Human rights and climate change

On 9 April 2024, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that human rights encompasses a right to effective protection by the State authorities from the serious adverse effects of climate change on lives, health and well-being.

Human rights and climate change is a conceptual and legal framework under which international human rights and their relationship to global warming are studied, analyzed, and addressed.[1] The framework has been employed by governments, United Nations organizations, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, human rights and environmental advocates, and academics to guide national and international policy on climate change under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the core international human rights instruments.[2][3][4] In 2022 Working Group II of the IPCC suggested that "climate justice comprises justice that links development and human rights to achieve a rights-based approach to addressing climate change".[5]

Human rights and climate change analysis focuses on the anticipated consequences to humans associated with global environmental phenomena including sea level rise, desertification, temperature increases, extreme weather events, and changes in precipitation, as well as adaptation and mitigation measures taken by governments in response to those phenomena that may involve human rights or related legal protections. Many legal approaches to climate change use the right to a healthy environment, other related rights or other emergent environmental law approaches, such as rights of nature, to advocate for new or required action by governments and private actors, through climate justice advocacy and climate litigation.

On 8 October 2021, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution that recognizes a human right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment – resolution 48/13.[6][7]

  1. ^ Stephen Humphreys, ed. (2010). Human rights and climate change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-511-76998-6. OCLC 652432164.
  2. ^ "New UN Report Details Link between Climate Change and Human Rights". UN Environment. 2017-10-05. Retrieved 2022-03-20.
  3. ^ "Report of the Human Rights Council on its thirty-first session. Advance unedited version". Human Rights Council. 2016-07-22. Retrieved 2022-08-17.
  4. ^ Rajamani, Lavanya (2019-06-26). "Integrating Human Rights in the Paris Climate Architecture: Contest, Context, and Consequence". Climate Law. 9 (3): 180–201. doi:10.1163/18786561-00903003. ISSN 1878-6553. S2CID 199289341.
  5. ^ "AR6 Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability — IPCC". Retrieved 2022-03-20.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference :9 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference :10 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).