The effects of climate change on people's daily lives threaten the full enjoyment of human rights. The Human Rights Council adopted two landmark resolutions recognising the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment (Resolution 48/13), and establishing the mandate for a Special...

This article discusses recent developments related to recognition of the link between human rights and climate change in international human rights forums. It focuses on the main human rights body of the United Nations, the Human Rights Council, which has addressed climate change in three...

Climate change and climate change policy raise important issues of intergenerational and international justice. Intergenerational justice requires that CO2 emissions be halted by the middle of this century or shortly thereafter. But since human development requires energy, the elimination of...

This chapter assesses the human rights implications of Bioenergy and Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) climate geoengineering options. It includes a discussion of the potential human rights impacts of large-scale deployment of BECCS options, with a focus on the new Paris climate agreement, and...

This article examines the role human rights instruments play when states seek to adopt regulatory initiatives in the name of addressing climate change. The article argues that a series of important restrictions exist. Governments responding to climate change need to take into account existing...

According to mainstream science, humanity faces a time of emerging global environmental crises. Massive increases in economic output and human population over the last two centuries or so are putting increasing pressure on natural systems, including those basic to the support of human and other...

In debates about principles for differentiating responsibilities for reducing carbon emissions, attention is invariably drawn to claims, staked in the language of rights, that limit responsibilities. This article charts the constraints on the legitimate use of normative arguments framed in terms...