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Every country must cut emissions to avoid hunger: Oxfam
A UK-based international development agency says every country must be part of the global effort to keep climate change under control, but that it needed to be fair, based on responsibility and capability
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UK-based international development agency says every country must be part of the global effort to keep climate change under control, but that it needed to be fair, based on responsibility and capability.
Oxfam said that rich countries must make the deepest cuts in emissions and support poor countries so they could switch to low-carbon development and adapt to worsening impacts. At the same time, emerging economies with growing responsibility and capabilities must step up their efforts to cut emissions.
Since most of the world's poorest people live in middle-income countries, governments must make sure that internally, cuts are borne more fairly by the wealthy, Oxfam further said.
'The impact of climate change on the world's food supply is clear. The race is now on cutting emissions so that every country plays its fair part,' Oxfam executive director Winnie Byanyima said in a release made available to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
She further said: 'Rich countries are responsible for most emissions and must lead the way in cutting emissions to levels that will avoid more hunger and suffering.'
The statement was issued in welcoming the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) meeting that opened in Berlin on Monday. The meeting is aimed at finalizing its landmark report on cutting global emissions.
The meeting comes just a week after it met in Japan, where governments acknowledged that climate change would have bigger impacts on food production than stated in the IPCC's previous report seven years ago.
'The IPCC mitigation report is expected to state that it is still possible to keep warming below 2 Celsius degrees but only if deeper cuts are made quickly,' Oxfam said.
The European Union is currently considering cuts of 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, but it is deemed not enough of its share to avoid warming of above 2 degrees.
'Oxfam is calling on the EU to increase its cut to at least 55 percent.' (ebf)
