Using Human Rights Law to Address the Impacts of Climate Change: Early Reflections on the Carbon Majors Inquiry

TY - CHAP

T1 - Using Human Rights Law to Address the Impacts of Climate Change

T2 - Early Reflections on the Carbon Majors Inquiry

AU - Savaresi, Annalisa

AU - Hartmann, Jacques

N1 - © Cambridge University Press

PY - 2020

Y1 - 2020

N2 - This chapter considers the role of human rights law in attributing responsibility for harm associated with the impacts of climate change. The suitability of human rights law to address harm caused by climate change depends upon whether a victim can substantiate a claim that a duty bearer has contributed to climate change, in such a way as to amount to a human rights violation. Qualifying the effects of climate change as human rights violations, however, poses technical obstacles concerning causality, retrospectivity, apportionment, as well as the provision of an adequate remedy. Yet, these obstacles are not insurmountable. As scientific knowledge improves, tracing causal connections between particular emissions and resulting harms is becoming less difficult. This chapter looks at the Carbon Majors petition, which is currently under investigation by the Human Rights Commission of the Philippines, to critically appraise the role of human rights law in solving complex questions associated with responsibility for the impacts of climate change.

AB - This chapter considers the role of human rights law in attributing responsibility for harm associated with the impacts of climate change. The suitability of human rights law to address harm caused by climate change depends upon whether a victim can substantiate a claim that a duty bearer has contributed to climate change, in such a way as to amount to a human rights violation. Qualifying the effects of climate change as human rights violations, however, poses technical obstacles concerning causality, retrospectivity, apportionment, as well as the provision of an adequate remedy. Yet, these obstacles are not insurmountable. As scientific knowledge improves, tracing causal connections between particular emissions and resulting harms is becoming less difficult. This chapter looks at the Carbon Majors petition, which is currently under investigation by the Human Rights Commission of the Philippines, to critically appraise the role of human rights law in solving complex questions associated with responsibility for the impacts of climate change.

KW - human rights law

KW - Carbon Majors petition

KW - Human Rights Commission of the Philippines

KW - jurisdiction

KW - causality

KW - retrospectivity

KW - adequate remedy

U2 - 10.1017/9781108777810.005

DO - 10.1017/9781108777810.005

M3 - Chapter (peer-reviewed)

SN - 9781108478465 (hbk)

SN - 9781108745833 (pbk)

SP - 73

EP - 93

BT - Climate Change Litigation in the Asia Pacific

A2 - Lin, Jolene

A2 - Kysar, Douglas A.

PB - Cambridge University Press

CY - Cambridge

ER -