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Billionaires blast into space as billions suffer on planet Earth

In response to Jeff Bezos’ space flight scheduled for Wednesday NZ time, Deepak Xavier, Oxfam International’s Global Head of Inequality Campaign, said: 

“We’ve now reached stratospheric inequality. Billionaires burning into space, away from a world of pandemic, climate change and starvation. 11 people are likely now dying of hunger each minute while Bezos prepares for an 11-minute personal space flight. This is human folly, not human achievement.

“The ultra-rich are being propped up by unfair tax systems and pitiful labor protections. US billionaires got around $1.8 trillion richer since the beginning of the pandemic and nine new billionaires were created by Big Pharma’s monopoly on the COVID-19 vaccines. Bezos pays next to no US income tax but can spend $7.5 billion on his own aerospace adventure. Bezos’ fortune has almost doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic. He could afford to pay for everyone on Earth to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and still be richer than he was when the pandemic began. 

“Billionaires should pay their fair share of taxes for our hospitals, schools, roads and social care, too. Governments must adopt a much stronger global minimum tax on multinational corporations and look at new revenues. A wealth tax, for example of just 3 percent, would generate $6 billion a year from Bezos’ $200 billion fortune alone ―a sixth of what the US spends on foreign aid. A COVID-19 profits tax on Amazon would yield $11 billion, enough to vaccinate nearly 600 million people. 

“What we need is a fair tax system that allows more investment into ending hunger and poverty, into education and healthcare, and into saving the planet from the growing climate crisis ―rather than leaving it.”

Notes:

Oxfam recently reported that global food prices have risen by 40 percent in the past year, which has contributed to 20 million more people having fallen into catastrophic conditions of hunger and a six-fold increase in famine-like conditions. Download Oxfam’s report: “The Hunger Virus Multiplies.”

Oxfam is calling for a response to the ongoing crisis that prioritises support for workers and small businesses. It includes establishing a COVID-19 pandemic profits tax to ensure shared sacrifice, and the redeployment of resources away from those cashing in on the pandemic and toward those bearing the burden. For more information, download Oxfam’s report: “Power, Profits and the Pandemic: From corporate extraction for the few to an economy that works for all”.

Jeff Bezos’ net wealth has increased from $113 billion (Forbes’ Annual World’s Billionaires List, March 2020) to $207.9 billion (Forbes’ Real Time Billionaire List, 16 July 2021). The cost of vaccinating the world’s adult population was calculated as follows: two doses at $7 per dose for 5 billion people, for a total of $70 billion. This is based on the average cost per dose. Oxfam does not endorse such high prices for vaccines and, as part of The People’s Vaccine Alliance, is campaigning for patent-free access to allow generic manufacturers to produce COVID-19 vaccines to drive down prices.

Six-fold increase in people suffering famine-like conditions since pandemic began

11 people are likely dying every minute from hunger, now outpacing COVID-19 fatalities, warns Oxfam.

A new Oxfam report today says that as many as 11 people are likely dying of hunger and malnutrition each minute. This is more than the current global death rate of COVID-19, which is around seven people per minute.

The report, ‘The Hunger Virus Multiplies’ says that conflict remains the primary cause of hunger since the pandemic, pushing over half a million people into famine-like conditions – a six-fold increase since 2020.

Overall, 155 million people around the world are now living in crisis levels of food insecurity or worse – that is 20 million more than last year. Around two out of every three of these people are going hungry primarily because their country is in war and conflict.

The report also describes the massive impact that economic shocks, particularly worsened by the coronavirus pandemic, along with the worsening climate crisis, have had in pushing tens of millions more people into hunger. Mass unemployment and severely disrupted food production have led to a 40 percent surge in global food prices – the highest rise in over a decade.

Oxfam’s Executive Director Gabriela Bucher said:

“Today, unrelenting conflict on top of the COVID-19 economic fallout, and a worsening climate crisis, has pushed more than 520,000 people to the brink of starvation. Instead of battling the pandemic, warring parties fought each other, too often landing the last blow to millions already battered by weather disasters and economic shocks.”

