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Reports

Arming Injustice with Impunity – How support for Israel’s illegal occupation and militarization undermines States’ commitments to gender equality and the WPS Agenda

Twenty-five years after the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda, women in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) have no peace and no security. The agenda promised a new era of elevating women’s voices in conflict and peacebuilding, a transformative vision of gender equality and feminist peace. But the reality for Palestinian women and girls has been daily, brutal violence for decades under Israel’s prolonged illegal occupation, culminating in the genocide we are witnessing today. Indeed, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women described the situation in Gaza as an unfolding ‘femi-genocide’ due to the crimes inflicted on women and girls by Israeli forces.

The briefing paper highlights how the WPS Agenda has failed to confront two major obstacles to peace for Palestinian women: the arming of Israel and militarization; and the unlawful occupation of the OPT which, sustained by international support and a lack of accountability, continues to erode Palestinian women and girls’ rights, protection, and participation in political and public life. It notes that the WPS agenda has at times been understood in relatively narrow terms and calls for States signed up to the agenda to take a wider lens and address the broader political, military and legal context that disproportionately impacts Palestinian women and girls.

Notes to Editors:

Download Arming Injustice with Impunity report here.

Contact information:

For more information, please contact: [email protected]

“Keep Up the Good Work” – Oxfam Aotearoa Calls on Government to Renew Climate Finance Commitment

As world leaders prepare to gather for global climate talks, Oxfam Aotearoa has launched a new report showing the positive difference that climate funding from New Zealand has made since the support was boosted from 2022.’

Oxfam in the Pacific’s Climate Justice Lead, Lote Rusaqoli, said:

“Aotearoa New Zealand has long been a leader on the global climate stage, setting the benchmark for other wealthy nations by providing all of its climate finance as grants and not loans – a move that has been incredibly beneficial for Pacific Islanders who continue to feel the worst of the climate crisis. As we approach 2026, we urge Aotearoa New Zealand to renew their climate finance commitments to help boost the Pacific’s resilience to disasters, tackle poverty, and reinforce its leadership on climate justice.”

Oxfam Aotearoa Executive Director, Jason Myers, said:

“In 2021, the New Zealand government announced its biggest climate finance contribution to date. This has enabled communities all over the Pacific to maintain resilience in the face of the climate crisis. With no further funding for climate finance announced in the 2024 or 2025 budgets, critical projects have had to begin closing out. Keeping our promise to fund climate action has become urgent and the New Zealand government must act now to renew funding. Pacific livelihoods depend on it.”

Report author, Oxfam Aotearoa’s Climate Justice Lead, Nick Henry, said:

“New Zealand’s funding for climate action has benefited tens of thousands of people across the Pacific, but runs out at the end of next month. Our message to Government is simple: we need to keep up the good work.

New Zealand must keep our promise to help our Pacific neighbours, who have done nothing to cause the climate crisis, but are already feeling the worst of the effects.

Our report shows how New Zealand’s climate funding has generated enormous goodwill and positive relationships with governments and communities in the Pacific and beyond. If we continue the trend of ramping up funding for climate action, New Zealand could be on track to meet our fair share of the assistance promised to lower-income countries, including here in the Pacific.”

NOTES FOR EDITORS:

  • Full report: Pacific Resilience: How funding for climate action strengthens our region link

  • The report includes new calculations, based on data published by MFAT, showing that New Zealand’s climate finance programme has exceeded its targets to deliver the majority of funding in the Pacific, with at least 50% supporting adaptation to climate change. The report analyses New Zealand’s climate finance since 2022 and shows that:

    • 59% of programme has been delivered in the Pacific.

    • 87% supports adaptation.

    •  57% has a significant gender-equality component.

Contact information:

For more information contact:

Nick Henry, Climate Justice Lead, Oxfam Aotearoa: [email protected]

A person from the richest 0.1% produces more carbon pollution in a day than someone in the bottom 50% produces all year

  • Since 1990, the richest 0.1% have increased their share of total emissions by 32%, whilst the poorest half of humanity have actually seen their share fall by 3%.

  • If everyone emitted carbon like the richest 0.1%, the carbon budget – the amount of CO2 that can be emitted while avoiding climate disaster – would be used up in less than 3 weeks.

  • To stay within the limits of the 1.5°C threshold, the richest 0.1% would need to cut their per capita emissions by 99% by 2030. 

  • A person from the world’s richest 0.1% emits over 800 kg of CO2 every day. Even the strongest person on earth could not lift this much. In contrast, someone from the poorest 50% of the world emits an average of just 2 kg of CO2 per day, which even a small child could lift.

