PART II Blog do Planalto (2012) CLIMATE CHANGE AND HUMAN RIGHTS World Leaders in attendance at Rio+20 The Obligations of Governments and Private Actors to Respond to the Human Rights Implications of Climate Change While the linkages between climate change and human rights are clear, it is only in the past decade that UN human rights bodies and national governments have begun to develop consensus on this issue. Thus far, the consensus has extended to the understanding that climate change will interfere with the full enjoyment of human rights, as detailed in Part 1. There is less agreement on the nature of corresponding obligations of governments and private actors to address the human rights implications of climate change. However, there are several well-established and emerging principles that are applicable in this context. This section provides a brief history of how UN agencies and national governments have come to understand the relationship between climate change and human rights, before turning to a more detailed discussion of specific obligations for international agencies, national governments and private actors.54 The obligations discussed here are primarily based on the rights enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), as these comprise the core of international human rights law. State commitments under the UNFCCC and other agreements are also discussed in relation to these core treaty obligations. It is worth noting that a country’s legal obligations may differ depending on which treaties it has ratified. It is beyond the scope of this paper to highlight all of these differences; however, there is growing consensus that most or all of the rights enumerated in the UDHR constitute customary international law, and as such, they are binding on all states regardless of treaty ratification status.55 54 55 For detailed discussion of this political process, and the various positions of specific national governments, see John H. Knox, Linking Human Rights and Climate Change and the United Nations, 33 Harvard Environmental Law Review 477 (2009). See, e.g., Olivier De Schutter, International Human Rights Law: Cases, Materials, Commentary 63-66 (Cambridge University Press 2014); Theodor Meron, Human Rights and Humanitarian Norms as Customary Law (Clarendon Press 1989); Louis Henkin, Human Rights and State “Sovereignty”, 25 Georgia Journal of International Law 37 (1995-1996). 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 11