News & Media

BioNTech and Moderna’s African vaccine announcements “pittance”, People’s Vaccine Alliance says

October 27, 2021

Vaccine equity campaigners have called news that Covid-19 vaccine manufacturer BioNTech will start building a vaccine production facility in Rwanda next year “far too little; far too late”.

The People’s Vaccine Alliance has also said that Moderna’s new commitment to produce 110 million doses for the African Union as “barely worth the paper it is written on” after the company failed to deliver promised vaccines to COVAX, calling on the US government to step in and mandate the company to commit to technology transfer.

The alliance, a coalition of more than 75 organisations including Oxfam, UNAIDS, Global Justice Now, and Amnesty International, has called on BioNTech and Moderna to share the technology and know-how for its vaccine with the WHO’s Covid-19 technology access pool (C-TAP) and mRNA hub in South Africa.

While the alliance calls more global south manufacturing a “positive development”, it says BioNTech’s offer of 50 million doses from the middle of next year is “pittance” compared to the amount produced in the company’s facilities in Germany.

Reacting to BioNTech’s announcement, Anna Marriott, policy lead for the People’s Vaccine Alliance, said:

“After huge public pressure, BioNTech has finally committed to manufacturing vaccines in the global south. While this is a positive development, it’s far too little, far too late from a company that has made a killing from the pandemic.

“Offering to only start building a facility in Africa in the middle of next year that will then at some point produce just 50 million doses – enough for just 2 per cent of the continent’s population – is a pittance when just one of their factories in Germany produces more than that each month.

“If BioNTech really wants to change the course of this pandemic, it should immediately share the technology and know-how for this publicly-funded innovation with the WHO’s technology pool and mRNA hub in South Africa, so that more developing country manufacturers can produce these game-changing vaccines.”

Reacting to Moderna’s announcement, Anna Marriott, policy lead for the People’s Vaccine Alliance, said:

“After having so far delivered zero of their committed doses to COVAX, this new Moderna Memorandum of Understanding with the African Union to at some point deliver 110 million more vaccines is barely worth the paper it is written on.

“This is a publicly funded vaccine and should be available to all as a public good. It is beyond time that the US government step in and insist the vaccine technology is shared immediately with the WHO mRNA technology hub.”

Notes

Read The People’s Vaccine Alliance full report: “A Dose of Reality: How rich countries and pharmaceutical corporations are breaking their vaccine promises“.

A report last month from Amnesty International found that large pharmaceutical companies, including BioNTech and Moderna, were fuelling an unprecedented human rights crisis through their refusal to waive intellectual property rights and share vaccine technology.

Breaking Through Red Lines Report

October 27, 2021

Oxfam Aotearoa along with Oxfam Australia, and Oxfam in the Pacific have released a new report titled Breaking through red lines. Oxfam says that the report draws attention to gaps in the latest funds announced for overseas climate action by the New Zealand government. The funds will go towards supporting efforts to reducing emissions in the Pacific.

Oxfam in the Pacific’s Climate Justice Lead Ilisapeci Masivesi says that while funds to support community adaptation and mitigation are crucial, the report shows that climate change is causing unavoidable loss and damage, which needs distinct funds to help communities recover and restore what has been lost:

“New Zealand’s recent increase in support for adaptation in the Pacific is very welcome. However, while it is a huge help, it does not address the full picture of what we are experiencing in the islands.

“At COP26, it is crucial that governments around the world listen to the voices of those on the frontlines of climate change. Communities in the Pacific have been calling for loss and damage finance for 30 years.

“My country of Fiji is among the most disaster-prone in the world. To survive we are developing solutions that help farmers to restore their crops after a cyclone or villagers to shift their entire homes because of sea level rise. Communities are mostly paying for this themselves even though they did nothing to create the problems. Rich countries that are most responsible for causing climate change, including New Zealand and Australia, need to help more and support Pacific leadership that is calling for finance solutions to compensate these unavoidable impacts globally.”

The report, which outlines the loss and damage faced across the Pacific, includes the effects cyclones and flooding are having on Fiji. Despite efforts to adapt, climate-charged cyclones and flooding causes asset losses equivalent to five percent of GDP in Fiji each year. Cyclone Winston in 2016 caused damage equivalent to 20 percent of GDP. Oxfam says that these events are becoming more frequent and more intense pushing over 25,000 people into poverty every year in Fiji.

