Centuries of human development will be halted and then reversed by climate change unless world leaders take major steps now towards agreeing a fair global deal, Oxfam warned in a new report today.

UN climate negotiations begin in Poznan, Poland, today and EU is also expected to finalise its energy package this month. These moments must mark a turning point in efforts to tackle climate change and protect billions of people from the poverty and suffering it will cause, said Oxfam.

The UK has real chance to show global leadership on climate, having signed a world-leading Climate Change Act into law last week. Adair Turner’s Committee on Climate Change today publishes its final report, which is expected to set UK carbon budgets for the next 15 years and advise ministers on how to meet them. Ed Miliband, Energy and Climate Change Secretary, and the rest of the UK ministerial delegation are expected to arrive in Poland on 10 December.

 At Poznan negotiators must agree, at a minimum:

- To cut emissions by at least 80% below 1990 levels by 2050 in order to try to limit warming to below 2°C

- That rich countries must cut emissions first and furthest in line with their historic responsibility for causing climate change and their capacity to tackle it

- To provide at least $50 billion a year to help developing countries adapt to climate change

Failure to keep warming below 2°C will have catastrophic effects, says Oxfam’s report, Climate, Poverty and Justice . Hunger would kill up to three million more people every year and two billion people would be likely to be affected by water shortages. If global temperatures were allowed to climb above 3°C, billions of people would be affected by severe water stress, crop yields would fall drastically around the world and entire regions would become non-viable for agriculture.

Global emissions have been rising faster in recent years than even worst-case scenario climate modelling has predicted. Climate change is already impacting on millions of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. For example, in Uganda, unpredictable weather patterns mean farmers are gambling when to sow seeds, risking having them washed away by torrential rains or dry up in drought. In Bangladesh, rising flood levels are washing away crops and homes and the salinisation of land is making it harder to grow crops and water unsafe to drink.

Phil Bloomer, Oxfam Campaigns and Policy Director, said: “We have the knowledge, resources and technology to tackle climate change and avert worst-case scenarios - if we choose to do so. What we lack is the political will, and progress so far has been wholly inadequate.

“The UK Government can play a central role in changing that. We need to see even greater political urgency and leadership now to push for a good climate change deal than we saw in the face of the global financial crisis. The world only has a narrow window of opportunity to act.

“Governments must not forget they are negotiating over the lives and livelihoods of billions of people. Any level of global warming that would inevitably make large land areas uninhabitable, destroy the livelihoods of whole societies, lead to the loss of island nations and leave populations no other option but to migrate, is not acceptable.”

/ENDS

For further informationIn the UK: Jon Slater 07876 476403/ jslater@oxfam.org.uk

In Poznan: Lucy Brinicombe +44 (0)7786 110054 / +48 728 637 768 / lbrinicombe@oxfam.org.ok

More from the Oxfam Press Office at http://www.oxfam.org.uk/news