Despite the pandemic, global military spending rose by $51 billion – enough to cover six and a half times what the UN says it needs to stop people going hungry. Meanwhile, conflict and violence have led to the highest ever number of internal displacements, forcing 48 million people to flee their homes at the end of 2020.

“Starvation continues to be used as a weapon of war, depriving civilians of food and water and impeding humanitarian relief. People can’t live safely, or find food, when their markets are being bombed and crops and livestock destroyed.”

Bahjah, a mother of eight from Hajjah governorate in Yemen, who had to flee multiple times, told Oxfam: “My husband is very old to work, and I am sick. We had no choice but to send our children to ask people for food or collect leftovers from restaurants. Even the food they managed to collect was not enough.”

Bucher said: “The pandemic has also laid bare the deep inequality in our world. The wealth of the 10 richest people – nine of whom are men – increased by $413 billion last year. This is 11 times more than what the UN says is needed for its entire global humanitarian assistance.”

Some of the world’s worst hunger hotspots, including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen continue to be battered by conflict, and have witnessed a surge in extreme levels of hunger since last year. 

More than 350,000 people in Ethiopia’s Tigray region are experiencing famine-like conditions according to recent IPC analysis – the largest number recorded since Somalia in 2011, when a quarter million Somalis died. More than half the population of Yemen are expected to face crisis levels of food insecurity or worse this year. 

Hunger has also intensified in emerging epicentres of hunger ―middle income countries such as India, South Africa, and Brazil― which also saw some of the sharpest rises in COVID-19 infections.

Some examples of the report hunger hotspots include:

  • Brazil: Measures to curb the spread of virus forced small businesses to close and over half the working Brazilians to lose their jobs. Extreme poverty nearly tripled, from 4.5% to 12.8%, and almost 20 million were pushed to hunger. The federal government secured support only to 38 million vulnerable families, leaving millions without a minimum income.
  • India:  Spiralling COVID-19 infections devastated public health as well as income, particularly for migrant workers and farmers, who were forced to leave their crops in the field to rot. Over 70% of people surveyed in 12 states have downgraded their diet because they could not afford to pay for food. School closures have also deprived 120 million children of their main meal.
  • Yemen: Blockades, conflict and a fuel crisis have caused staple food prices to more than double since 2016. Humanitarian aid was slashed by half, curtailing humanitarian agencies’ response and cutting food assistance for 5 million people.  The number of people experiencing famine-like conditions are expected to almost triple to 47,000 by July 2021.
  • Sahel: Countries most torn by conflict, such as Burkina Faso, saw more than a 200 percent rise in hunger between 2019 and 2020 – from 687,000 to 2.1 million people. Worsening violence in central Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin forced 5.3 million people to flee and fuelled food inflation to a five-year high. The climate crisis worsened the situation: floods have increased by 180% since 2015, devastating crops and hitting the incomes of 1.7 million people.
  • South Sudan: Ten years since its independence, over 100,000 people are now facing famine-like conditions. Continued violence and flooding disrupted agriculture in the past year and forced2 million people to flee their homes. Less than 20% of the $1.68 billion UN Humanitarian appeal for South Sudan has so far been funded.

Mulu Gebre, 26, who had to flee her hometown in Tigray, Ethiopia while 9 months pregnant, told Oxfam: “I came to Mekele because I heard that food and milk were offered for infants. When I arrived here, I couldn’t find food even for myself.  I need food especially for my child, who is now only four months –and already born underweight.”

Bucher added: “Informal workers, women, displaced people and other marginalised groups are hit hardest by conflict and hunger.  Women and girls are especially affected, too often eating last and eating least. They face impossible choices, like having to choose between traveling to the market and risking getting physically or sexually assaulted, or watching their families go hungry.”

“Governments must stop conflict from continuing to fuel catastrophic hunger and instead ensure aid agencies reach those in need. Donor governments must immediately and fully fund the UN’s humanitarian appeal to help save lives now. Security Council members must also hold to account all those who use hunger as a weapon of war.”

“To prevent unnecessary deaths and millions more people being pushed to extreme poverty and hunger, governments must stop this deadly disease; a People’s Vaccine has never been more urgent. They must simultaneously build fairer and more sustainable food systems and support social protection programs.”

