Climate Justice and Human Rights - Does a Link Exist?
The world has shifted enormously in the past centennial. From the post-industrialisation boom to the pollution of the world wars, humanity and the human priority has transformed. The major offset of the “development” of humanity during the last century has been a dwindling environment on Earth. The increase in fossil fuel reliance, over-fishing, food waste, plastic consumption, and deforestation (among other unsustainable practices) have left the Earth’s ozone depleted and greenhouse gases enumerated. While climate change is a realm of its own, it nonetheless ties to every other sector of society. Human Rights is one of the most prominent spheres wherein climate change intersects. Climate change-related disaster has left people displaced and with no access to shelter, reliance on unsanitary water, and limited access to food as well as other violations of their basic rights.[1] The rise of displacement due to climate change has demanded the conception of new terminology. Climigration is such an example; it is permanent displacement of peoples caused by climate-induced biophysical changes merged with repeated weather events causing a severe impact on infrastructure and threatening the livelihoods and well-being of the people residing in the community.[2]
In the statement made by David Hart to the UK Human Rights Blog, Hart states ‘the difficulty lies in the pretence that there is anything in the law and politics of human rights by themselves that can make a real difference to these massive [climate change] issues.’[3] Though there is limited climate change-related legislation that has held precedent in the courts, there is enough human rights litigation implemented within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) to both ‘shift public opinion by the debate which it engenders’ and simultaneously ‘supplant it.’[4] The establishment of declarations such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, has provided states with both positive and negative obligations, where ratified into domestic law, to protect those influenced by climate-induced disaster.[5] Thus, while Hart points to a lack in litigation, it is evident the lack lies in nationalised implementation.
Hart claims that there are limitations in the current human rights legislation that can defend the protection of the environment de facto. This is corroborated by precedent but dependent on the Court’s decisions to apply human rights legislation to climate change. In the UN Human Rights Committee case of Teitiota v New Zealand, the applicant requested refugee status due to the global warming-induced devastation of his homeland, Kiribati.[6] Internal relocation was not possible due to lack of adequate food, water, and shelter. The court corroborated that there was a violation to the applicant’s Article 6 and 7 right to life under ICCPR as the risk of the entire country being submerged due to climate change was ‘an extreme risk’.[7] Nonetheless, since the court found that Kiribati was taking action to mitigate the effects of climate change, the applicant could not enable non-refoulment.[8] Even with substantial evidence and two separate individual opinions of the UNHRC Committee members indicating that Teitiota and his family’s life was at risk, the committee failed to implement the substantial litigation to protect Teitiota from climate-induced disasters.[9] Kiribati alone cannot mitigate climate-induced risk; populations that contribute to the events of climate change are the richest of the world’s population. 90% of carbon pollution come from the richest 50% of the world.[10] These contributors to the climate catastrophe are the fossil fuel industry, agriculture industry, forestry industry, and transportation industry.[11] This insinuates that the proper legislation could be used as precedent considering the reality of extenuating circumstances, but the power to do so lies within the Courts.
The Intersection of Human Rights and Climate Change
Prior to the last two decades, climate change was independent – though situations like the crisis in Tuvalu and plethora of wildfires in California were recorded, they were rarely linked to the need for climate change-induced human rights litigation. Rather, it was left to the task of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and thereafter the Paris Agreement to formulate probable solutions to mitigate the warming of the planet. Now, with the repetition of Tuvalu’s crisis in various regions of the world, it cannot be a singular convention or agreement alone that tackles such issues. The International Bill of Rights (the UDHR, ICCPR, and ICESCR) are adapted to apply to a new spectrum of human rights parallel to climate action litigation, though they require implementation on the judicial level. Hart maintains that enough of the ‘ordinary people in the world have got to support the values encapsulated by those rights when those values clash with other things those people want, like cheap energy or tellies or travel;’ however, it is difficult to categorise the ‘ordinary people’ he is referencing as the majority of people.[12]
