Oxfam’s Climate Equality Report

GS Paper III Environment and Ecology

Context:

Recently, Oxfam International released the “Climate equality: A planet for the 99%” report.

Crisis: The world faces twin crises of climate breakdown and runaway inequality.
- The richest people, corporations and countries are destroying the world with their huge carbon emissions.
- People living in poverty and countries in the Global South are those impacted the hardest. Unequal Impact on People: Women and girls, indigenous peoples, people living in poverty and other groups experien
- cing discrimination are particularly at a disadvantage.
Unequal Safeguards: The consequences of climate breakdown are felt in all parts of the world and by most people, yet only the richest people and countries have the wealth, power and influence to protect themselves.

About Global South:

Global South refers to various countries around the world that are sometimes described as ‘developing’, ‘less developed’ or ‘underdeveloped’.
Regional Spread: Many of the Global South countries are in the Southern Hemisphere, largely in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Geopolitics Context: The term ‘Global South’ is not geographical. In fact, the Global South’s two largest countries viz. India and China lie entirely in the Northern Hemisphere.
- Its usage denotes a mix of political, geopolitical and economic commonalities between nations.

Also Read: Global South Summit

Annual Global Emissions: The emissions of the super-rich 1% was cancelling out the carbon savings from almost a million onshore wind turbines.
- The richest 1% of the world’s people emitted as much carbon as the poorest 5 billion who make up 66% of the global population.
- The emissions of the 1% are set to be over 22 times more than the safe limit (the emissions allowed if we are to stay below 1.5 degrees Celsius global warming) in 2030.
Unequal Burden: The countries that are least responsible for global warming are suffering the worst consequences of the climate crisis and also the least able to respond and recover.
- Most Vulnerable Countries: Located in Africa, South Asia, Central and South America, Small Island Developing States and the Arctic.

Origin: In 1995 a group of independent non-governmental organisations formed Oxfam International to share knowledge and resources and combine their efforts in the fight against poverty and injustice.
Works: Located in about 70 countries to save and protect lives in emergencies, help people rebuild their livelihoods and campaign for genuine, lasting change, keeping women’s rights at the heart of everything they do.
Member Organisation: There are 21 member organisations of the Oxfam International confederation.
- They are based in: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Ireland, India, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Quebec, South Africa, Spain, Turkey and United States.