Tag: Oxfam

Hunger skyrockets by nearly 80 percent in Eastern and Southern Africa over past five years amidst worsening water crisis

Stuart Mitchell

The climate crisis has dramatically worsened water scarcity in Eastern and Southern Africa over the past few decades, leaving nearly 116 million people – or 40 percent of the population – without safe drinking water, according to a new Oxfam report. Climate change is supercharging extreme weather events like droughts, cyclones and flash floods, and has led to the disappearance of more than 90 percent of Africa’s tropical glaciers and the depletion of groundwater. This has had knock-on effects on Africa’s small-scale farmers, pastoralists and fisherpersons leaving millions without basic…

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Richest 1% use their entire annual carbon limit in just 10 days

Stuart Mitchell

The richest 1% have used their share of the annual global carbon budget —the amount of CO2 that can be added to the atmosphere without pushing the world beyond 1.5°C of warming— within the first 10 days of 2025, new Oxfam analysis reveals. In stark contrast, it would take someone from the poorest half of the global population nearly three years (1,022 days) to use up their share of the annual global carbon budget. This alarming milestone, dubbed “Pollutocrat Day” by Oxfam, a global organization that fights inequality to end…

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Oxfam’s work reached 1.2 million more people last year despite drop in income

Stuart Mitchell

Oxfam GB’s work with communities to build a fairer world reached almost 11 million people in 2023/24, an increase of 1.2 million on the previous year, despite a drop in overall income. The international organisation’s annual report, published today, shows that income for the year to end of March 2024 dropped to £368 million, from £400.6 million in the previous financial year. The fall is mostly due to the fact there were two major fundraising appeals in 2022/23 – for the Türkiye Syria earthquake and Pakistan floods – which bolstered…

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Billionaires emit more carbon pollution in 90 minutes than the average person does in a lifetime

Stuart Mitchell

Fifty of the world’s richest billionaires on average produce more carbon through their investments, private jets and yachts in just over an hour and a half than the average person does in their entire lifetime, a new Oxfam report reveals today. The first-of-its-kind study, “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. The report comes ahead of COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, amidst growing fears that climate breakdown is accelerating, driven largely…

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Buying one pair of second-hand jeans and a t-shirt could save equivalent of 20,000 bottles of water – Oxfam

Stuart Mitchell

Buying just one pair of jeans and a t-shirt second-hand could help save the equivalent of 20,000 standard bottles of water, new Oxfam analysis reveals. The findings come as Oxfam launches its sixth Second Hand September campaign to encourage people to shop preloved and donate their unwanted clothes to help reduce the need for new clothes. The garment industry has an enormous water footprint that is straining the planet’s limited water resources. The total water footprint of clothing used in the UK annually is eight billion cubic metres, enough to…

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