When it comes to climate change, the ordinary people should be representative of the global middle and lower socio-economic classes. Nonetheless, it is evident that by stating enough ‘ordinary people’ should care, Hart is referencing people in wealthy, developed nations.[13] Here is statistical evidence of what ‘ordinary people’ face globally:[14]
825 million people do not have access to a sustainable diet providing them with enough food.[15]
Sea levels reached their highest peak, over 20 centimetres higher than the beginning of the 20th century. [16]Rising sea levels due to the global warming-induced melting of the ice sheets have displaced people in Tuvalu, Ethiopia, the Philippines, and other countries.[17]
People who live in the 48 ‘least developed’ countries globally are five times more likely to perish due to the disastrous effects of climate change than anywhere else in the world.[18]
Since 2013, climate change has triggered stronger typhoons and storms which has led to the displacement of more than 15 million people.[19] Refugees fleeing from natural disaster as climigrants often face high levels of mental illness and sexual violence.[20]
Annually, floods are impacting more than 21 million people globally and by 2030 it is expected that floods will impact over 54 million people annually.[21]
Due to mass displacement, border build-up in the United States and such nations as well as migration will increase as a result of climate change.[22]
In natural disaster, the lower the socio-economic status of the affected population is, the more likely women are to die than men.[23]
While climate change influences the whole planet and all of its inhabitants, there is quantitative evidence that the risk to people in the global south and ‘less developed’ countries is much larger.[24] Further, countries already facing war and famine are more likely to see perilous effects much quicker.[25] Hart is correct in examining the need for social motivation; unfortunately, the focus of his statement greatly decentralizes the argument from the people who are being affected to the people in the global north and ‘developed’ countries. His argument for the overbearing need for cheap energy and quick air travel completely encapsulates the public opinion of those in Western civilisation, but he is drastically incorrect in claiming those people to be ‘ordinary people’.[26] His declaration ascertains a Western-elitist perspective destructive to the global population.
[1] Anne Firth Murray, From Outrage to Courage: The Unjust and Unhealthy Situation of Women in Poorer Countries and What They Are Doing About It (2nd edn, Anne Firth Murray 2013) 179. [2] Julie K Maldonado and others, ‘The Impact of Climate Change on Tribal Communities in the US: Displacement, Relocation, and Human Rights’ (2013) 120 Climatic change 601, 610. [3] David KC Hart, ‘Is climate change a human rights issue?’ UK Human Rights Blog (London, 24 April 2012) <https://ukhumanrightsblog.com/2012/04/24/is-climate-change-a-human-rights-issue/> accessed 29 November 2022. [4] David KC Hart, ‘Is climate change a human rights issue?’ UK Human Rights Blog (London, 24 April 2012) <https://ukhumanrightsblog.com/2012/04/24/is-climate-change-a-human-rights-issue/> accessed 29 November 2022. [5] United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (adopted 13 September 2007) UNGA A/RES/61/295 (UNDRIP) art 8(2). [6] Teitiota v New Zealand [2016] UNHRC C127/2728. [7] ibid [8] Teitiota v New Zealand [2016] UNHRC C127/2728. [9] ibid [17]. [10] Mark Maslin, How to Save Our Planet (Penguin UK 2021) 59. [11] ibid [12] David KC Hart, ‘Is climate change a human rights issue?’ UK Human Rights Blog (London, 24 April 2012) <https://ukhumanrightsblog.com/2012/04/24/is-climate-change-a-human-rights-issue/> accessed 29 November 2022. [13] ibid [14] ibid [15] Mark Maslin, How to Save Our Planet (Penguin UK 2021) 63. [16] ibid [55] [17] Todd Miller, Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security (Liberty of Congress Cataloging 2017) 15. [18] ibid [17] [19] Todd Miller, Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security (Liberty of Congress Cataloging 2017) 19. [20] Anne Firth Murray, From Outrage to Courage: The Unjust and Unhealthy Situation of Women in Poorer Countries and What They Are Doing About It (2nd edn, Anne Firth Murray 2013) 179. [21]Todd Miller, Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security (Liberty of Congress Cataloging 2017) 21. [22] ibid [27]. [23] Anne Firth Murray, From Outrage to Courage: The Unjust and Unhealthy Situation of Women in Poorer Countries and What They Are Doing About It (2nd edn, Anne Firth Murray 2013) 179. [24] Mark Maslin, How to Save Our Planet (Penguin UK 2021). [25] Human Rights Watch, ‘Yemen: Events of 2019’ (World Report 2020) <https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/yemen> accessed 3 December 2022. [26] David KC Hart, ‘Is climate change a human rights issue?’ UK Human Rights Blog (London, 24 April 2012) <https://ukhumanrightsblog.com/2012/04/24/is-climate-change-a-human-rights-issue/> accessed 29 November 2022.