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Symposium Foreword: Rights-Based Approaches to Climate Change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2018

Sam Adelman  and
Bridget Lewis
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Type
Symposium: Rights-Based Approaches to Climate Change
Information
Transnational Environmental Law , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , March 2018 , pp. 9 - 15
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

Symposium on ‘A Rights-Based Approach to Climate Change’, held at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Law School, Brisbane, Qld (Australia), 18–19 February 2016

*

School of Law, University of Warwick (United Kingdom (UK)). Email: s.adelman@warwick.ac.uk.

**

Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Qld, (Australia). Email: b.lewis@qut.edu.au.

References

1 See, e.g., Atapattu, S., Human Rights Approaches to Climate Change: Challenges and Opportunities (Routledge, 2016)Google Scholar; Bodansky, D., ‘Climate Change and Human Rights: Unpacking the Issues’ (2010) 38(3) Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law, pp. 511–525 Google Scholar; Humphreys, S. (ed.), Human Rights and Climate Change (Cambridge University Press, 2010); Knox, J., ‘Linking Human Rights and Climate Change at the United Nations’ (2009) 33(2) Harvard Environmental Law Review, pp. 477–498 Google Scholar; Adelman, S., ‘Human Rights and Climate Change’, in G. Digiacomo (ed.), Human Rights: Current Issues and Controversies (University of Toronto Press, 2016), pp. 411–435 Google Scholar; Limon, M., ‘Human Rights and Climate Change: Constructing a Case for Political Action’ (2009) 33(2) Harvard Environmental Law Review, pp. 439–476 Google Scholar.

2 IPCC, Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report (IPCC, 2014), p. 8, available at: http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/syr/SYR_AR5_FINAL_full_wcover.pdfGoogle Scholar. Unless otherwise indicated, the facts in this section are derived from this report.

3 IPCC, ‘Summary for Policymakers’, in M.L. Parry et al., Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Working Group II Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC (Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 7–22, at 13.

4 The International Bill of Rights comprises the non-binding 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Paris (France), 10 Dec. 1948, UNGA Res. 217A (III), UN Doc. A/810, 71), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, with its two Optional Protocols (New York, NY (US), 16 Dec. 1966, in force 23 Mar. 1976) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (New York, NY (US), 16 Dec. 1966, in force 3 Jan. 1976), available at: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/Compilation1.1en.pdf.

5 Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada, Petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Seeking Relief from Violations Resulting from Global Warming Caused by Acts and Omissions of the United States, 7 Dec. 2005, available at: http://www.inuitcircumpolar.com/uploads/3/0/5/4/30542564/finalpetitionicc.pdf.

6 Bogotá (Colombia), Apr. 1948, reprinted in Basic Documents Pertaining to Human Rights in the Inter-American System, OAS/Ser.L/V/I.4 Rev. 9 (2003), available at: http://www.cidh.oas.org/basicos/english/basic2.american%20declaration.htm.

7 It prompted the emergence of an ever-growing literature in which Humphreys (ed.), n. 1 above, was a significant forerunner.

8 Greenpeace Southeast Asia and Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement, Petition to the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines Requesting for Investigation of the Responsibility of the Carbon Majors for Human Rights Violations or Threats of Violations Resulting from the Impacts of Climate Change, available at: https://perma.cc/2S8RTTKN. The petition is discussed in Peel, J. & Osofsky, H.M., ‘A Rights Turn in Climate Change Litigation?’ (2018) 7(1) Transnational Environmental Law CrossRefGoogle Scholar, pp. 37–67.

9 Heede, R., ‘Tracing Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide and Methane Emissions to Fossil Fuel and Cement Producers, 1854–2010’ (2014) 122(1) Climatic Change, pp. 229–241 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Heede identifies the Carbon Majors as the world’s 90 highest emitting entities, 50 of which are investor-owned companies (p. 231). See also Benjamin, L., ‘The Responsibilities of Carbon Major Companies: Are They (and Is the Law) Doing Enough?’ (2016) 5(2) Transnational Environmental Law, pp. 353–378 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Stichting Urgenda v. Government of the Netherlands (Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment), ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2015:7145, Rechtbank Den Haag, C/09/456689/HA ZA 13-1396; and Ashgar Leghari v. Federation of Pakistan (W.P. No. 25501/2015), Lahore High Court Green Bench, Orders of 4 Sept. and 14 Sept. 2015, available at: https://elaw.org/pk_Leghari. These cases are discussed in the article by Peel & Osofsky, n. 8 above.

