49. The European Council subsequently endorsed a binding target of at least a 40% domestic reduction in economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 1990. The Regulation 2018/842 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018, established binding annual greenhouse gas emission reductions by Member States from 2021 to 2030.46 According to the Regulation, Ireland has an obligation to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 30% by 2030 compared to its 2005 greenhouse gas emissions levels. 50. Ireland is also bound by universal human rights instruments to which it is a party, such as International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and regional instruments such as the European Convention on Human Rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Ireland must respect, protect and fulfill human rights in accordance with these legally binding instruments. 51. Climate change will undoubtedly have increasingly negative impacts upon the Irish environment, threatening the human rights of its citizens. A report published by Ireland’s Environmental Protection Agency in 2017 observed that “rising temperatures in the summer are likely to increase heat-related mortalities and morbidity.”47 As well, the IPCC’s 2014 report indicated that significant sea level increases are projected in the eastern North Sea and west of UK and Ireland.48 Climate change is also projected to affect the hydrology of rivers, increasing extreme discharges to varying degrees in several European countries, including Ireland.49 Such events may lead to floods, which could affect other rights of Irish citizens, such as right to housing, property and respect for one’s home. 52. As noted earlier, climate change will have increasingly devastating impacts on human rights around the world because of the increasing frequency of extreme weather events and natural disasters, rising sea-levels, floods, heat waves, droughts, desertification, water shortages, and the spread of tropical and vector-borne diseases. These phenomena directly and indirectly threaten the full and effective enjoyment of a range of human rights, including not only the right to life, but also the rights to self-determination, development, food, water and sanitation, health, and housing. The most severe impacts of climate change and consequential human rights violations are faced by developing countries, which contributed the least to creating the problem. 53. Since climate change directly contributes to human rights violations, the Government of Ireland has a positive obligation to take measures to mitigate climate change, to prevent its negative human rights impacts, and to ensure that all persons, particularly those in vulnerable situations, have adequate capacity to adapt to the growing climate crisis. Failure to prevent foreseeable human rights harms caused by climate change, or at the very least to mobilize maximum available resources in an effort to do so, constitutes a breach of this obligation. 54. Failure to take positive and effective measures to prevent the human rights harms caused 46 Regulation (EU) 2018/842 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on binding annual greenhouse gas emission reductions by Member States from 2021 to 2030 contributing to climate action to meet commitments under the Paris Agreement and amending Regulation (EU) No 525/2013, available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legalcontent/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2018.156.01.0026.01.ENG. 47 M. Desmond et al. 2017. A Summary of the State of Knowledge on Climate Change Impacts for Ireland. Report 11 (2010-2016). EPA Research Programme Report 223. Ireland Environmental Protection Agency. 48 IPCC, Working Group II Report “Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability,” available at: http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg2/, p. 1279. 49 Ibid, p. 1279. 12