Written by Amira Qasim
Edited by Mehak Bhatia & Emil Koch
Various human rights, including the rights to life, self-determination, development, food, health, water and sanitation, and housing, are affected by climate change. The varied consequences of rapidly increasing climate change are already dramatically affecting poor and marginalized people worldwide, reinforcing existing vulnerabilities and deepening inequalities. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) ’s Fifth Assessment Report (Ar5) clearly describes how sudden and more gradual forms of environmental degradation will undermine access to the vital resources supporting human life.
Let’s now talk about how changes in our climate affect our rights!
IPCC reports predict future surface and groundwater shortages, intensifying competition for water, agricultural regional water, energy, and food. More frequent droughts in dry areas will likely lead to more mass migrations due to uninhabitable regions, as seen in Venezuela, where 5.9 million people were displaced as a result of extreme droughts.
In addition, there is a clear relationship between climate change and the right to life. Extreme heat, wildfires, and storm rainfall, extremes exacerbated by climate change, often lead to loss of lives. Sometimes, these weather events result in very high death tolls, often aggravated by local factors that increase the population’s risks. For example, throughout 2019 and 2020, over 100 fires spread across several regions of Australia, leading to the loss of over 400 lives due to smoke inhalation. Furthermore, the Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change reports that the last half-century of gains in development and global health are undermined by climate change, particularly among people living within urban populations. An example is air pollution significantly impacting those living in New Delhi, which, after the WHO, is the world’s most polluted city, with over 40% of children suffering from poor or restrictive lungs.
Hunger represents the second sustainable development goal. However, while by 2030, the world shall be hunger-free, climate change directly affects food availability. Erratic climate patterns severely impact farming and reduce or alter crops, livestock, fisheries, and aquaculture productivity. As a result, biodiversity degrades, directly exacerbating global hunger, as seen in Zimbabwe, where a prolonged drought led to significant food insecurity, impacting an estimated 4.3 million people, according to UNICEF.
These are just some of the impacts that are commonly talked about. The bigger question remains: How are these both related in international law?
Despite the momentum surrounding human rights-climate change discourse, conceptual and analytic questions persist about how to link these two issues coherently. How does one connect the physical manifestation of climate change with peoples’ entitlements to certain rights, freedoms, and responsibilities of states?
Is there a meaningful difference between the human impacts of climate change and the human rights impacts of climate change?
If so, how is it best understood? Therefore, there is a need to explain what a human rights perspective brings to the problem of climate change and what it offers in legal terms.
More precisely, climate change and human rights underly differing legal frameworks of multilateral environmental agreements. For instance, one may contrast the relatively clear “vertical” application of human rights treaty provisions between a State Party and its citizens or persons within its jurisdiction with the more “horizontal” operation of environmental agreements of rights like UNFCC governing state-to-state relations and burden sharing between countries concerning emissions. In each case, applying rights and duties under various instruments reflects different iterations of state-centricity.
Beyond identifying the types of questions underpinning the connection between human rights and climate change, it is essential to note the various ways in which this connection can be characterized under international law:
Climate change affects the enjoyment of human rights
Measures to address climate change may affect the enjoyment of human rights
Human rights have relevance to responses to climate change
In summary, there might be a chance to find out how dealing with climate change can support fulfilling human rights. This can help us better handle the impacts of climate change, showing that both efforts share common goals and positive results.
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References:
Environment, U. (n.d.). Climate Change and Human Rights. UNEP - UN Environment Programme. http://www.unep.org/resources/report/climate-change-and-human-rights; (Accessed on 08/25/2023)
Jackson, R. (2023, August 24). The Effects of Climate Change. Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet. https://climate.nasa.gov/effects; (Accessed on 08/25/2023)