climate action

Oxfam says: COP29 deal is a “global Ponzi scheme”

November 25, 2024

Responding to the COP29 climate finance agreement, in which rich countries agree to mobilize $300 billion a year to help Global South countries cope with warming temperatures and switch to renewable energy, Oxfam International’s Climate Change Policy Lead, Nafkote Dabi, said:

“The terrible verdict from the Baku climate talks shows that rich countries view the Global South as ultimately expendable, like pawns on a chessboard. The $300 billion so-called ‘deal’ that poorer countries have been bullied into accepting is unserious and dangerous —a soulless triumph for the rich, but a genuine disaster for our planet and communities who are being flooded, starved, and displaced today by climate breakdown. And as for promises of future funding? They’re just as hollow as the deal itself.”

Oxfam Aotearoa’s Climate Justice Lead Nick Henry said: “The failure to meet the global need for climate finance is a failure of empathy from the leaders of rich countries.”

“New Zealand’s climate grants are an essential lifeline for our Pacific region and a positive example of public grants, not debt. Our government needs to continue ramping up this finance to at least meet our fair share of the new global goal.”

Oxfam International’s Climate Change Policy Lead, Nafkote Dabi continues, “The money on the table is not only a pittance in comparison to what’s really needed –it’s not even real “money”, by and large. Rather, it’s a motley mix of loans and privatized investment –a global Ponzi scheme that the private equity vultures and public relations people will now exploit. The destruction of our planet is avoidable, but not with this shabby and dishonorable deal. The richest polluters need to wise up —and pay up.”

Contact information

Rachel Schaevitz in Auckland, NZ | Rachel.schaevitz@oxfam.org.nz | 027 959 5555
Jeshua Hope in Suva, Fiji | jhope@oxfampacific.org | +679 7500889

COP29 must deliver more than “threadbare promises”

November 22, 2024

In response to the latest climate finance draft text at COP29, Oxfam International’s Climate Justice Lead, Safa’ Al Jayoussi, said:

“COP29 must do more than simply repeat the same threadbare promises. Rich countries have spent decades now stalling and blocking genuine progress on climate finance. This has left the Global South suffering the most catastrophic consequences of a climate crisis they did not create. The draft text scandalously misses the crucial element of declaring a clear public commitment to a new climate finance goal.

“Rich countries, those most responsible for climate chaos, owe $5 trillion in annual climate debt and reparations. This funding must come as grants-based public financing to help communities that need it the most mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change and recover from loss and damage. Anything less will simply be a failure.

“This is not charity – it is an established obligation under international law. It is the bare minimum needed to shield frontline communities from devastation, allow them to rebuild after disasters pass, and ensure their just transition to a sustainable future. The next few days are a credibility test for these climate negotiations and for COP itself. The time for stalling is over. If rich countries don’t deliver, they will go down in history as having chosen profit over people and complacency over courage.”

Notes to editors

Rich countries continue to resist calls for climate reparations. Climate activists are demanding the Global North provide at least $5 trillion a year in public finance to the Global South.

Contact information

Rachel Schaevitz in Auckland, NZ I rachel.schaevitz@oxfam.org.nz

Jeshua Hope in Suva, Fiji | jhope@oxfampacific.org | +679 7500889

Global climate activists rally at Baku’s Olympic stadium with bold “Pay Up!” message

November 14, 2024

Global climate activists today gathered at Baku’s Olympic stadium —the venue for the United Nations climate talks— to urge world leaders to commit to a new, ambitious climate finance deal. The message “Pay Up!” unfolded across the stadium seats, in perfect sight from the COP29 presidency offices located on the opposite side of the arena.

COP29 has been dubbed the “finance COP” because setting a new goal for global climate finance and laying out a plan for achieving it is the big battleground issue. Activists and civil society organizations call for the new goal to drastically increase from its present $100 billion a year to $5 trillion a year in climate debt and reparations and to protect communities facing the worst impacts of the crisis.

“As communities in the Global South bear the brunt of climate disasters, it’s past time for the Global North to pay their share —without saddling us with more loans and debt,” said Marinel Ubaldo, a Make Rich Polluters Pay activist and delegate from the Philippines. “Real climate action means financing solutions that uplift, empower, and sustain our communities, free from the chains of fossil fuels and debt traps.”

Global climate policy experts underscore this year’s conference as one of the most critical since COP26 in 2021.Without more ambitious and urgent action, the world could warm by a terrifying 3.1°C by the end of the century.

Activists are also calling to make rich polluters pay through taxes on fossil fuel-intensive industries and the super-rich. Fifty of the world’s richest billionaires emit more carbon pollution through their investments, private jets and yachts in 90 minutes than the average person does in their lifetime.

