Human rights and climate change
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The climate crisis is a human rights crisis. Climate change is already negatively impacting the full spectrum of human rights from the right to life itself, to the rights to food, water, health, cultural rights and many other rights in all regions of the world as affirmed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the UN Human Rights Council (including in resolution 41/21). Countries and population groups with the fewest resources to adapt are disproportionately impacted despite having contributed less to climate change.
States have obligations to respect, protect and fulfil human rights, including when these rights are at risk from climate change. The human rights system is increasingly engaged in guiding States on how to respect, protect and fulfil human rights in the context of climate change. It is becoming clear that States have obligations, both as regards mitigation to avoid foreseeable future harm to human rights, adaptation to protect lives and livelihoods and access to remedy for harms caused by climate change.
- Climate change can harm human rights directly, for example by creating increased food insecurity or destroying homes and livelihoods. Climate change adaptation and mitigation can fail to protect human rights, or result in human rights violations or abuses if human rights are not considered in their design.
- Climate change mitigation refers to any action taken by governments, businesses, or people to reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions, or to enhance carbon sinks that remove these gases from the atmosphere.
- Climate change adaptation refers to actions that help reduce vulnerability to the current or expected impacts of climate change like weather extremes, sea-level rise, biodiversity loss, or food and water insecurity.
- There is no agreed definition of "loss and damage" in the international climate negotiations. However, the term can refer to the long-term harm caused by the adverse impacts of climate change that occur despite of, or in the absence of, mitigation and adaptation.
To address the root causes of human induced climate change and its devastating consequences for the enjoyment of human rights, a green transition is urgently needed. It is essential that human rights standards guide climate-related policies and measures to ensure that the transition is just. Responses to the climate crisis in the form of, for example, forest conservation to capture CO2, or renewable energy projects and mining for specific minerals required for green technologies, can harm human rights. To avoid this, these initiatives need to be designed and implemented with respect for human rights and in close consultation with rights-holders. The rights of indigenous peoples and workers in precarious situations are particularly at risk. In the Paris Agreement, the signatories have agreed to ‘respect, promote and consider their respective obligations on human rights’ when addressing climate change, especially the rights of marginalised and vulnerable groups.
Our approach
The Danish Institute for Human Rights works to promote the human rights obligations of States and the responsibilities of companies in the context of climate change and the green transition. We do this through the development of tools for analysis and policy development and in close collaboration with partners in focus countries and at regional and international level. We work with civil society, state and business actors to enhance respect for human rights in the value chain of renewable energy projects, including the exploitation and processing of transition minerals.
We actively engage in the network of European national human rights institutions, ENNHRI, and the global network of national human rights institutions, GANHRI through their specific working groups on the climate crisis. These networks serve as important platforms for peer learning and collective action including third-party intervention in climate court cases at the European Court of Human Rights.
Examples on how we work with climate change and human rights
Selected publications on climate change and human rights
Course: Climate Change and Human Rights
Do you want to understand why the changing climate is not just an environmental issue but also a significant human rights concern? Explore our free course on Climate Change and Human Rights.
