consumed within a country including emissions embodied in imports and excluding emissions embodied in exports. National consumption emissions were divided between individual households based on the latest income distribution datasets and a functional relationship between emissions and income. This assumes, on the basis of numerous studies, that emissions rise in proportion to income above a minimum emissions floor and until a maximum emissions ceiling. National household consumption emissions estimates for 117 countries from 1990 to 2015 are then sorted into a global distribution according to income. More details on the methodology is available in the research report.
• The Stockholm Environment Institute is an international non-profit research and policy organization that tackles environment and development challenges.
• Oxfam is a confederation of 20 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty.
• More details on the methodology is available in the research report and media materials found here.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Paula Baker
Media Relations
Oxfam Canada
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

A new Oxfam briefing, ‘After the Storm,’ highlights that over 100,000 people in Mozambique and Zimbabwe are still living in destroyed or damaged homes and makeshift shelters, while critical infrastructure including roads, water supplies, and schools have yet to be repaired – making it difficult for people to access vital services or get back to work. It also shows that 9.7 million people across the three countries remain in desperate need of food aid as a result of cyclones, floods, drought and localized conflict.

The briefing explains how a toxic combination of factors – including an intensifying cycle of floods, drought and storms, deep rooted poverty and inequality, a patchy humanitarian response, and a lack of support for poor communities to adapt to, and recover, from climate shocks – have increased people’s vulnerability and made it harder for them to recover.

“Cyclone Idai was anything but a natural disaster. This tragedy was fuelled by the climate crisis and super charged by poverty, inequality and the failures of national governments and the international community,” Nellie Nyang’wa, Oxfam’s Regional Director for Southern Africa said.

“The people of Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi are trying to piece their lives back together in the face of huge challenges. Politicians in the region, and across the globe, need to match their commitment.”

Cyclone Idai is just one in of a number of extreme weather events to have hit Southern Africa in recent years. Idai landed five months into a drought that left millions in need of food aid – and the third severe drought to hit the region in the space of five years. Less than six weeks later, Cyclone Kenneth battered northern Mozambique. Torrential rain and flash floods then hit northern and central Mozambique, between December 2019 and February 2020.

Despite the escalating climate crisis, poor communities are not getting enough help to adapt, and there is no dedicated funds to help poor countries recover from the loss and damage caused by climate-fueled disasters. Mozambique, one of the world’s poorest countries, was forced to take on an additional debt of $118 million from the International Monetary Fund to begin rebuilding. The cyclone caused an estimated US$3.2 billion worth of damage – roughly half of Mozambique’s national budget and equivalent to the impact of 23 Hurricane Katrina’s hitting the United States.

Virginia Defunho, a farmer and a mother from Josina Machel village in Mozambique lost everything in the cyclone. The crops she planted in the aftermath of the cyclone were damaged by severe floods in January.

“Idai has destroyed my mind. It makes me feel angry sometimes,” she said. “My child is crying because he wants food and there is nothing to give. My child has succeeded to grade 10, but I don’t have the money to pay for him to enrol back at school. We are worried about the future because we don’t know if the weather is going to be like this or if it will change back to normal. If [the cyclone] comes a second time, what will our lives be?”

A slow and patchy international humanitarian response has also hampered recovery. Less than half of the US$450.2 million humanitarian funding requested by the UN in the wake of the cyclones has been committed to date. The flow of funds is also slowing with just $42,000 pledged since the beginning of the year.

Poverty and inequality also exacerbate the destructive power of the cyclone and act as major barrier to recovery. While the richest live on the highest ground in the strongest houses and can rely on savings and insurance to help them recover, the poorest communities struggle to rebuild their lives. Women in Malawi own just 17 per cent of the land in the country, even though they produce 80 per cent of household food. As a result, women who were displaced from their land are less able to protect their property for their return – and are left at the back of the queue when it comes to accessing alternative plots of land.

“Rich polluting governments must ensure the humanitarian appeal is fully funded and deliver the climate finance that communities need to adapt to and rebuild from climate shocks. National governments must help climate proof our communities – for example by helping small holder farmers to adapt their farming techniques – and tackle the poverty and inequality that make people more vulnerable to disaster,” added Nyang’wa.

– 30 –

Notes to Editor:

• The briefing “After the Storm: barriers to recovery one year on from Cyclone Idai” is available here
• Cyclone Idai before and after b-roll available here.
• Stories and pictures from Mozambique – including Virginia Defunho are available here.
• Oxfam raised over US$16 million to help 788,168 people across Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe in the aftermath of the cyclones – including communities in some of the most remote and difficult to reach areas.
• Oxfam and our partners provided emergency assistance such as food aid, blankets and hygiene kits; installed latrines and water pumps in temporary camps; and helped raise awareness of issues such as gender-based violence, which often spikes after a disaster.
• Oxfam is also working with communities over the long term to help them adapt to changing the climate – for example by helping smallholder farmers diversify their crops and adapt their farming techniques.

For more information or a media interview contact:

Paula Baker
Oxfam Canada
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

“Everyone is in panic and trying to make noise to drive the locusts away,” says Oxfam’s Ethiopia Country Director Gezahegn Gebrehana.

