Copenhagen 2009 – it’s now or now!

Climate change costs lives

Climate change is happening, right now. And it’s the world’s poorest people – those least responsible for causing it – who are paying the heaviest price. Climate change is making extreme weather events like floods more frequent and intense. It’s playing havoc with traditional farming seasons, causing crops to fail and animals to die. In short, it’s making life even more of a struggle for millions of people.

Let’s sort it

Poor people are taking stock of this new reality, and adapting their lives to it. Oxfam is supporting their initiatives: protecting homes and raising wells and latrines to prevent contamination during floods; working with farmers to grow drought-resistant crops; and helping communities develop plans to cope in emergencies. But what’s needed now is a global deal which puts the poorest people first.

Here and now

The UN climate change conference in Copenhagen this December is the time and place to strike a fair and safe deal. It’s no exaggeration to say that the outcome of Copenhagen will affect everyone on the planet. Future generations will live with the consequences of decisions taken at this meeting. With the right deal signed and sealed at Copenhagen, the world will be able to emit a giant sigh of relief. And the future will look a lot brighter. For all of us.

What the world needs from Copenhagen

Action: A commitment to a rapid and significant reduction of greenhouse gases, with rich nations reducing emissions by at least 40 per cent by 2020.

Cash: $150bn must be made available for poor countries to adapt to the immediate impact of climate change and to develop in a sustainable way.

Justice: Rich countries must take most responsibility for the problem they did most to create.

Why the world can’t wait

250 million people in Africa who could be facing water shortages by 2020 as a result of climate change.*

Sea levels could rise 50cm by the end of the 21st century, exposing millions more people to flooding.*

There will be 150 million ‘climate refugees’ by 2050 if global temperatures continue to rise unabated. And that’s a conservative estimate.*

Oxfam is already helping people adapt to the effects of climate change in 20 percent of the countries we work in.

* Source: UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, 2007.

Climate change costs lives. Do something Here and Now