Ahead of the major international climate conference COP30 in Belem, Brazil, new Oxfam research finds that the high-carbon lifestyles of the super-rich are blowing through the world’s remaining carbon budget – the amount of CO2 that can be emitted while avoiding climate disaster. The research also details how billionaires are using their political and economic influence to keep humanity hooked on fossil fuels to maximize their private profit. 

The report, “Climate Plunder: How a powerful few are locking the world into disaster”, presents extensive new updated data and analysis which finds that a person from the richest 0.1% produces more carbon pollution in a day than the poorest 50% emit all year. If everyone emitted like the richest 0.1%, the carbon budget would be used up in less than 3 weeks. 

The super-rich are not just overconsuming carbon, but also actively investing in and profiting from the most polluting corporations. Oxfam’s research finds that the average billionaire produces 1.9 million tonnes of CO2e a year through their investments. These billionaires would have to circumnavigate the world almost 10,000 times in their private jets to emit this much. Almost 60% of billionaire investments are classified as being in high climate impact sectors such as oil or mining, meaning their investments emit two and a half times more than an average investment in the S&P Global 1,200. The emissions of the investment portfolios of just 308 billionaires total more than the combined emissions of 118 countries. 

“The climate crisis is an inequality crisis. The very richest individuals in the world are funding and profiting from climate destruction, leaving the global majority to bear the fatal consequences of their unchecked power,” said Amitabh Behar, Executive Director of Oxfam International. 

The power and wealth of super-rich individuals and corporations have also allowed them to wield unjust influence over policymaking and water down climate negotiations. At COP29, 1,773 coal, oil, and gas lobbyists were granted badges, more than the 10 most climate-vulnerable nations combined. Multiple rich and high-emitting countries including the US, UK, France and Germany have watered down climate laws after large donations from anti-climate lobbyists.   

“It is a travesty that power and wealth have been allowed to accumulate in the hands of a few, who are only using it to further entrench their influence and lock us all into a path to planetary destruction. The super-rich and the corporations they run have a deadly track record of bankrolling lobbyists, spreading climate disinformation, and suing NGOs and governments that try to stand in their way. We must break the chokehold of the super-rich over climate policy by taxing their extreme wealth, banning their lobbying and instead put those most affected by the climate crisis in the front seat of climate decision-making,” said Behar. 

The emissions of the richest 1% are enough to cause an estimated 1.3 million heat-related deaths by the end of the century, as well as $44 trillion of economic damage to low- and lower-middle-income countries by 2050. The impacts of these climate damages will disproportionately impact those who have done the least to cause the climate crisis, particularly people living in the Global South, women, girls and Indigenous groups. 

COP30 marks ten years since the Paris Agreement in 2015. During this period, the world’s richest 1% have burnt through more than twice as much of the carbon budget than the poorest half of humanity combined 

Ahead of COP30, Oxfam calls on governments to cut the emissions and dismantle the political and economic power of the super-rich through: 

  • Slashing the emissions of the super-rich and make the richest polluters pay, through taxation on extreme wealth, excess profits taxes on fossil fuel corporations, and supporting the UN Convention on International Tax Cooperation. A 60% tax on the total incomes of the richest 1% globally could cut carbon emissions equivalent to the total emissions of the UK and generate in the region of $6.4 trillion.

  • Curbing the economic and political influence of the richest by banning fossil fuel corporations from climate negotiations such as COP, implementing sustainability regulations for corporations and financial institutions, and rejecting trade and investment agreements like investor-state dispute settlements (ISDS) that put the interests of the super-wealthy above public good.

  • Strengthening the participation of civil society and Indigenous groups in climate negotiations and address the unequal impacts of climate change.

  • Adopting a fair-share approach to the remaining climate budget by committing to nationally determined contributions (NDCs) that reflect historical responsibility and capacity to act, and ensuring rich countries deliver ambitious climate finance.

  • Building an equal economic system that puts people and planet first by rejecting dominant neoliberal economics and moving towards an economy based on sustainability and equality. 

Notes to editors

Download – Climate Plunder: How a powerful few are locking the world into disaster

The Stockholm Environment Institute’s Emissions Inequality Dashboard is also available for consultation. 

Oxfam has launched a global petition to Make Rich Polluters Pay. 

Contact information:

Rachel Schaevitz, Head of Communication, Media, & Advocacy: [email protected]

Climate Plunder: How a powerful few are locking the world into disaster

Ahead of the major international climate conference COP30 in Belem, Brazil, new Oxfam research finds that the high-carbon lifestyles of the super-rich are blowing through the world’s remaining carbon budget – the amount of CO2 that can be emitted while avoiding climate disaster. The research also details how billionaires are using their political and economic influence to keep humanity hooked on fossil fuels to maximize their private profit.

