**Oxfam reaches out to UK Asian Community to join its Here and Now Climate Campaign**
Oxfam today (Monday 27 April, 11:00 GMT)  called on Asian communities in the UK to take a leading role in the global movement against climate change. With people in Bangladesh and India currently among the worst affected, Oxfam is urging the Asian community to join its Here and Now campaign and ensure the interest of these communities are at the heart of international treaty negotiations on climate change this December.

Oxfam's recent report The Right to Survive has revealed a 54 per cent increase in people suffering as a result of climate disasters by 2015, a staggering 375 million people, unless action is taken now. With Bangladesh already struggling to cope, this increase could overwhelm emergency responses and dwarf the international community's ability to respond quickly and effectively.

Flooding, cyclones and droughts are already hitting poor communities in Asia hard, together with hotter temperatures, erratic rains and disrupted planting seasons. In Bangladesh, frequent flooding has been aggravated above normal levels, last year alone affecting over nine million people. In India floods have waterlogged acres of land, destroying crops and overwhelming drainage and irrigation systems. Likewise, communities in the South Punjab in Pakistan are facing increasing problems due to flooding and aid groups in the region are predicting increasing losses of land and safe water.

UN talks in Copenhagen this December could deliver essential funds to support these communities, provided governments do the right thing and prioritise the needs of the people worst affected. Oxfam is calling for $50billion, above and beyond current aid packages, to help poor countries adapt to the effects of climate change, before crisis strikes.

"The world must change the way it delivers aid so that it builds on the country's ability to prepare for and withstand future shocks. National governments, with the help of the international community must invest more in reducing the risk of disasters", said Barbara Stocking, Chief Executive of Oxfam.

Oxfam is currently supporting disaster preparedness projects in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India. Examples include raising houses on platforms, first-aid and search and rescue training, the construction of tube-wells for safe water and the building of flood shelters. But these types of projects will need significant international investment if governments want to reduce the suffering of 375 million people by 2015.

On a recent trip to Bangladesh, Oxfam's Global Campaigner Selina Shelley witnessed outrage at one of a series of Oxfam hearings, designed to give a voice to affected communities.

"Over 2,500 people attended the hearing and civil society groups gave a clear message to Western countries that they must take responsibility for the suffering of those affected by climate change. They firmly believe that the industrialisation and lifestyle of rich countries has played a large part in the plight of local people and are seeking compensation to help them prepare."

ENDS

For more information contact:

Jonaid Jilani on jjilani@oxfam.org.uk 01865 472193 or 07810 181514

To join Oxfam's climate change Here and Now campaign visit www.oxfam.org.uk/hereandnow or text ‘now' to 87099. Standard network rates apply.

Note to Editors:

Here and Now Campaign

The increasing threat of climate change has put the issue at the heart of Oxfam's operations. As part of this Oxfam is launching Here and Now - a campaign which aims to raise £40m in five years and mobilise the UK public to demand that the right decisions are made at the climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December. Oxfam believes this deal must be fair so that rich countries lead the way in reducing emissions, while also making desperately needed funding available for poor communities already living on the front-line of climate change.

Oxfam is a member of the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition.

Oxfam analysed data from the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) at Louvain University in Belgium to make its projection. The data covered more than 6,500 climate-related disasters since 1980 and the numbers of people affected.

The definition of people "affected" by a disaster includes those who suffer physical injuries or illness, as well as those made homeless or who otherwise required immediate assistance during a period of emergency.

In order to avoid catastrophic climate change, global warming must be kept as far below 2°C as possible. This requires industrialised countries as a group to cut their emissions by 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020. This commitment must be made at the latest when they meet in Copenhagen at the end of this year to agree a new global deal on climate change.

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