(government, business, or other); and (3) it may be involved in impacts caused by an entity that is directly linked to its business operations, products, or services.64 In accordance with the Guiding Principles, the Carbon Majors’ activities have contributed to, or the Carbon Majors have been involved in, climate change related infringements of human rights as discussed in the Statement of Facts. For one, the accumulated emissions from the carbon these companies have produced have contributed to a consistently elevated level of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Higher levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide increases radiative forcing65 thereby increasing global atmospheric temperatures resulting in a multitude of climate change impacts. For example, as discussed in the Statement of Facts, the current or predicted climate impacts in the Alabat and Verde Island communities have resulted and/or will likely result in the infringements of the people’s human rights. The Interpretive Guide describes the ways in which a business’s activities may “cause,” “contribute,” or “be directly linked” to adverse impacts on human rights.66 For example, a corporation may be deemed to have caused an adverse impact if it is the “sole or main source” of environmental harm in a community.67 A corporation may have contributed to an adverse impact if it is one among other sources that have caused such harm or if it provides products or services to a third party that then causes harm.68 Business activities can be directly linked to adverse impacts if the corporation supplies products or services to an entity that causes or contributes to adverse impacts.69 With respect to “cause” and “contribute”, a corporation that is responsible for the adverse impacts “should cease or change the activity… in order to prevent or mitigate the chance of the impact occurring or recurring;” and if an impact does occur, remediation is necessary “either directly or in cooperation with others (be it the courts, the Government, other !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 64 Interpretive Guide, supra note 25, at 15. According the the IPCC radiative forcing is “the net change in the energy balance of the Earth system due to some imposed perturbation,” i.e. increasing CO2 and other climate active gases in the atmosphere. Myhre, G., D. Shindell, F.-M. Bréon, W. Collins, J. Fuglestvedt, J. Huang, D. Koch, J.-F. Lamarque, D. Lee, B. Mendoza, T. Nakajima, A. Robock, G. Stephens, T. Takemura and H. Zhang, 2013: Anthropogenic and Natural Radiative Forcing. In: Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Stocker, T.F., D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S.K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. It is also explained in this manner: “Energy is constantly flowing into the atmosphere in the form of sunlight that always shines on half of the Earth’s surface. Some of this sunlight (about 30 percent) is reflected back to space and the rest is absorbed by the planet. And like any warm object sitting in cold surroundings — and space is a very cold place — some energy is always radiating back out into space as invisible infrared light. Subtract the energy flowing out from the energy flowing in, and if the number is anything other than zero, there has to be some warming (or cooling, if the number is negative) going on.” Massachussetts Institute of Technology, Explained: Radiative Forcing, Mar. 10, 2010, http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2010/explained-radforce-0309 (last accessed on Sept. 17, 2015). 66 Interpretive Guide, supra note 25, at 17, box 2. 67 Id. 68 Id. 69 Id. 65 ! 27! ! ! ! ! !