Climate Justice Appeal

When Cyclone Freddy arrived in March 2023, it left thousands of people homeless. Lasting over five weeks, it was the world’s longest-lasting cyclone, severely damaging homes, crops, roads, schools and hospitals. Ligineti and her grandson lost their home.

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.