The report also shows that loss and damage is being experienced by Māori communities within Aotearoa, and that this needs a distinct response from the New Zealand government to uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Alex Johnston, Oxfam Aotearoa Campaign Lead said that New Zealand’s policy position ahead of COP26 on loss and damage focuses on avoiding and mitigating loss and damage through adaptation finance but not addressing the unavoidable loss that is already occurring:

“New Zealand’s position does not align with Pacific Island countries’ policy position. At COP26, making progress to mobilise sufficient funds to address loss and damage requires political will, as well as new and innovative sources of finance.”

“New Zealand and Australia have contributed funds to help set up insurance schemes to support Pacific Island communities recover from cyclones and extreme weather, but to be maintained these rely on payments from affected communities and on the private market to make a profit. Very little has been done to help communities cover the costs of slow-onset events like sea level rise, and what has been done is treated as adaptation – not loss and damage finance.

Johnston said, “Oxfam Aotearoa is calling for the New Zealand government to align with Pacific Island Countries’ positions on loss and damage at COP26, scale up financial support to existing loss and damage finance solutions in the Pacific, and develop distinct responses in the Climate Adaptation Act to the loss and damage that Māori experience on these shores.”

See the full report here.

Roadmap confirms rich nations will meet $100 billion climate finance target later than promised: Oxfam reaction

October 26, 2021

Rich nations yesterday published a Climate Finance Delivery Plan claiming that it will take until 2023 to meet their commitment to mobilise US$100 billion each year to support poorer nations to confront the climate crisis. In response, Jan Kowalzig, Senior Climate Policy Adviser at Oxfam said:

“This plan claims that rich nations will meet their target three years late, but conveniently fails to mention the money that poorer countries are owed for every year they fell short. This shortfall, which started to accumulate in 2020, will likely amount to several tens of billions of dollars. These are achievable amounts of money — governments have spent trillions on COVID-19 fiscal recovery packages, which show their ability to act in an emergency. This is an emergency.

“This roadmap also provides no robust commitment to increase the share of finance for adaptation, or to provide more support in the form of grants rather than loans. It is unacceptable that poorer countries that have done little to cause the climate crisis are being forced to take out loans to protect themselves from surging climate disasters like droughts and storms.

“It is difficult to verify the timeline presented in this plan because it does not reveal the underlying data and assumptions. Instead, it relies on the self-reporting of donor countries which allows them to grossly over-estimate the value of the support they provide. Oxfam has previously estimated that the finance targeted specifically at actions to combat climate change may be as little as a quarter of what is reported.

“With the COP26 climate talks just a week away, time is running out for rich nations to build trust and deliver on their unmet target. This raises the stakes in Glasgow where wealthy governments must agree to more stringent reporting standards, on ensuring climate finance is directed to the right places and on a plan beyond 2025.”

Notes to editors

In 2009, rich countries agreed to increase climate finance to poorer countries to reach US$100 billion a year by 2020. At the Paris climate summit in 2015 (COP21), this goal was extended to last through to 2025, so that rich countries would provide US$600 billion in total over the period 2020-2025. Under the Paris Agreement, they agreed to negotiate a yet-higher amount that would kick in from 2025.

During a two-day ministerial in July, convened by COP26 President-Designate Alok Sharma to discuss critical negotiating issues and climate actions ahead of COP26, Canada and Germany agreed to take forward a delivery plan for mobilising US$100 billion a year in climate finance.

Just one week ago, the New Zealand government announced an increase to $1.5 billion in climate finance over four years.

Oxfam Aotearoa along with Oxfam Australia and Oxfam in the Pacific

Oxfam Aotearoa reacts to Government’s $1.3b commitment to tackling climate change

October 18, 2021

Today’s announcement is a fantastic outcome for communities on the frontlines of climate change, Oxfam Aotearoa Executive Director Rachael Le Mesurier said in response to the $1.3 billion the Government has promised in climate finance over the next four years.

An Oxfam report in December last year found that out of 23 high-income countries, New Zealand’s level of climate finance funding ranks just 21st when calculated on a per capita basis based on 2018 figures.

“This new commitment will go a long way to increasing New Zealand’s ranking. It would put Aotearoa New Zealand just within the range of what Oxfam concluded would be its fair share towards a collective goal to mobilise $100 billion a year for developed countries,” said Le Mesurier.