The report, Climate Plunder: How a powerful few are locking the world into disaster, presents extensive new updated data and analysis which finds that a person from the richest 0.1% produces more carbon pollution in a day than the poorest 50% emit all year. If everyone emitted like the richest 0.1%, the carbon budget would be used up in less than 3 weeks.

View report here – Climate Plunder: How a powerful few are locking the world into disaster

Contact information:

For more details, please contact: [email protected]

25 years on from UN pledge, local women’s rights organisations and peacebuilders get just 0.1% of aid as donors pour billions into arms

The same governments that pledged support in 2000 to the UN’s flagship resolution on “Women, Peace and Security” (WPS) have since spent 25 years paying it lip-service, according to a new Oxfam report today that reviews its progress.

The report called “Beyond Rhetoric” shows that while military spending has risen by $1.5 trillion in 84 countries in 2024, aid for gender equality and peace fell by 7.1%. Women’s organizations are now getting less than half a cent of every dollar of aid.

Amina Hersi, Oxfam’s Head of Gender, Rights and Justice, said: “Feminist-led peace hasn’t failed – it has been betrayed”.

“A generation after world leaders promised women a seat at the table, the same powerful states that authored the blueprint have simply not backed it properly. Women peacebuilders are being left to nurture shattered communities, shouldering most of the responsibility but without enough political space or financial backing to do so.”

Oxfam warns that promises made toward securing women’s leadership in peace and security building are collapsing.

Case studies from Colombia, the DRC, the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), and South Sudan find that national action plans remain mostly empty pledges, even as rising militarization means that important women rights actors and peacebuilders become further sidelined.

NATO members alone have increased defence spending by $159 billion over the past decade, while global funding for gender-responsive peace has flatlined and is now in freefall.

The same NATO powers touting feminist foreign policies and National Action Plans on WPS —including Canada, the US, the UK and France — along with the UN Security Council, have largely failed to act in the face of atrocities in the DRC, the OPT, South Sudan and beyond.

Funding for global gender, conflict, peace and security aid only accounts for just 2.6 per cent ($7.5 billion) of total ODA ($289 billion). Of the $148 million in global gender, peace and security aid that went to women’s rights in 2023, only $4.7 million – 3.1% – actually reached local women rights organisations. More starkly, between 2014 and 2023, just 0.1 per cent of overall ODA reached women’s rights and women-led organisations directly; while cuts in 2025 threaten to close almost half of such organisations in crisis settings within months.

Attacks on women and girls during conflicts have soared. Verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence rose by 50% in 2023 while the incidence of grave violations against girls increased 35%. The report also highlights:

  • In Colombia, over 180 women human rights defenders were killed in 2023 alone, and the gender provisions in its own peace accord remain among the least implemented.

  • In DRC, only 13% of parliamentary seats are held by women, and there is evidence of high levels of conflict related sexual and gender-based violence and displacement fuelled by mineral extraction and widespread militarisation and conflict.

  • In OPT, Israel’s genocide in Gaza and violent repression in the West Bank, on top of decades of illegal occupation, has resulted in severe violations of the rights and lives of women. These violations include sexual and gender-based violence perpetrated by Israeli forces, as well as restrictions imposed by Israeli authorities, such as military checkpoints and the destruction of health infrastructure, that have denied women access to essential reproductive healthcare and violated their reproductive rights.

  • In South Sudan, women’s 35% political quota has not translated into genuine influence, amid repression and pervasive sexual and gender-based violence used as a weapon of war.  

“Feminist peace is a political imperative, not an optional extra. Unless governments change course now, the WPS agenda will be remembered as just another broken promise,” said Hersi.

“The real contribution of the WPS agenda is not only about including women in peace processes, but instead a fundamental challenge to transform unequal power structures. This is a process that continues to be led from the ground by feminist actors, often at great personal risk.”

Following the UN Security Council’s Annual Open Debate on Women Peace and Security, Oxfam is calling for member states to deliver a radical reset and redirect some of their military spending toward peacebuilding.

They should guarantee that at least half of WPS funding goes directly to grassroots women’s rights organisations. They should also do more to enforce accountability for those responsible for genocide, war crimes and sexual and gender-based violence.

“The WPS agenda remains an essential tool for women peacebuilders, women’s rights and feminist actors,” Hersi said.

“Whether it survives as a force for justice depends on the global community backing its principles with the resources and political will to make that potential real. Without this happening, the 25th anniversary of the UN Resolution on Women, Peace and Security will be a mark of its decline, not its maturity.”

Notes to the editor

Contact information:

Rachel Schaevitz, Head of Communications, Media & Advocacy: [email protected]  

Two thirds of climate funding for Global South is loans as rich countries profiteer from escalating climate crisis

New research by Oxfam and CARE Climate Justice Centre, published today, finds developing countries are now paying more back to wealthy nations for climate finance loans than they receive- for every 5 dollars they receive they are paying 7 dollars back. 65% of funding is delivered in the form of loans.  