“The world needs leaders who are committed to justice and fairness; this starts with honoring climate finance commitments, taxing the super-rich, phasing out fossil fuels, and holding polluters accountable,” Ubaldo added. “The climate crisis doesn’t pause for politics or profit —it demands swift, decisive, and equitable action now.”

Notes to editors

The organisers are a cross-constituency of climate groups, including Oxfam.

Oxfam’s report, “Carbon Inequality Kills,” tracks the emissions from private jets, yachts and polluting investments and details how the super-rich are fueling inequality, hunger and death across the world.

Contact information

Rachel Schaevitz/ rachel.schaevitz@oxfam.org.nz

Carbon Inequality Kills

October 29, 2024

The only way to beat climate breakdown and deliver social justice is to radically reduce inequality. This report reveals the catastrophic climate impacts of the richest individuals in the world, and proposes taking urgent action to protect people and the planet.

What little carbon dioxide we can still safely emit is being burned indiscriminately by the superrich. We share new evidence of how the yachts, jets and polluting investments of 50 of the world’s richest billionaires are accelerating the climate crisis. Oxfam’s research shows that the emissions of the world’s super-rich 1% are causing economic losses of trillions of dollars; contributing to huge crop losses; and leading to millions of excess deaths.

As global temperatures continue to rise, risking the lives and livelihoods of people living in poverty and precarity, we must act now to curb the emissions of the super-rich, and make rich polluters pay.

Read the report here.

Vetoing Humanity

September 24, 2024

This report aims to highlight the humanitarian consequences of the dysfunction at the UN Security Council and humanitarian finance mechanisms. A few powerful states are obstructing peace processes and undermining international laws which should be equally binding for all people. There are 23 protracted crises examined in this report, with case studies on the Democratic of Republic Congo, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Syria and Ukraine. The growth of humanitarian needs, gaps in humanitarian funding, and the impacts of veto and penholding power are explored.

Ahead of the Summit of the Future in 2024, Oxfam urges the UN member states to use this opportunity to take decisive and bold action to rebuild a more equal, inclusive, efficient, and responsive system. This will ensure that they fulfill their roles in reducing and resolving crises to avoid the spiralling humanitarian consequences of protracted conflict.

Read the report here.

Oxfam calls for reform of the UN Security Council

September 20, 2024

Ahead of the UN Summit for the Future, Oxfam calls for reform of the UN Security Council to stop the “Permanent Five” from being their own “judge and jury”

The UN Security Council (UNSC) is failing people living in conflict, with Russia and the United States particularly responsible for abusing their veto power which is blocking progress toward peace in Ukraine, Syria, and the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel.

A new Oxfam report, Vetoing Humanity, studied 23 of the world’s most protracted conflicts over the past decade, including Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Libya, Niger, the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela and Yemen, and found that 27 of the 30 UNSC vetoes cast on these conflicts were on OPT, Syria and Ukraine.

The report concludes that the five permanent members of the UNSC (the P5) are exploiting their exclusive voting and negotiating powers to suit their own geopolitical interests. In doing so, they are undermining the Council’s ability to maintain international peace and security.

More than a million people have been killed in these 23 conflicts alone and more than 230 million people are today in urgent need of aid – an increase of over 50 percent since 2015.

“China, France, Russia, the UK and the US took responsibility for global security at the UNSC in what is now a bygone colonial age. The contradictions of their acting as judge and jury of their own military alliances, interests and adventures are incompatible with a world seeking peace and justice for all,” said Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar.

For instance, in 2023 Russia vetoed a nine-month extension of cross-border assistance to Northern Syria which left 4.1 million people with little or no access to food, water and medicine. Russia has also used its veto four times on Ukraine, despite being an aggressor in the conflict and by UN rules should therefore be disqualified from voting.

While the UN General Assembly (UNGA) has passed at least 77 resolutions over the last decade supporting Palestinian self-determination and human rights and an end to Israel’s illegal occupation, the US has used its veto power six times to block resolutions perceived as unfavourable to its ally Israel. The US vetoes have created a permissive environment for Israel to expand illegal settlements in the Palestinian territory with impunity.

“More often than not the Security Council permanent members’ vetoes have contradicted the will of the UN General Assembly, in which all states are represented,” Behar said.

The report critiques another of the P5’s powers called “pen-holding”, which allows them to lead on negotiations and direct how resolutions are drafted and tabled, or ignored – again, too often according to their own interests.

