Working together to end poverty and injustice

Climate change costs lives

Climate change is already having a devastating impact on people's lives, and poor communities in developing countries are being hit first and worst.

Extreme weather events and fluctuating seasons are destroying homes, crops and water sources - pushing people backwards as they strive for progress. A fair deal on climate change cannot come fast enough for the world's poorest people.

Oxfam at the UN climate change summit, Durban, Dec 2011

Representatives from Oxfam International, the global confederation of Oxfams that includes New Zealand, will be attending this year’s UN Climate Summit in Durban, South Africa . There are some obvious and achievable steps that governments must take to ensure progress is made. Oxfam believes that climate change is a global problem, requiring a global solution – a UN deal that is fair to both rich and poor countries.

See how Oxfam is taking action in Durban.

Why is Oxfam calling for urgent action on climate change?

Because it’s about people.

Climate change is one of the greatest injustices of our time – the first hit and worst affected are the people who have done the least to cause the problem, and are least equipped to deal with it.

Our Pacific neighbours living in some of the world’s lowest-lying countries are particularly vulnerable. Rising sea levels, king tides and storm surges are threatening to make their homelands uninhabitable.

• Read personal accounts of how climate change is hitting people in developing countries first and worst.

What is Oxfam calling for on climate change?

Climate change needs a global solution. Oxfam is part of the tck tck tck global campaign, calling for an ambitious, fair and legally binding climate change treaty. In particular, we're asking that developed countries:

• provide the money and technology needed, independent of existing aid commitments, to help vulnerable people in poor countries adapt to changing climates.
• reduce emissions to at least 40% below 1990 levels by 2020.
• work within the United Nations to ensure that the needs of the world’s poorest people are at the heart of a new global climate change deal.

What you can do

The world needs your help! We still need a fair deal that stops climate change in its tracks and adequately deals with the unavoidable effects, which are hitting poor countries first and worst.

• Sign up to our campaign alerts and be the first to hear about our current campaigns and actions.
• Other ways you can make a difference.

What is Oxfam doing?

Oxfam is working to help poor communities adapt to climate change through new technologies, diversifying livelihoods and disaster risk reduction.

We are also advocating for international action to stop the worst climate change impacts from happening and to help vulnerable communities protect themselves from the unavoidable effects. This includes:

• Taking a leadership role at the UN meetings on climate change by calling for an ambitious, fair and legally binding global climate agreement that puts the needs of the world’s poorest people at its heart.
• Proposing an innovative way to generate the funding that poor people need to lower their own emissions and cope with climate change through an international Financial Transaction Tax, also referred to as a Robin Hood Tax.
• Giving people a voice: Climate Hearings are events that give people who are suffering the impact of climate change the chance to make their voices heard locally, nationally and globally. In 2009, Oxfam supported Climate Hearings in over 36 countries, involving more than 1.6 million people. In 2010, we supported a number of hearings in Ethiopia, Kenya, Brazil and the Philippines.
• Committing to an Environmental Sustainability Programme to reduce our own emissions and impact on the environment.

Find out more about climate change

• Learn how climate change affects the entire global economy.
• Read more killer facts on the impact of climate change.