Since the pandemic began, Oxfam has reached nearly 15 million of the world’s most vulnerable people with food, cash assistance and clean water, as well as with projects to support farmers. We work together with more than 694 partners across 68 countries.

Oxfam aims to reach millions of people over the coming months and is urgently seeking funding to support its programmes across the world.

Notes to the editor

  • Download ‘The Hunger Virus Multiplies: How the coronavirus is fuelling hunger in a hungry world’.
  • The global observed daily mortality rate for COVID-19 reached nearly 9,967 deaths per day for the week ending 14 June 2021, which is equivalent to 7 deaths per minute according to data from Johns Hopkins University and Oxford University “Our World in Data” database.
  • Except for Madagascar, all countries facing famine-like conditions are torn by conflict. Most countries facing IPC Phase 4 (including Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Syria and Nigeria) are also hit by conflict.
  • 20 out of the 25 countries mentioned in this report were impacted by the collective three drivers of hunger, covid, conflict and climate.
  • India diet data is based on a survey conducted by the Center for Sustainable Employment at Azim Premji University on 4,879 people across 12 states during April and May 2020.
  • Hunger figures in the West African Sahel countries are based on Cadre Harmonise’ IPC3+ records for Jun-Aug 2019 compared to the same period in 2020.
  • According to Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) 2020 Global Report, 48 million people were living in internal displacement as a result of conflict and violence in 59 countries and territories as of 31 December 2020. This figure is the highest ever recorded.
  • Stories, pictures, and video highlighting the impact of conflict, Covid-19 and climate on hunger across the globe are available on request.

 

Contact information

David Bull | 0274 179 724

David.bull@oxfam.org.nz       

Oxfam Aotearoa reacts to Lawyers for Climate Action (LCANZI) announcement

Lawyers for Climate Action (LCANZI) announced that they will be taking the Climate Change Commission (CCC) and Climate Minister James Shaw to the High Court arguing that the CCC’s report did not recommend climate action consistent with New Zealand’s obligations under the Paris Agreement.

“We support this court action to ensure that New Zealand’s targets and plans to reduce emissions are aligned with the science of what is needed for keeping warming to within 1.5 degrees Celsius. It is critical for those on the frontlines of ever intensifying climate impacts, that New Zealand is playing its part,” said Oxfam Aotearoa Campaign Lead Alex Johnston.

“The Zero Carbon Act and the Paris Agreement set clear expectations of New Zealand contributing to global efforts to 1.5 degrees, and so decisions about what level of action we take must be grounded in the best chance possible keeping to that temperature limit.

“Oxfam has stated before that the current plans are not enough for New Zealand to be contributing its fair share to this effort, and we look forward to seeing the court clarify what the government needs to do.”

OECD Inclusive Framework agrees two-pronged tax reform and 15 percent global minimum tax: Oxfam reaction

Responding to the announcement today that the OECD Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) has agreed to push ahead with the two-pronged global tax reform deal and set a global minimum corporate tax of 15 percent, Dr Jo Spratt the Communications and Advocacy Director of Oxfam Aotearoa, said:

“A really disappointing result for global tax reform. We had great hope that these negotiations would change the archaic global tax rules to make sure the majority of the world’s population benefitted. This is a self-serving deal for the G7 and EU that will allow them to pocket more than 2/3rds of the revenue this global tax will create.

“Once again rich countries are leaving developing countries high and dry with only 3% of profits being funneled to the people in greatest need. Our ask is that global tax be at least 25 percent which could have generated over USD$17 billion (over NZD$24 billion) more each year for the poorest countries. Enough to pay to vaccinate 80 percent of their people.

“There are still many questions we need to be asking including what this means for New Zealand, which has a corporate tax rate of 28 percent and our Pacific neighbor Vanuatu who currently has no corporate tax rate at all.”

Gabriela Bucher, Executive Director of Oxfam International, said: 

“The world needs a fair tax deal if we are to defeat extraordinarily high inequality and stop climate breakdown. But this deal is instead no more than a G7-money grab. Rich countries are forcing developing countries to choose between a raw deal or no deal. It is just another form of economic colonialism. This is not an ‘historic’ deal ―it is history repeating itself. Those who shamelessly rigged the global tax system to their benefit over a century ago have again ring-fenced the game for themselves.

