scholarly journals Normative Shifts in the Global Conception of Climate Change: The Growth of Climate Justice

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan Gach
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
Issue Framing ◽  
Vulnerability To Climate Change ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
The Status

While climate change has been framed as an environmental issue from the very beginning of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations, over the years the concept has expanded to further emphasize it as a fundamental issue of human rights and global justice. This paper examines the evolution of the conception of climate change since 2009, arguing that the issue framing utilized by UNFCCC member states has increasingly trended toward some aspects of the climate justice frame, including disparities in vulnerability to climate change (loss and damage), human rights impacts, and social inequalities. This shift also extends to the framing adopted by civil society organizations in the form of the Climate Action Network (CAN International), in which a larger focus on issues of climate justice can be seen in recent years. These trends are then reviewed alongside the objectives, mechanisms, and language of the ratified text of the Paris Agreement in order to evaluate the status of the growing international norm of climate justice.

Introduction: Global Justice and Climate Change

2019 ◽  
pp. 3-26
Author(s):  
Megan Blomfield
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nonideal Theory ◽  
Resource Conflicts ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation

This chapter introduces climate change as a problem of natural resource justice by outlining some real-world examples of resource conflicts that are being generated, or exacerbated, by climate change. It then provides some necessary background for the discussion to follow. The science and predicted impacts of climate change are explained, along with the options for responding to this problem, such as mitigation and adaptation. The chapter then briefly introduces the debate about global justice and climate change, as it has appeared in the political philosophy literature, looking at the human rights approach, the distributive justice approach, and the key methodological distinctions between integrationism and isolationism and ideal versus nonideal theory. After providing further characterization of, and motivation for, the natural resources approach to climate justice that is taken in the work, it concludes with an outline of the chapters to follow.

Identifying and Assessing the Implementation of Human Rights Decisions

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-148
Author(s):  
Alice Donald ◽  
Debra Long ◽  
Anne-Katrin Speck
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Good Faith ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
European Regions ◽  
The Status ◽  
Public Record

Abstract Assessing the extent to which states have implemented the decisions of supranational human rights bodies is a challenging task. It requires supranational bodies—be they judicial, quasi-judicial or political—to create an evidence-based public record of the status quo of implementation at any point in time and determine whether the measures taken do, in fact, satisfy the requirements of the decision. This, in turn, relies upon states engaging in good faith, victims having a voice, and civil society organizations seizing the opportunity to influence the follow-up process. Using empirical data from interviews in selected states in the African, Inter-American and European regions, and within regional and United Nations bodies, this article argues that in no human rights ‘system’ are all these expectations met, in part because follow-up work is inadequately resourced. It argues that supranational bodies should proactively seek out diverse sources of information and adopt more transparent and responsive working methods so as to enable ‘real time’ participation by all interested parties. The article concludes with recommendations for supranational bodies, and state and non-state actors.

scholarly journals What Drives Climate Action in Canada’s Provincial North? Exploring the Role of Connectedness to Nature, Climate Worry, and Talking with Friends and Family

Climate ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 146
Author(s):  
Lindsay P. Galway ◽  
Thomas Beery ◽  
Chris Buse ◽  
Maya K. Gislason
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Mediation Analyses ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Connectedness To Nature ◽  
Leverage Point ◽  
Vulnerability To Climate Change ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
The Relationship