11 See United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Climate Change and Human Rights (2016), available at: https://perma.cc/BF65-E7UP.

12 Paris (France), 12 Dec. 2015, in force 4 Nov. 2016, available at: http://unfccc.int/paris_agreement/items/9485.php.

13 A. Savaresi & J. Hartmann, ‘Human Rights in the 2015 Agreement’, Legal Response Initiative Briefing Paper 2/15; ISSD Reporting, ‘Summary of the Bonn Climate Change Conference’ (2015) 12(651) Earth Negotiations Bulletin, available at: http://www.iisd.ca/vol12/enb12651e.html; Deconstructing Paris, ‘Human Rights in the Paris Agreement’, 10 Dec. 2015, available at: http://paristext2015.com/2015/12/human-rights-in-the-draft-climate-change-agreement.

14 May, J.R. & Daly, E., Global Environmental Constitutionalism (Cambridge University Press, 2015), pp. 67–68 Google Scholar. O’Gorman, R., ‘Environmental Constitutionalism: A Comparative Study’ (2017) 6(3) Transnational Environmental Law, pp. 435–462 Google Scholar. 177 countries recognize various formulations of such a right in their constitutions, environmental legislation, jurisprudence, or through ratification of international instruments: UNEP, The Status of Climate Change Litigation: A Global Review (UNEP, 2017), pp. 32–3. Art. 1 of the 2017 draft Global Pact for the Environment provides the right to an ecologically sound environment and states that ‘[e]very person has the right to live in an ecologically sound environment adequate for their health, well-being, dignity, culture and fulfilment’. The draft is available at: http://pactenvironment.org/global-pact-for-the-environment-projet-2.

15 Greenpeace Nordic Association v. Norway Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, 16-166674TVI-OTIR/06, 4 Jan. 2018.

16 New York, NY (US), 9 May 1992, in force 21 Mar. 1994, available at: https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/conveng.pdf.

17 Adelman, S., ‘Human Rights in the Paris Agreement: Too Little, Too Late?’ (2018) 7(1) Transnational Environmental Law, pp. 17–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 Ibid., p. 28.

19 Ibid., p. 29.

20 Ibid., p. 34.

21 Ibid., p. 36.

22 Ibid.

23 N. 8 above.

24 N. 10 above.

25 Ibid.

26 Juliana v. United States, No. 6:15-cv-01517, (D. Or., 10 Nov. 2016) (Aiken, J.), 46 ELR 20175.

27 J. Watts, ‘“We Should Be on the Offensive”: James Hansen Calls for Wave of Climate Lawsuits’, The Guardian, 17 Nov. 2017, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/17/we-should-be-on-the-offensive-james-hansen-calls-for-wave-of-climate-lawsuits.

28 Ibid.

29 OHCHR, Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the Relationship between Climate Change and Human Rights, UN Doc. A/HRC/10/61, 15 Jan. 2009.

30 Vienna International Airport Third Runway case, Case No. W109 2000179-1/291E, Federal Administrative Court, Austria, 2 Feb. 2017.

31 Earthlife Africa Johannesburg v. Minister for Environmental Affairs & Others, Case No. 65662/16, Judgment of the High Court of South Africa, Gauteng Division, Pretoria (South Africa), 8 Mar. 2017, available at: http://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Judgment-Earthlife-Thabametsi-Final-06-03-2017.pdf.

32 Peel & Osofsky, n. 8 above, p. 61.

33 Ibid., p. 67.

34 Lewis, B., ‘The Rights of Future Generations within the Post-Paris Climate Regime’ (2018) 7(1) Transnational Environmental Law CrossRefGoogle Scholar, pp. 69–87.

35 Ibid., p. 72.

36 Ibid., pp. 75–6.

37 Ibid., p. 80.

38 Ibid., p. 87.