Climate Change, Environmental Degradation, and Fundamental Human Rights

Abstract

This chapter looks at the relationship between climate change and fundamental human rights. Through the examination of universal and regional human rights instruments and case law, it argues that an international state obligation to provide decent environmental conditions to individuals and communities has arisen in the last decades. Moreover, in view of anthropogenic climate change, the international community has started questioning how climate change-induced environmental alterations affect human rights. The chapter examines this topic, highlighting the need for international action to avert the negative effects on human rights caused by climate change. Since the enjoyment of basic human rights such as life, health, and access to livelihood can be infringed by global warming, it is possible to link human rights law with the issue of forced climate migrants: these become in fact such where there is the impossibility to enjoy fundamental human rights at home due to climate change.