Memorandum for the Petitioners |129
are linked to the harms arising from climate change.®°
Principle 13 of the UNGPs states:
The responsibility to respect
that business enterprises:
human
rights
More specifically,
requires
a) Avoid causing or contributing to adverse human rights
impacts through their own activities, and address such
impacts when they occur;
b)
Seek
to
prevent
or
mitigate
adverse
human
rights
impacts that are directly linked to their operations,
products or services by their business relationships, even
if they have not contributed to those impacts.5°
8.166. Principle 13 of the UNGPs is utilized when business activities
contribute to adverse human rights impacts, even though it may not be the
only cause of the adverse impact. The UNGPs call for the application of a
of
a standard
by
balanced
causation,
contributory
of
test
reasonableness.°”
8.167. Principle 19(b) of UNGPs further elaborates on appropriate
action, which will vary according to “(i) whether the business enterprise
causes or contributes to an adverse impact, or whether it is involved solely
because the impact is directly linked to its operations, products or services by
a business relationship; (ii) the extent of its leverage in addressing the adverse
impact.”
8.168. In the climate change context, respecting the UNGPs means that
business enterprises, including the respondent Carbon Majors should stop
causing or contributing to adverse human rights impacts through their own
activities -- such as the production, marketing, and sale of fossil fuels and
efforts to delay or stop regulations restricting fossil fuels. They must also
address such climate-related human impacts when they occur, as well as
prevent or mitigate adverse climate-related human rights impacts that are
directly linked to their operations, products or services by their business
relationships, even if -- assuming for the sake of argument -- they have not
contributed to those impacts.
8.169. Principle 13 of UNGPs also requires that business enterprises
use appropriate means equivalent to the scale of the risks to human rights from
climate change to reduce their emissions in order to meet their responsibility
to respect human rights.
605
606
697
68
Addo, M., supra note 590, p. 5.
UNGPs, supra note 583.
ClientEarth Amicus Brief, supra note 37, para. 90; Also Interpretive Guide, supra note 589.
Principle 19 UNGP, supra note 583.
69 Principle 12 UNGP, supra note 583; Joint Summary of the Amicus Curiae, supra note 50, p. 64.
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