CLIMATE CHANGE AND HUMAN RIGHTS COP that governments have both moral and legal obligations to protect and promote basic human rights when tackling climate change.65 Responding to the Male’ Declaration, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) issued a 2008 resolution, expressing concern that climate change “poses an immediate and far-reaching threat to people and communities around the world and has implications for the full enjoyment of human rights,” and directing OHCHR to conduct a “detailed analytical study of the relationship between climate change and human rights” in consultation with states and other relevant international organizations and intergovernmental bodies.66 OHCHR released a report in 2009 describing how the observed and projected impacts of climate change have implications for the enjoyment of human rights and for the obligations of states under international human rights law.67 The report found that “[a]n increase in global average temperatures of approximately 2° C will have major, and predominantly negative, effects on ecosystems across the globe, on the goods and services they provide,” that it will “exacerbate the harmful effects of environmental pollution,” and that these effects “have implications for a wide range of human rights.”68 The report discussed specific examples of those rights which relate most directly to climate change-related impacts, including the rights to life, food, water, health, housing, and self-determination. It also highlighted effects on specific groups, including women, children, and indigenous peoples. Despite concluding that there is “broad agreement that climate change has generally negative effects on the realization of human rights,” OHCHR noted that “it is less obvious whether, and to what extent, such effects can be qualified as human rights violations in a strict legal sense.” This statement reflected the position of many developed countries that were willing to accept that climate change could interfere with the enjoyment of human rights, but would not concede that this interference constituted a violation of international human rights law.69 OHCHR justified this conclusion by citing challenges of causation, attribution, and future harm associated with climate change.70 Nonetheless, OHCHR concluded that states have a duty to address the effects of climate change on human rights regardless of whether the state has contributed to climate change in a manner which gives rise to specific human rights violations. 71 This is because “human rights law requires each State to do more than merely refrain from interfering with human rights itself; it also requires the State to undertake due diligence to protect against such harm from other sources.”72 Accordingly, OHCHR identified a number of national level obligations that are applicable in this context, such as the obligation to protect individuals against foreseeable threats of weatherrelated hazards,73 and to provide access to information and participation in decision-making.74 OHCHR also described various “obligations of international cooperation,” thus asserting that countries have an obligation to address the extraterritorial effects of climate change.75 65 OHCHR, The Human Rights Impact of Climate Change, UN Joint Press Kit for Bali Climate Change Conference, 3-14 December 2007 (Nov. 2007). 66 UNHRC Res. 7/23, Human rights and climate change, UN Doc. A/HRC/Res/7/23 (March 28, 2008). 67 OHCHR, Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the Relationship Between Climate Change and Human Rights, A/HRC/10/61 (2009) [hereinafter “OHCHR Report”]. 68 Id. at p. 16. 69 Knox (2009), supra note 58, at 489-90; Mark Limon, Human Rights Obligations and Accountability in the Face of Climate Change, 38 Ga. J. Int’l & Comp. L. 543, 571-73 (2010). 70 OHCHR Report (2009), supra note 71, at p. 70. It bears noting that these issues are becoming less problematic over time. For one thing, recent research on current and historical GHG emissions has made it easier to allocate responsibility for emissions among different states. See, e.g., World Resources Institute, CAIT Climate Data Explorer (2015), http://cait.wri.org; Tommi Ekholm & Tomi J. Lindroos, Assessing Countries’ Historical Contributions to GHG Emissions, Research Report VVT-R-00139-15 (2015); H. Damon Matthews, Quantifying Historical Carbon and Climate Debts Among Nations, Nature Climate Change Letters, DOI: 10.1038 (Sept. 7, 2015). In addition, as the effects of climate change become increasingly apparent, it is possible to identify, with greater certainty, those effects which can be causally traced to climate change (e.g., sea level rise and increased average temperatures). IPCC (2014), supra note 4. 71 OHCHR Report (2009), supra note 71, at p. 71. See also Knox (2009), supra note 58, at 491 (“whether a state causes climate change is a separate question from whether it has a duty to address the effects of climate change on human rights”). 72 John H. Knox, Human Rights Principles and Climate Change, Wake Forest Univ. Legal Studies Paper No. 2523599, 8 (2014). 73 OHCHR Report (2009), supra note 71, at p. 74. 74 Id. at pp. 78-79. 75 Id. at pp. 84-91. 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 13