Oxfam Aotearoa estimated that New Zealand’s fair share of this goal was $301.5 million – $540 million per year, and this announcement would take New Zealand’s commitment to $325 million per year from 2022. However, given that the collective goal was due to be met by 2020, Le Mesurier said that New Zealand’s climate finance should continue to rise in future years within a growing aid budget.

“Pacific people on the frontlines of climate change – the farmers, the communities, and the families – have a greater opportunity to thrive, not just survive. If followed through, this will mean more resources for small scale farmers in Solomon Islands to adapt to sea-level rise; more renewable energy for rural communities in South East Asia; and a greater sign that Aotearoa is ready to support those most impacted by climate breakdown.

“It is a relief to hear that the funds for climate action will not squeeze out other crucial funding for other challenges our region faces, such as healthcare, social safety nets, and humanitarian relief.”

Oxfam notes that climate finance is only one part of the grand bargain to push for all countries to keep global heating to within the Paris Agreement’s goal of 1.5 degrees.

Le Mesurier continued, “Now the government needs to follow through with an ambitious Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) ahead of COP26. We want to see the Government pledge to reduce Aotearoa New Zealand’s emissions by at least two thirds by 2030. Right now, the draft Emissions Budgets and Emissions Reduction Plan won’t get us there. We need to see the Prime Minister follow through this leadership into the pending decision on our NDC. Matching our support overseas with sufficient action at home to reduce pollution at the source is just as important.”

Last year, as part of the Big Hearts campaign, Oxfam along with thousands of New Zealanders called for an increase to New Zealand’s overseas aid and climate finance budget.

“The collective action has shown that people across Aotearoa have big hearts to help our global family overcome climate breakdown. This commitment is part of who we are,” says Le Mesurier.

Alongside Oxfam, Pacific Climate Warriors Wellington spokesperson Mary Moeono-Kolio said:

“We welcome the announcement of the government’s climate finance commitment and look forward to New Zealand following through with an ambitious 2030 target in our NDC with the policies needed reflected in the Emissions Reduction Plan.

“New Zealand must recognise that its domestic response will have implications on local Pacific communities as well as our families within the region. Today’s announcement is a good first step but if NZ truly considers itself part of the Pacific family, then we trust that they will do all that they can to protect their family. Pacific communities in New Zealand and across the region will be watching the government’s actions closely and ensuring that NZ contributes it’s fair share to keeping to 1.5 degrees at home.”

Momentum towards a living income for millions in global food supply chains at risk as difficult realities dawn

October 16, 2021

“Today’s bravest companies will be tomorrow’s successful ones,” says Oxfam

Big food companies have hit a crossroads in their efforts to support a living income for millions of farmers in their global supply chains, and, in many ways, momentum could be slowing.

“We need a break-out. Today’s bravest companies will be tomorrow’s successful ones. It’s time for companies to commit themselves to a living income to shore up the foundations of their supply chains, which we all now see are more fragile than anyone thought,” says Irit Tamir, Director of Oxfam America’s Private Sector Department. Oxfam recently published a significant new analysis on the issue.

Oxfam’s report “Living Income: From Right to Reality” is the first in a new series focusing on an issue relevant to inequality in food value chains.

The report says companies are making progress in recognising the need for farmers to earn a living income but many gaps and complexities remain. Companies now realise how tricky it is, and many – though not all – are becoming hesitant at exactly the wrong time.

“We are at a significant inflection point now that the issue of living income has become such a welcome strategic priority for smart companies, most of whom realise their supply chains are unsustainable if they continue to be built upon poverty or worse,” Tamir said.

“While a living income is what a farming household needs to earn a decent standard of living, it’s not necessarily just a simple benchmark. Defining and measuring gaps and effective strategies to close them require context specific approaches,” she said.

“The risk now is that many companies will misunderstand or water down the concept or apply it in ineffective ways. There are even risks that companies could cause harm by pushing the most vulnerable farmers out of their supply chains by concentrating on more established farmers instead. This could reinforce social and economic inequalities rather than reduce them,” she said.

“We need companies to move in a more determined and ambitious way while bringing all the perspectives and realities of others into their new plans and practices. There’s risk and danger in them doing it alone.”

Tamir said that responsibility for solving global inequality has fallen most heavily on the public sector – through regulation like social protection and tax – while the role of the private sector in driving and potentially reversing it has been less analysed.

