4.2 Understanding the Right to Equality and Non-Discrimination in the Context of Climate Change Mitigation Policies States must take the right to non-discrimination into account in the design, implementation and monitoring of mitigation measures. These mitigation measures may take the form of large-scale infrastructure and energy projects, such as hydroelectric dams, or economic policies, such carbon pricing and fiscal incentives. Large-scale mitigation projects have the potential to seriously impact the lives of local populations. The Three Gorges Dam on China’s Yangtze river, whose construction displaced more than a million people,97 is just one example out of many. Conflicts of interest are frequent between central and peripheral agents involved in such projects (e.g. majority/minorities, rural/urban populations, or simply populations of different regions). In particular, Indigenous peoples are often disproportionately affected by mitigation projects, due to their special relationship to their ancestral territory and natural resources, and frequent political and socio-economic marginalization. They may also lack the economic and technical resources available to non-Indigenous communities to deal with the effects of such projects. Other mitigation measures, such as carbon pricing, may also disproportionately burden certain segments of the population. While the uneven impact of such measures may be less immediately obvious, the effects can be just as discriminatory, as unequal participation, access to justice, and political representation can result in de facto discrimination in mitigation measures against Indigenous and local communities, minorities, women and other marginalized groups. Case study: Does Carbon Pricing Place a Disproportionate Burden on Australia’s Indigenous Communities? Australia is pursuing a carbon pricing policy as part of its national climate change response. Although the original Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), which would have introduced an emission trading scheme (ETS) was shelved in 2010, the Australian Parliament passed a new clean energy legislation package in 2011, introducing a carbon tax that will transition into an ETS in 2015. While the details of this ETS have yet to be finalized, it appears that the impact of carbon pricing will disproportionately affect Australia’s Indigenous peoples. Their communities are more vulnerable than the country’s non-Indigenous population for a number of reasons.98 For example, a disproportionate number of Indigenous Australians live in remote or very remote areas; they are more likely to be in the lowest quintile of income earners; they are much less likely to own their own homes; and they suffer from a lack of education and access to information.99 As a result of these factors, they will have “limited access to emission intensive product substitutes, and alternative transport options.”100 The industries most affected by carbon pricing are also likely to have a disproportionate percentage of Indigenous employees. 101 31