Despite widespread calls to action from the scientific community and beyond, a concerning climate action gap exists. This paper aims to enhance our understanding of the role of connectedness to nature in promoting individual-level climate action in a unique setting where climate research and action are lacking: Canada’s Provincial North. To begin to understand possible pathways, we also examined whether climate worry and talking about climate change with family and friends mediate the relationship between connectedness to nature and climate action. We used data collected via postal surveys in two Provincial North communities, Thunder Bay (Ontario), and Prince George (British Columbia) (n = 628). Results show that connectedness to nature has a direct positive association with individual-level climate action, controlling for gender and education. Results of parallel mediation analyses further show that connectedness to nature is indirectly associated with individual-level climate action, mediated by both climate worry and talking about climate change with family and friends. Finally, results suggest that climate worry and talking about climate change with family and friends serially mediate the relationship between connectedness to nature and with individual-level climate action. These findings are relevant for climate change engagement and action, especially across Canada’s Provincial North, but also in similar settings characterized by marginalization, heightened vulnerability to climate change, urban islands within vast rural and remote landscapes, and economies and social identities tied to resource extraction. Drawing on these findings, we argue that cultivating stronger connections with nature in the places where people live, learn, work, and play is an important and currently underutilized leverage point for promoting individual-level climate action. This study therefore adds to the current and increasingly relevant calls for (re-)connecting with nature that have been made by others across a range of disciplinary and sectoral divides.

Speaking of the weather

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Bruhn Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Baseline Survey ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Media Formats

Climate change raises the stakes of human communication to the existential level of the species and the planet. This article presents an empirical study of how users make sense of climate change as they traverse the contemporary digital media environment. Departing from a baseline survey and drawing on the tradition of reception analysis, focus groups of different ages and with various political and religious affiliations identified distinctive themes, narratives, and arguments regarding the natural environment as represented and received across different media. Climate change appears out of scale – incommensurable not only with established media formats and genres but also with common frames of human cognition and communication. In conclusion, the article addresses climate change from the perspective of human rights and social justice, under the recent heading of climate justice.

Ioane Teitiota v New Zealand (advance unedited version), CCPR/C/127/D/2728/2016, UN Human Rights Committee (HRC), 7 January 2020

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-271
Author(s):  
Chhaya Bhardwaj
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Best Interest ◽  
The People ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
The Status ◽  
Imminent Threat ◽  
Threat To Life

A 2019 decision by the Human Rights Committee concerning the status of Teitiota and his family as “climate change refugee” in New Zealand has become a hotspot for discussion concerning application of the principle of non-refoulement under human rights treaties. The decision concludes that there may be circumstances where the principle of non-refoulement under human rights treaties may apply to people fleeing climate change in their country of origin, if the people are able to provide evidence on “imminent threat to life.” While the Committee did not recognize Teitiota and his family as climate change refugees, under Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, it also ruled that this case may open pathways for application of non-refoulement in future. The author analyzes the key elements of the decision, while also highlighting that the Committee failed to apply the “best interest of the child” principle under analysis of Article 6.

scholarly journals Human rights v. Insufficient climate action: The Urgenda case

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingrid Leijten
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Case Law ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Court Of Appeals ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
European Court ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Ex Post Facto ◽  
Rights Issue

Climate change is a human rights issue, but what exactly can courts require States to do in this regard? This contribution discusses the Dutch Urgenda case, in which the Court of Appeals recently found a violation of Articles 2 (right to life) and 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights and ordered the State to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020. Looking at the case law of the European Court of Human Rights on environmental issues, as well as the nature of positive obligations, it appears that Urgenda involves a more abstract situation and a more precise positive obligation than is usually the case in human rights adjudication. Because ex post facto complaints are no solution, and in light of the growing number of Urgenda-like cases pending before (international) courts, efforts need to be made to ensure that human rights `fit' climate change cases and courts can provide effective protection in this regard.

Climate Justice. A Contractualist Perspective

2010 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Rinderle
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
General Welfare ◽  
Principle Of Justice

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to question the utilitarian hegemony in recent discussions about global climate change by defending the possibility of a contractualist alternative. More particularly, I will raise and try to answer two questions. First: How can we justify principles of climate justice? As opposed to the utilitarian concern with maximizing general welfare, a contractualist will look at the question whether certain principles are generally acceptable or could not reasonably be rejected. Second: What do we owe to future generations in these matters? Three principles of climate justice are suggested: a sufficiency principle securing basic human rights, a principle of justice giving each generation a right to realize its conception of justice, and a principle of reciprocity requiring us to take responsibility for the reception of benefits and the causation of harm.

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