Memorandum for the Petitioners 1132
impairing, infringing, abusing, and/or violating people’s human rights in
contradiction with the UNGPs.
8. 176. The general responsibility of business enterprises is to prevent
adverse human rights harm resulting from climate impacts by undertaking due
diligence to assess and understand the known and foreseeable emerging risks.
8.177. In particular, due diligence requires the business enterprises to:
r
1.
Assess the actual and potential impacts of business
activities on human rights;
2.
Act on the findings of the assessment, including, but not
limited to, integrating appropriate measures to address
impacts into company policies and practices; and
3.
Communicate to the outside world about the due
diligence process and results.622
8.178. To meet their corporate human rights responsibilities, business
enterprises must know and show, meaning they must assess the risks and
impacts of its activities on human rights and publicly disclose this
information and the measures taken 623 Importantly, effective due
diligence must assess the foreseeable human rights impact which should be
tracked across the entire business operations products or services by their
business relationship, and any lessons learned should be incorporated into
the enterprise’s policies.624
,
r
8.179. In the climate context, this means that business enterprises must
avoid causing adverse human rights harms or contributing to such adverse
human rights harms that result from climate impacts. They must also seek to
prevent or mitigate such adverse human rights harms when their activities are
linked to the harms arising from climate change,625 The level of contribution
to climate change does not change the responsibilities of businesses to respect
human rights.626
8.180. The inescapable conclusion is that respondent Carbon Majors
are not conducting due diligence that meets the reasonable standards expected
of them to comply with their responsibility to respect human rights in the
context of climate change. This has been demonstrated by the respondent
Carbon Majors’ past and current actions and/or inactions, which are not
CIEL Amicus Brief , supra note 47, p. 10.
Addo M., supra note 590, pp. 7-9; Principle 17 UNGP, supra note 583.
624
Ibid.
625 Principle 13 UNGP, supra note 583 ; Addo , M. supra note 590, p. 6.
626 Principle 14 UNGP, supra note 583; Addo, M. supra note 590, p. 6.
622
623
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