“The new rules on making multinationals pay taxes where they are making their sales and profits will apply to just 100 of the most profitable corporations, and loopholes could let big offenders like Amazon off the hook. With so many carve-outs now in play, including the UK’s push to exempt the City of London, this one-sided deal could end up being about as helpful as a bucket full of holes.

“The long-overdue tax reform was meant to recover billions in underpaid corporate tax for all countries. Instead, the G7 and EU will pocket more than two-thirds of new cash that a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15 percent will yield. The world’s poorest countries will recover less than 3 percent ―despite being home to over a third of the world’s population. If you’re a nurse in Mexico, a market vendor in Thailand or a small business crippled by COVID-19 in Kenya, then this tax deal isn’t for you.

“A global tax rate of 25 percent would raise nearly $17 billion more per year for the world’s poorest countries than a 15 percent rate ―enough to vaccinate 80 percent of their population. The 15 percent rate agreed by the G7 and endorsed today will do little if nothing to end harmful tax competition. It is already being seen by some in Australia and Denmark as an excuse to lower domestic corporate tax rates, risking a new race to the bottom.

“The deal the OECD wants is skewed-to-the-rich and completely unfair. It is bad news for tax havens, but will fail to levy funds developing countries desperately need to save lives and propel sustainable economic recovery from COVID-19. This was an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build a profoundly more equal world where the richest pay their fair share of tax.”

Notes to editors

130 out of 139 members of the OECD Inclusive Framework on BEPS have endorsed the deal. 

The deal’s pillar one will only apply to multinationals with “global turnover above 20 billion euros (over NZD$34 billion) and profitability above 10 percent”, which could rule out corporations like Amazon. Extractives and regulated financial services are excluded from the deal.

The 15 percent rate agreed by the G7 is well below the UN Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity (FACTI) Panel recommendation made earlier this year, which called for a 20- to 30-percent global corporate tax on profits. The Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT) has called for a 25 percent global minimum tax to be applied. 

A 25 percent global minimum corporate tax rate would raise nearly USD$17 billion (over NZD$24.4 billion) more per year for the world’s 38 poorest countries (for which data is available) than a 15 percent rate. These countries are home to 38.6 percent of the world’s population.

The G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors will meet in Venice on 9-10 July 2021. Technical details for both pillars are expected to be finalized at the G20 Rome Summit scheduled for the end of October 2021. 

Oxfam Aotearoa launches a petition to help farmers curb climate pollution

Oxfam kicks-off the campaign with a petition that supporters will sign to get the New Zealand government to help our largest polluting sector – industrial farming – to evolve to sustainable food production.

Recently, the Climate Change Commission released a report that will be used by the government to plan what New Zealand will do to reduce climate pollution and what target to present at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow this year. Despite some progress being made, the government’s current efforts will not do enough to protect us or communities in the Pacific from runaway climate destruction, or make sure that everyone has good, local food in the future.  

Large scale, intensive agriculture is responsible for 48% of New Zealand’s climate pollution. Oxfam Aotearoa’s Campaign Lead Alex Johnston says that right now, the government gives unsustainable farming practices a free pass to pollute, and props up an intensive model that treats farms like factories:  

“The land is overloaded with cows and chemicals that pollute waterways and cause methane pollution to skyrocket. Farmers across the Pacific are bearing the brunt of this inaction with more frequent superstorms and heightened food insecurity. 

“The only way for Aotearoa New Zealand to play our part in keeping within the crucial temperature limit of 1.5°C is if the government does more to reduce farming pollution and help farmers transition to sustainable food production,” says Johnston. 

Oxfam Aotearoa’s aim is to push the government to set a bold international target to cut New Zealand’s pollution by 2/3rds by 2030; bring agriculture into the Emissions Trading Scheme so everyone pays the full price for their pollution; and use the revenue to help farmers shift to regenerative, sustainable agriculture. Johnston says that bold targets are necessary:  

“By finally requiring intensive farming to pay the full price for its pollution just like everyone else, the government would spur investment in lower-impact ways of growing food, and reward farmers that have been doing this for generations with less fertilisers and fewer cows. 

