Digital collage featuring climate activists Jessy and Isaac created for Oxfam by Nigerian visual artist Alexis Chivir-Ter Tsegba.
Communities calling for system change not climate change
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Community led response to climate change
“We expect that things will be good for us in future. It will be better. “ Tikeshwori Malla is part of a women’s groups that helps smallholder farmers deal with the impacts of climate change in Doti district, Nepal.
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Communities are adapting to climate change, today and tomorrow
"I personally believe it is a win for the community." Ali Shire Omar is growing food in Somalia with support from Oxfam.
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Together we are holding the most powerful to account over climate change
"The change we need in our world begins with you and me, I feel like if I contribute the little I can, someone else will take the step and continue." Nimotallahi Lawal, a volunteer at the caravan climate change walk in Nigeria.
The front page Image: Max van Woerkom/ Oxfam
The richest 1% emit as much planet-heating pollution as two-thirds of humanity says Oxfam's report Climate Equality: A Planet for the 99%, published ahead of the UN Climate Summit, COP28.
What are the effects of climate change?
A view from above of flooding in Balochistan in Pakistan. Image: Arif Shah/Oxfam
Extreme weather is destroying homes and wrecking lives. And it’s hitting the people who have done the least to cause the climate crisis. When disaster strikes, communities respond fast with the support of our partners, combatting the effects of weather events like floods and droughts, to save lives.
How can we respond to climate change together?
Seeds at a seedbank in Zimbabwe. Image: Shepherd Tozvireva/ Oxfam Novib
Innovations like drought-resistant seeds, reinforced homes, and training on how to grow new crops mean the people most at risk from the effects of climate change can carry on living, earning and learning, whatever the future brings.
How do we call for climate action together?
Mya-Rose Craig, Founder and President of charity Black2Nature, author of Birdgirl. Image: Nic Kane / Oxfam
Governments and companies have promised to tackle the climate crisis and protect the people it hits hardest. We support people facing the climate crisis to get the support they need to stop climate change from destroying their futures. And help hold the people in power to account.
Image: Rob Rickman/Oxfam
With the Make the Polluter Pay campaign – I hope to be able to hold rich, industrialised countries and companies accountable... to see funds flow to frontline communities so they can reshape their present and future.”
Lagi Seru, a climate activist based in Fiji and co-founder of the Alliance for Future Generations.
The right to a fairer, liveable future
To help tackle climate change, we're calling on governments to take bold action. That means urgently reducing emissions and significantly increasing finance to help communities around the world combat the effects of a changing climate.
Every day, together with volunteers and local partners, we support communities to stand up and speak out for their right to a fairer, liveable future.
Irrigation for the future
In Zimbabwe, the changing climate means farmers' crops are threatened by floods and droughts.
In Nyanyadzi, Oxfam and its partners have helped the farmers build gabions, which act as silt traps, to restore the irrigation system and protect their harvest.
How your donations have helped support people impacted by climate change
- Oxfam GB has directly reached 200,000 people through programmes related to climate justice.
- In Pakistan, we are supporting farmers to reclaim fields damaged by salt water. And helping them get fresh water for their fields and for household use.
- We are working in nine cities across four Asian countries supporting urban communities to combat climate change.
- Cyclone Amphan hit areas of Bangladesh and India in 2020. Local partners were able to prepare by disinfecting cyclone shelters, and continuing efforts to stop the spread of disease.
- Super Typhoon Rai hit the Philippines in 2021. Oxfam staff, partners and communities got 72,000 people access to food, water, hygiene kits, shelter, solar lights, and other essentials.
Khadija Farah/Oxfam
The drought has ravaged the lives of many people... we have lost almost all our livestock that was the backbone of each and every community living here.”
Sowda, near Wajir, Kenya
A Changing Climate
Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan produce 0.1% of global emissions.
The richest 10 percent of the world's population accounted for over half of the emissions added to the atmosphere between 1990 and 2015.
The money needed to help people affected by extreme weather-related emergencies like floods or drought is eight times higher than 20 years ago.
Climate change statistics sources
- In the Footing the Bill report, Oxfam said that low-income countries are hardest hit by climate change but have contributed very little: Africa’s current emissions are less than 4% of the global total, (despite being home to 17% of the world’s population). Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan are together responsible for a mere 0.1% of global emissions.
- In the Confronting Carbon Inequality report, Oxfam and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) estimate that from 1990 to 2015 - the richest 10% of the world’s population (around 630 million people) were responsible for 52% of the cumulative carbon emissions.
- Also in the Footing the Bill report, Oxfam estimates that funding needs for UN humanitarian appeals linked to extreme weather are eight times higher than they were 20 years ago. And over the past five years, nearly half of appeal requirements have gone unmet.
Over-relying on planting trees and as-yet-unproven technology instead of genuinely shifting away from fossil fuel-dependent economies is a dangerous folly. We are already seeing the devastating consequences of climate delay.”
Nafkote Dabi, Climate Change Lead, Oxfam International
Fighting for climate justice
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An early signal on climate change
Oxfam publishes Weather Alert! - a report establishing a connection between unusual weather patterns and the negative impacts of a hidden climate crisis on the world’s poorest people.
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People and polar bears
Oxfam campaigners from around the world come together at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali. Dressed as polar bears and carrying ‘Save the humans’ placards, they highlight the impact of climate change on humans as well as the natural world.
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Global Climate Hearings
In the run up to climate conference COP15 in Copenhagen, Oxfam convenes ‘climate hearings’ where people from around the world come together to testify to the impact of climate change on their lives. Thousands of people participate globally, sending a unified, urgent message on climate change to the world.
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Challenging food companies
Together with farmers, consumers and investors, Oxfam launches the Behind the Brands/ Behind the Barcodes campaign, calling on the world’s biggest food producers to cut emissions. 238,000 people support the campaign and Kellogg's and General Mills commit to significant reductions. Other food production companies follow.
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Funding for Climate Adaptation
Oxfam plays a key role in securing a commitment for 50% of the Green Climate Fund to be allocated to much-needed climate adaptation. The UK is the first country in the world to commit 50% of its climate finance to adaptation.
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Calling time on coal
Oxfam's campaigning helps secure the UK’s commitment to phase out coal by 2025 and the historic decision by the European Investment Bank to end all fossil fuel lending.
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Thousands march during COP26 in Glasgow
During COP26 in Glasgow, hundreds of thousands of people marched through cities, signed petitions, and took action, to persuade world leaders that we must prevent catastrophic global temperature rise, now.
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Calling for a Loss & Damage fund
Elizabeth Wathuti and Oxfam campaign together to call for a Loss & Damage fund.