This is the worst locust crisis in 70 years for Kenya alone. Locust breeding is continuing with more juvenile insects developing now, so the swarms could still get bigger, more widespread and last until June if not brought more quickly under control. There are already 22.8 million people living in acute to severe food insecurity in those six countries, following consecutive failed rainy seasons, unusual floods and storms.

The fast-moving locust swarms have been made worse by climate change because they have been encouraged to feed on newly “greened” vegetation, the result of unusual weather patterns. They are devastating pastures and grasslands and could ruin new food crops from the March-to-July growing season.

“We depend on livestock and, if there is no fodder for our livestock, life will be difficult for us. We ask for help urgently,” said Mohammed Hassan Abdille, a farmer from Bura Dhima in Tana River, Kenya.

Oxfam is gearing up its humanitarian operations and will work closely with local partners and communities. It will aim to reach more than 190,000 of the most vulnerable people with cash assistance, livestock feed, seeds and health services.

In Somalia, together with our partners, it aims to reach 11,670 households of the most vulnerable people. In Kenya, Oxfam will work inside the Arid and Semi-Arid Land (ASAL) Humanitarian Platform that has members in seven of the 13 affected counties and aims to assist 3000 households in the first phase of operations, and another 5,000 in the second. In Ethiopia, Oxfam aims to reach another 5,000 households with similar aid.

Oxfam will need to secure more than $5 million to mount this response. Oxfam teams in South Sudan and Sudan are also preparing against the likelihood of new infestations there.

Oxfam says that lessons from the last local plague in the Sahel in 2003-5 showed that a two-pronged attack was vital, to control the pests as well as work to do everything possible to protect local people’s livelihoods and restore them as quickly as possible.

Oxfam continues to urge international donors to fully fund the FAO’s $76m appeal as soon as possible. The current total stands at around $18m. “This is the time for decisive action,” said Gebrehana.

Notes to editors:

• Nearly 22.8 million people are severely food insecure (IPC 3 and above), as follows : in Ethiopia (6.7 million people), Kenya (3.1 million), Somalia (2.1 million), South Sudan (4.5 million), Sudan (5.8 million) and Uganda (600,000).
• Given the scale of the current swarms, aerial control is the only effective means to reduce the locust numbers. In Ethiopia, ground teams and four aircraft are conducting control operations against swarms – nearly 8000 hectares were treated in the first two weeks of January 2020. In Kenya, four aircraft are currently spraying, but operations have been limited due to available capacity or collective experience – Kenya last faced a Desert Locust invasion in 2007.
• The outbreak, which has primarily been driven by the recent climatic shocks in the region, comes after Oxfam warned of a potential outbreak in Uganda end of last month.
• The swarms, which could grow 500 times bigger by June, are devastating pasture and food supplies across parts of Ethiopia and Kenya and could also put South Sudan, Eritrea and Djibouti at risk, making it the worst of such situation in 25 years.
• In Kenya, the locust swarms have increased significantly over the past month across 13 counties, including Isiolo, Samburu, Wajir, Garissa, Tana River, Marsabit, Laikipia, Mandera, Kitui, Baringo, Meru, Embu and Turkana.

For more information:
Paula Baker
Oxfam Canada
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org

Oxfam Philippines Country Director Maria Rosario Felizco said that many of communities impacted were still recovering from the impacts of Typhoon Kammuri (local name: Tisoy) and are in dire need of support: “Oxfam is deeply concerned about the situation of communities hit by Typhoon Phanfone. Many of the communities are still struggling to get back on their feet in the wake of Typhoon Kammuri, which hit earlier this month.”

Oxfam staff member Leah Payud, based in Leyte, where the typhoon made one of its landfalls, described the devastation experienced by her community: “Ursula carved the same path as Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. Although weaker, its devastating impacts are widely felt, especially here in Leyte, where houses have been damaged and electric posts toppled. We spent Christmas Day in total darkness.”

Oxfam is working closely with humanitarian organization People’s Disaster Risk Reduction Network (PDRRN) to assess the damage from the storm. Teams immediately visited four towns in Leyte and Eastern Samar, where Oxfam has ongoing projects. According to Esteban Masagca, PDRRN Executive Director, early assessments by staff and volunteers indicate coastal villages urgently need emergency shelter materials, bedding, portable water, and food. Power outages, loss of access to infrastructure such as schools and markets, and severe damage to houses along the shore also loom as serious problems post-disaster.

Masagca said: “Families are urgently requesting emergency shelter-grade materials because the storm completely destroyed their homes along the coast. Families need bedding and mosquito nets, especially as dengue continues to be a major threat in the communities. Portable water is urgently needed since water refilling stations cannot operate because of the ongoing power blackout. Water kits and disinfectants are crucial to prevent water-borne diseases, as many sources of water have been contaminated. It truly saddens us that thousands of families will enter the New Year without food, or even homes.”

Felizco continued: “Families will need support during this time of great need. Oxfam and our partners are working closely with local government and other humanitarian agencies to ensure the immediate needs of survivors are addressed effectively. We will prioritize the needs of women and girls throughout our emergency assessment and response.”

Oxfam has been working in the Philippines for 30 years to address the underlying causes of poverty through its various programs on economic justice, conflict transformation, gender justice, and rights in crisis.

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For media interviews, please contact:

Paula Baker
Oxfam Canada
Media Relations
(613) 240-3047
paula.baker@oxfam.org