Mainstreaming a Rights-Based Approach in the Global Climate Regime

Abstract

The scientific and policy debate on environment and human rights linkages increasingly perceives climate change as a risk multiplier and a key crosscutting issue. Recent research has shown that climate change is putting both human security and several fundamental rights at risk. Not only are the human implications of climate change serious, but also the global climate regime is not sufficiently shaped to reduce them and a large part of response mechanisms, including on domestic and regional levels, do not systematically refer to justice, equity, and human rights frameworks and, in some instances, may even exacerbate environmental damage and human rights violations. Therefore, the significant challenge currently being faced is how to ensure that human rights are widely recognized and genuinely mainstreamed in the global climate regime. A key issue is how to bring the discourses of human rights and climate change together into the climate multilateral negotiation process without importing additional burdens, setbacks or unnecessary complications. Bringing human rights into the process is also about power, ambition and resilience; further, it is about endeavoring to change the power dynamics so that the movement may be progressively propelled by vulnerable countries. This chapter intends to dissect the potential overlap, convergence, and synergies between the international human rights framework and the global climate regime. The analysis assesses the advantages of mainstreaming a rights-based approach into this regime and what should be done on the ground to effectively achieve this objective. To this end, the chapter provides many research and policy-oriented recommendations.