“Revenue generated from big polluters could then fund the advisory services, certification and manufacturing facilities needed to allow any farmer in Aotearoa to transition to diversified and climate-friendly crops and livestock farming. 

“This is an opportunity to adjust our most polluting industry into one that is sustainable, healthy, and positioned for success in the future. And it’s a chance to ensure that farmers on the frontlines of climate breakdown can survive and thrive too.” 

 /ENDS 

Notes to editors   

  • The Climate Change Commission advice would plan to reduce New Zealand’s domestic emissions, reducing net carbon dioxide emissions to 55% below 2010 levels by 2030, and net agricultural methane, 8% below 2010 levels by 2030.  The reductions proposed in agricultural methane are not within the IPCC pathways for staying within 1.5 degrees warming. 
  • The government is also reviewing New Zealand’s Paris Agreement target for emissions reductions by 2030, our ‘Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC)’, which the Commission found to currently be inconsistent with global efforts to stay within 1.5C of global heating. New Zealand is one of the countries yet to increase its NDC target ahead of COP26, the global climate talks in Glasgow in November. This target is planned to be met through a combination of domestic emissions reductions and the purchase of offshore carbon credits.
  • The combined climate plans submitted by countries account to a dismal 1% emissions reduction, which is way off track from the targeted 45% reduction needed to limit global warming below 1.5 degrees, and to avoid disastrous impacts on vulnerable communities.   

Oxfam responds to the announcement that COVAX has received more funding and is planning to accelerate its vaccine rollout

Responding to the announcement that COVAX has received more funding and is planning to accelerate its vaccine rollout, projecting it will reach 23 percent of people with COVID vaccines in mostly developing countries by the end of the year, Oxfam International’s Head of Inequality Policy, Max Lawson, said:

“More funding for COVAX and a quicker rollout of vaccines is a small piece of good news for developing countries struggling to get the doses they need, but at best fewer than a quarter of people in these countries will have been vaccinated by the end of the year.

“A lot of COVAX’s doses are donations from rich countries, which doesn’t change the fact that there aren’t enough vaccines being produced to protect the world at the speed we need.

“If pharmaceutical companies with successful vaccines were made to share their science and know how, many countries could be making their own vaccines, rather than being solely dependent on doses from COVAX. While the UK, Germany and the EU are busy vaccinating their citizens, it is totally unfair that they continue to block proposals to remove the intellectual property barriers that would allow this to happen.

“COVAX is also paying monopoly prices for the vaccines it is buying; if vaccine patents were waived prices would be far lower, meaning far more people could be vaccinated. Yet unlike the WHO, COVAX leadership have consistently failed to challenge Big Pharma monopolies or to support waiving patents.”

/Ends
 
Notes to editors:

  • The announcement of more funding and quicker rollout was made at the GAVI board meeting this week: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/more-funds-approved-covax-vaccines-tighter-access-planned-statement-2021-06-25/
  • Oxfam is part of the People’s Vaccine Alliance, a movement advocating that COVID-19 vaccines are manufactured rapidly and at scale, as global common goods, free of intellectual property protections and made available to all people, in all countries, free of charge.
  • The TRIPs waiver was tabled by South Africa and India in October 2020 to boost vaccine supplies and other COVID-19 health technologies globally. In May the US joined over 100 other countries and backed this waiver for the vaccines. France announced their support for the waiver on 10 June.
  • On vaccine capacity in developing countries: India already produces 60 percent of the world’s vaccines and just over a fifth of the world’s COVID-19 vaccines to date, yet only a handful of the country’s 20 plus vaccine manufacturers are currently involved in COVID-19 vaccine production. The Director General of the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has also reported that the governments of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, South Africa and Senegal have all said that they have facilities that could possibly be retooled to produce coronavirus vaccines.

Copyright © 2024 Oxfam Aotearoa.

Oxfam is a worldwide development organisation that mobilises the power of people against injustice. Oxfam Aotearoa is a registered charity with the New Zealand Charities Register (registration CC24641). Donations are tax refundable.

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