This form of crisis profiteering by rich countries is worsening debt burdens and hindering climate action. Compounding this failure, deep cuts to foreign aid threaten to slash climate finance further, betraying the world’s poorest communities who are facing the brunt of escalating climate disasters. 

Some key findings of the report: 

  • Rich countries claim to have mobilized $116 billion in climate finance 2022, but the true value is only around $28-35 billion, less than a third of the pledged amount. 

  • Nearly two thirds of climate finance was made as loans, often at standard rates of interest without concessions. As a result, climate finance is adding more each year to developing countries’ debt, which now stands at $3.3 trillion. Countries like France, Japan, and Italy are among the worst culprits.  

  • Least Developed Countries got only 19.5% and Small Island Developing States 2.9% of total public climate finance over 2021-2022 and half of that was in the form of loans they have to repay.  

  • Developed nations are profiting from these loans, with repayments outstripping disbursements. In 2022, developing countries received $62 billion in climate loans. We estimate these loans to lead to repayments of up to $88 billion, resulting in a 42% “profit” for creditors. 

  • Only 3% of finance specifically aimed at enhancing gender equality, despite the climate crisis disproportionately impacting women and girls. 

Oxfam Aoteraoa’s Climate Justice Lead, Nick Henry said: “New Zealand does well in providing all of our climate finance as grants rather than loans, setting an example for other rich countries to follow.” 

“Rich countries are treating the climate crisis as a business opportunity, not a moral obligation,” said Oxfam’s Climate Policy Lead, Nafkote Dabi. “They are lending money to the very people they have historically harmed, trapping vulnerable nations in a cycle of debt. This is a form of crisis profiteering.” 

This failure is occurring as rich countries are conducting the most vicious foreign aid cuts since the 1960s. Data by the OECD shows a 9% drop in 2024, with 2025 projections signalling a further 9–17% cut. 

As the impacts of fossil fuelled climate disasters intensify —displacing millions of people in the Horn of Africa, battering 13 million more in the Philippines, and flooding 600,000 people in Brazil in 2024 alone – communities in low-income countries are left with fewer resources to adapt to the rapidly changing climate. 

“Rich countries are failing on climate finance and they have nothing like a plan to live up to their commitments to increase support. In fact, many wealthy countries are gutting aid, leaving the poorest to pay the price, sometimes with their lives” said John Nordbo, Senior Climate Advisor at CARE Denmark. “COP30 must deliver justice, not another round of empty promises.” 

“New Zealand’s climate finance commitment is due to run out at the end of this year and urgently needs to be renewed. Pacific communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis need and deserve our ongoing support” said Nick Henry. 

Adaptation funding is also critically underfunded, receiving only 33% of climate finance as investors favour mitigation projects with more immediate financial returns.  

Ahead of COP30, Oxfam and CARE are calling on rich countries to: 

  • Live up to climate finance commitments: Provide the full $600 billion for 2020–2025 and clearly outline how they plan to scale-up to the agreed $300 billion annually, and lead on the $1.3 trillion Baku to Belém roadmap. 

  • Stop crisis profiteering: Drastically increase the share of grants and highly concessional finance to prevent further indebting the world’s most climate-vulnerable communities. 

  • Multiply adaptation finance: Commit to at least triple adaptation finance by 2030, using the COP26 goal to double adaptation financing by 2025 as a baseline. 

  • Provide finance for loss and damage: The global Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage must be adequately capitalized. Victims of climate change must nor continue to be ignored. 

  • Mobilize new sources of finance: Raise funds by taxing the super-rich, which in OECD countries alone can raise $1.2 trillion a year, and the excess profit of fossil fuel companies globally, which could raise $400bn per year annually. 

Notes to Editors  

Download the report. 

Methodology note.   

The CARE Climate Justice Center (CJC) leads and coordinates the integration of climate justice and resilience across CARE International’s development and humanitarian work. The CJC is an initiative powered by CARE Denmark, CARE France, CARE Germany, CARE Netherlands, and CARE International UK. To learn more, visit www.careclimatechange.org 

Results of a global survey by Oxfam International and Greenpeace show 8 out of 10 people support paying for public services and climate action through taxing the super-rich. The research was conducted by first party data company Dynata in May-June 2025, in Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Kenya, Italy, India, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa, Spain, the UK and the US. The survey had approximately 1200 respondents per country, with a margin of error of +-2.83%. Together, these countries represent close to half the world’s population. See the results here. 

Contact information:

For interviews or further information, please contact: 

Rachel Schaevitz, Head of Communications, Media & Advocacy: [email protected]