“We believe that many companies tend to lack real insight about the income situation and barriers facing farmers in their supply chains. This blindside tends to undermine their corporate strategies and is causing inertia,” she said.

The report says that companies need to make specific, ambitious commitments toward providing a living income in a structural way, across their entire value chains. Companies equally need to establish robust feedback mechanisms accessible to all, including at-risk farmers.

“Behind the key determinants of farmer income – like productivity, sales, price, and costs – is a huge architecture that has been designed to deliver profits for business and cheap food for consumers, but not a living income for farmers,” Tamir said.

Oxfam notes that none of the living income commitments it has reviewed so far have been focused on women farmers as the primary target group. In fact, gender and living income continue to sit separately in many companies’ sustainability strategies.

“Gender-blind strategies for a living income are failed strategies for a living income,” Tamir said. “We all must do better by putting women front and centre. Bringing women to the table in the analysis of the problem as well as at the design stage of the potential solutions. Women actually constitute the majority of the actors at the lower income level of agri-business supply chains”.

The report describes some welcome advances by companies striving to establish living incomes.

Unilever, for example, has made a specific commitment for a living income for “everyone who directly provides goods and services to Unilever” by 2030. German food retailers Aldi, Lidl, and REWE, have made similar, although less specific, commitments.

Olam’s Cocoa Compass plan commits to helping 150,000 cocoa farmers by 2030, which is noteworthy although still less than a quarter of all farmers in its supply chain. Other companies such as Mars and Hershey have published encouraging statements in support of a living income but without making a concrete, time-bound commitment, and plan to achieve it. Nestlé is one of several companies that have begun pilot projects which can play an important role but need to be linked to commitments across their entire value chain.

Notes

Read the report: https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/research-publications/living-income-from-right-to-realit

Case of the Century decision Climate: the next five-year term(s) under judicial supervision

October 15, 2021

The following is a joint release from Fondation Nicolas Hulot, Greenpeace France, Notre Affaire à Tous, and Oxfam France:

The administrative court of Paris has ruled in favour of the Case of the Century: successive governments will now be obliged to prove themselves and comply strictly with France’s climate commitments. The French State is also ordered to repair the damage to the environment caused by its inaction, by December 31, 2022. This ground-breaking judgement is binding on the current government, but also on the future tenant of the Elysée. This decision marks the start of a new era for France’s climate policies: never again will any President get away with climate inaction without placing the State outside of the law.

Climate justice has forced its way onto the political agenda

For the Case of the Century organisations: “From now on, any President who does not respect France’s climate commitments condemns it twice: first by exposing its population to the increasingly devastating and costly impacts of climate change, and secondly by exposing it to further sentencing by the courts.”

The next five-year presidential term is the last chance, and the forthcoming elections will be decisive. The organisations Notre Affaire à Tous, la Fondation Nicolas Hulot, Greenpeace France and Oxfam France therefore call on all candidates to demonstrate, with figures to back them up, how they intend to extricate the State from illegality and comply with climate objectives. The organisation will evaluate these roadmaps before the presidential election.

To comply with its Climate commitments, the French State should, for instance:

Reach 700 000 building renovations per year;
Increase the Railway traffic by 20 to 25% compared to 2018;
Multiply by 4 the available surface in organic agriculture.

14 months to catch up on the climate delay which has been accumulating for 3 years Between 2015 and 2018, France emitted 15 million tonnes of greenhouse gases in excess of its legislative commitments. An offence which placed the State in a position of unlawfulness and which the country’s leaders are now obliged to put right before the end of next year. 15 million tonnes of greenhouse gases will therefore have to be subtracted from France’s “carbon budget” for 2022. This decision therefore forces the State to double up on the reduction of emissions planned between 2021 and 2022.

For the Case of the Century organisations: “As of today, any divergence from the greenhouse gas reduction plan may be sanctioned by the courts in the case of any further delay. The State now has an obligation of result for the climate. We have the judges who took on board the climate issue to thank for this necessary break with climate policy as it stands today, as well as the unprecedented mobilisation of the 2.3 million people who supported the Case of the Century.”

It is in this context that the Case of the Century staged a demonstration this morning at the Trocadero in Paris, with two messages in giant lettering: “Climate: justice is on our side!” and “Presidential candidates: no climate, no presidential term (Candidat.es: Pas de Climat, pas de mandat)”.