Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Issue of Human Rights Obligations Relating to the Enjoyment of a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment: Climate Change Report

Abstract

This report describes the increasing attention paid to the relationship between climate change and human rights in recent years, reviews the effects of climate change on the full enjoyment of human rights and outlines the application of human rights obligations to climate-related actions. The report assesses the Paris Agreement in light of the procedural and substantive human rights obligations of States relating to climate change and concludes that in order to ensure that global temperatures do not rise to levels that would impair a vast range of human rights, States should fully implement all of their commitments in connection with the Paris Agreement and strengthen their commitments in the future. Each State must also adopt a legal and institutional framework that assists those within its jurisdiction to adapt to the unavoidable effects of climate change. In all of these actions, States must take care to protect the rights of the most vulnerable.

Keywords: United Nations, human rights, environment, climate change

JEL Classification: K32, K33