What we're doing
-
We are responding fast to communities hit by the climate crisis
Extreme weather is destroying homes and wrecking lives. When disaster strikes, Oxfam, partners and volunteers get there fast, working to save lives and help people stay safe for the future.
-
We are helping people adapt to climate change, today and tomorrow
Innovations like drought-resistant seeds, reinforced homes, and training on how to grow new crops mean the people most at risk from the effects of climate change can carry on living, earning and learning, whatever the future brings.
-
We are holding the most powerful to account
Governments and companies have promised to tackle the climate crisis and protect the people it hits hardest. We help make sure the people facing the climate crisis get the support they need, and the people in power are held to account.
The impact of our work
Irrigation for the future
In Nyanyadzi, Zimbabwe, farmers are challenged by climate change. They face repeated droughts and flash floods threatening harvest and crops.
With the United Nations Development Programme and the Southern Alliance for Indigenous Resources, Oxfam supported people to build gabions, which act as silt traps, and rehabilitate the irrigation scheme with the farmers of Nyanyadzi.
The Nyanyadzi river feeds a gravity-powered irrigation scheme. It is regulated by gates to control the water flow. More than 400 hectares of fields are irrigated, reaching over 720 farmers.
Fighting for climate justice
-
An early signal on climate change
Oxfam publishes Weather Alert! - a report establishing a connection between unusual weather patterns and the negative impacts of a hidden climate crisis on the world’s poorest people.
-
People and polar bears
Oxfam campaigners from around the world come together at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali. Dressed as polar bears and carrying ‘Save the humans’ placards, they highlight the impact of climate change on humans as well as the natural world.
-
Global Climate Hearings
In the run up to climate conference COP15 in Copenhagen, Oxfam convenes ‘climate hearings’ where people from around the world come together to testify to the impact of climate change on their lives. Thousands of people participate globally, sending a unified, urgent message on climate change to the world.
-
Challenging food companies
Together with farmers, consumers and investors, Oxfam launches the Behind the Brands/ Behind the Barcodes campaign, calling on the world’s biggest food producers to cut emissions. 238,000 people support the campaign and Kellogg's and General Mills commit to significant reductions. Other food production companies follow.
-
Funding for Climate Adaptation
Oxfam plays a key role in securing a commitment for 50% of the Green Climate Fund to be allocated to much-needed climate adaptation. The UK is the first country in the world to commit 50% of its climate finance to adaptation.
-
Calling time on coal
Oxfam's campaigning helps secure the UK’s commitment to phase out coal by 2025 and the historic decision by the European Investment Bank to end all fossil fuel lending.
-
Thousands march during COP26 in Glasgow
During COP26 in Glasgow, hundreds of thousands of people marched through cities, signed petitions, and took action, to persuade world leaders that we must prevent catastrophic global temperature rise, now.