Climate Justice Appeal

For women and girls, the climate crisis means they’re more likely to go hungry, or to walk further to collect water, putting their own safety at risk.

In the Mekong River Basin, Cambodia, climate change is causing extreme and unpredictable flash flooding and droughts. It’s ruining crops and disrupting the lives of more than 65 million people like who live there.

On average, women who live in rural areas account for nearly half the agricultural workforce in the global south. In the Mekong River Basin, Vantha is a farmer who has seen livelihoods devastated by flash flooding, drought and changing river flows.

Together with Oxfam partner Northeastern Rural Development Organization (NRD) she’s set up a greenhouse with her family, growing crops they can sell. They now also have a new water system in the greenhouse, which means crops can grow crops all year round.

The NRD programme is helping many people in Vantha’s community to build climate resilience, so they’re better prepared for extreme weather and can protect their livelihoods.

Siphon has been working as a volunteer for the last seven years in the community fishery management committee (CFMC), in the Boeng Santhov Lake in Cambodia.

Siphon’s dedication, along with the Oxfam-supported CFMC, helped her make real change against the pollution and loss of habitat in the lake.

Siphon’s campaigning voice started to make a difference, but the challenge was far from over.

Siphon and her community continue to be relentless in their fight to protect their community, the environment and their livelihoods. Their voices are finally being heard.

It’s not fair that our ability to cope with the climate crisis is based on where we live, the resources we have available, and the value society places on our lives.

In 2017, Oxfam found a concerning trend over the last ten years. There have been more weather-related disasters, and this has become the number one reason for internal displacement.

This has resulted in more than 20 million people being forced to leave their homes every year. That’s like one person every two seconds.

Wealthy countries have contributed most to the climate crisis and have the most resources to address it.

In 2019, the super-rich 1% were responsible for 16% of global carbon emissions, which is the same as the emissions of the 66% of lowest-income people (5 billion people).

It’s a shocking fact. But even more shocking is that the richest 1% burned through twice as much of the carbon budget as the lowest-income half of humanity combined.

Oxfam is unravelling this web of injustice, thread by thread – and calling on wealthy countries to:

• Make the biggest and wealthiest polluters pay the highest price for their climate-wrecking behaviour. They can start by taxing high-polluting luxuries like private jets to help pay for their climate destruction.
• Reduce their greenhouse emissions the fastest and furthest, particularly by replacing fossil fuels with cleaner energy sources.
• Provide financial and technical support to low-emitting, lower-income countries that have contributed the least crisis and lack resources.