CLIMATE CHANGE AND HUMAN RIGHTS Since the issuance of this report, UNHRC has issued five resolutions recognizing the linkages between climate change and human rights.76 These include: • Resolution 10/4 (2009), which recognized that international cooperation would be “necessary” to enable implementation of the UNFCCC.77 • Resolution 18/22 (2011), which affirmed that “human rights obligations, standards and principles have the potential to inform and strengthen international and national policymaking in the area of climate change, promoting policy coherence, legitimacy, and sustainable outcomes” and that “in no case may a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence” as a result of climate change.” Resolution 18/22 also called for additional dialogue on how to address the adverse impacts of climate change on the full enjoyment of human rights.78 • Resolution 26/27 (2014), which explicitly noted the “urgent importance of continuing to address, as they relate to States’ human rights obligations, the adverse consequences of climate change for all, particularly in developing countries and its people whose situation is most vulnerable to climate change, especially those in a situation of extreme poverty, and deteriorating livelihood conditions.”79 • Resolution 29/15 (2015), which contained effectively the same language on “States’ human rights obligations” as Resolution 26/27, and called for new study on the relationship between climate change and the human right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.80 Although UNHRC has not yet issued a clear declaration on the obligations of governments or other actors to respond to the human rights implications of climate change, there is ample evidence that certain obligations do exist. Specifically, the Independent Expert’s 2013 mapping report on Human Rights Obligations Relating to the Enjoyment of a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment outlines numerous statements from the UN human rights treaties and treaty bodies charged with overseeing them, other UN bodies and mechanisms, regional human rights systems, and international environmental instruments, all recognizing various human rights obligations related to climate change.81 The results of that report are incorporated into the analysis in Section 2.2, below. The UNFCCC COP also formally recognized the linkages between climate change and human rights in the 2010 Cancun Agreements, where the Parties agreed to emphasize that countries “should, in all climate change-related actions, fully respect human rights.”82 But the COP has done very little in the past five years to elaborate on how countries should fulfill that goal. In the interim, numerous declarations and submissions have been made calling for the COP to incorporate human rights considerations into its decisions and agreements, and most notably, the 2015 Paris Agreement.83 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 14 In addition, many regional bodies have issued decisions on the linkages between climate change and human rights. See African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), Resolution on Climate Change and Human Rights and the Need to Study its Impact in Africa, ACHPR/Res.153(XLVI)09 (2009); Organization of American States, General Assembly, Resolution 2429: “Human Rights and Climate Change in the Americas”, AG/Res. 2429 (XXXVIII-O/08) (OAS June 3, 2008). UNHRC Res. 10/4, Human Rights and Climate Change, A/HRC/Res/10/4 (March 25, 2009). Some developing countries sought the stronger language, but were unable to convince developed countries to accept it. Limon (2010), supra note 73, at 455. UNHRC Res. 18/22, Human Rights and Climate Change, A/HRC/Res/18/22 (Oct. 17, 2011). UNHRC Res. 26/27, Human Rights and Climate Change, A/HRC/Res/26/27 (July 15, 2014) (emphasis added). UNHRC Res. 29/15, Human Rights and Climate Change. A/HRC/Res/29/15 (July 2, 2015). Mapping Report (2013), supra note 64; UN Independent Expert on Human Rights and the Environment, Focus Report on Human Rights and Climate Change (June 2014). UNFCCC Decision 1/CP.16, The Cancun Agreements, p. 8, UN Doc. FCCC/CP/2010/7/Add.1 (March 15, 2011). See, e.g., Special Procedures Mandate-Holders of the HRC, A New Climate Change Agreement Must Include Human Rights Protections for All (October 17, 2014). T H E O B L I G AT I O N S O F G O V E R N M E N T S A N D P R I VAT E A C T O R S T O R E S P O N D T O T H E H U M A N R I G H T S I M P L I C AT I O N S O F C L I M AT E C H A N G E