Rights in a Changing Climate: Human Rights Under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change provides a comprehensive review of how human rights have been addressed under the UNFCCC to date. It compiles human rights references in formal outcomes of the negotiating process and in the work of subsidiary bodies, as well as maps additional references, such as those included in nationally determined contributions and national reports to the UNFCCC.
After a brief overview of the deep connection between human rights and climate change, it highlights the growing number of explicit and implicit references to human rights, both in international climate agreements and in national communications. The report demonstrates the increasing momentum to integrate human rights in climate policies in specific areas of work under the UNFCCC and how the UNFCCC has evolved to better address the social dimensions of the climate crisis. It concludes with an urgent call to action to further increase rights-based climate ambition in order to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C and effectively address the greatest threat to the realization of human rights.
Originally published Dec 5, 2019