While France and the UK have not used their veto last decade, they and the US have held the pen on two-thirds of resolutions relating to the 23 protracted crises studied by Oxfam. The UK holds the pen on Yemen, for example, where it has a colonial legacy and strategic interests to maintain the maritime routes. In 2023, Mali objected to French pen-holding given what it considered “acts of aggression and destabilization” there.

Many other initiatives are not even written up or tabled because they would inevitability be vetoed, the report says. As a result, the 23 crises studied by Oxfam are being treated in wildly different ways. Nearly half of them have been largely neglected with fewer than five resolutions each over the last decade, including just one on Myanmar and none on Ethiopia or Venezuela.

On the other hand, the UNSC has passed more nearly 80 on both South Sudan and Sudan, 53 on Somalia and 48 on Libya. None have led to lasting peace. Despite the Democratic Republic of Congo having had 24 UNSC resolutions in the past 10 years, for instance, the UN mission there (MONUSCO) has been hindered by chronic underfunding and lack of coordination.

“The erratic and self-interested behaviour of UNSC members has contributed to an explosion of humanitarian needs that is now outpacing humanitarian organizations’ ability to respond. This demands a fundamental change of our international security architecture at the very top,” Behar said.

Globally, the number of people needing humanitarian assistance has risen nearly four times in the last decade, triggering massive funding needs. Between 2014 and 2023, the UN appeal has nearly tripled from $20 billion to over $56 billion – but less than half of this amount was met last year.

The report is critical of the fact that humanitarian funding remains entirely dependent upon voluntary contributions. In contrast, UN member state funding for peacekeeping operations is mandatory.

As the Summit of the Future kicks off this week to envision a revitalized UN, Oxfam calls for a wholesale reform of the UN Security Council, including the abolition of the P5’s veto power.

“We need a new vision for a UN system that meets its original ambitions and made fit for purpose for today’s reality,” Behar said. “A Council that works for the global majority not a powerful few. This starts with renouncing the veto and pen-holding privilege of the P5 and expanding membership to more countries.”

Notes to the Editors

Read Oxfam’s “Vetoing Humanity” report (Link will go live once embargo is lifted)

Oxfam looked at 23 crises that were listed in the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA)’s “Global Humanitarian Needs Overviews” for at least five consecutive years over the last decade. These are: Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela and Yemen. Source: UNOCHA Global Humanitarian Overview 2024 and UNOCHA 2014-2018.

Over the past decade, the UNSC has passed 454 resolutions and vetoed 30 resolutions on these 23 protracted crises. 8 out of 12 resolutions on Palestine and Israel; 15 out of 53 on Syria; 4 out of 6 in Ukraine; one on Venezuela; one on Malia; and one on Yemen, have been vetoed respectively. Sudan and South Sudan have had 79 resolutions passed since 2015. Oxfam’s vetoes calculations are based on UN data and UNSC data. Analysis of UNGA Resolutions is based on UN Dag Hammarskjöld Library. (n.d.). UN General Assembly Resolutions Tables.

Russia and the United States have together cast 75% of the 88 UNSC vetoes since 1989, with the rest by China – neither France nor the UK have used their veto power over that period. Source: For details on UNSC vetoes, see UN Dag Hammarskjöld Library. (n.d.). UN Security Council Meetings & Outcomes Tables: Veto List. Accessed 20 July 2024. For details on approved resolutions see UNSC Resolutions.

11 of the total 23 protracted crises (48%) had each fewer than five resolutions over the last decade. Source: see above.

Oxfam calculated 1.1 million people died during 2014–23 in the 23 protracted crises using the conflict-level version of the dataset and the best estimates of battle-related deaths (as opposed to the high or the low estimates). Source: The Uppsala University Conflict Data Program Battle Related Deaths dataset version 24.1

Oxfam calculated global funding needs based on the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Financial Tracking Service database coordinated appeals data from 2014 to 2023. Only 43% of the total $54.1bn appeal was met in 2023.

According to the UN Charter article 27(3), “a party to a dispute shall abstain from voting”.

The number of people in urgent need of humanitarian assistance living in these 23 protracted crises has grown by 157% to 233.5 million in 2024, up from 90.84 in 2015. Source: UNOCHA’s Global Humanitarian Overview (2015) and (2024).

According to UNOCHA, the global number of people in need of humanitarian assistance has risen nearly four times in the last decade – from 77.9m in 2015 to 299.4m in 2024. Source: See above.

According to the Global Report on Food Crises 2024, the number of people experiencing acute or worse levels of hunger across 20 of the 23 countries was 199.6 million. Data from Iraq, Libya and Venezuela were insufficient or did not meet the requirements of the GRFC.

Contacts

At UNGA Nesrine Aly / Lauren Hartnett