Climate Blog
2024-06-08
Bonn Climate Change Conference: Mainstreaming human rights in all climate action
The climate negotiations at the ongoing Bonn Climate Conference are deeply related to human rights, as the impact of climate change on human rights is undeniable. Climate change poses a threat to various human rights, including the rights to life, liberty and security, health, and adequate housing, among others., there the ongoing Bonn Climate Change Conference in Germany is addressing various issues that have significant human rights implications. In July 2022, the United Nations General Assembly passed a significant resolution recognizing the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment as a human right. This right is now legally recognized in over 160 countries through their constitutions, domestic environmental legislations, or ratification of regional conventions. To fulfil this principle, climate action must take a human rights-based approach to ensure social and climate justice.
A fast, full, fair, and funded phase-out of fossil fuels and adequate climate finance from high-income emitting countries for mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage are crucial components of the international climate change negotiations to achieve climate justice. Other than these, this article explores some other global climate change and human rights issues.
A child-responsive window in climate finance is needed
Before the Bonn Conference began, tens of thousands of children in Afghanistan were affected by flash floods, leading to the death of at least a dozen of them. The flooding also closed down most schools in Sri Lanka, forcing four million children out of classrooms. These tragedies emphasize that although children are the least responsible for the climate crisis, they suffer the most from its consequences due to their unique physiological and developmental characteristics. Every year, 1.7 million children under the age of five lose their lives due to avoidable environmental damage. The most affected are children living in poverty, those under five, displaced children, adolescent girls, and children living with disabilities. However, children and young people are not adequately represented in decision-making processes on environmental policy.
Against this backdrop, the first expert dialogue on the disproportionate impacts of climate change on children and relevant policy solutions took place at the Bonn Conference. During the dialogue, representatives from state parties and civil society, including children affected by climate change, shared their stories of the adverse impacts of climate change. Climate change has worsened the physical and mental health of children, as they suffer from lack of clean water and adequate food, diseases, malnutrition and solastalgia - the distress that is produced by environmental change impacting people directly connected to their home environment. Schools were closed for prolonged periods due to extreme weather. Poor families may force their daughters to drop out of school to work, or opt to marry off their girls at young ages, in order to alleviate financial stress after extreme weather events. Participants highlighted that only 2.4% of climate finance goes to children, which is far from enough. They recommended a child-responsive window in the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance and the Loss And Damage Fund to respond to the needs of children affected by climate change.
At the end of the dialogue, Nabeel Munir, the chairperson of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Body for Implementation, stressed the need to maintain the momentum of this dialogue and to mainstream children’s rights in climate action. Various human rights instruments, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and its General C20omment No. 26 on children’s rights and the environment (2023), as well as the Maastricht Principles on the Human Rights of Future Generations (2023), provide guidance on the obligations of States to protect, respect, and fulfill children’s human rights in the present and in the future. State parties should ensure a human rights-based approach to planning, designing, and implementing their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Children must be meaningfully engaged in environmental decision-making at all stages and levels.
Carbon markets must respect human rights
Parties have not been able to reach an agreement on article 6 of the Paris Agreement addressing carbon markets and carbon offset programmes. Some countries and civil society continue to demand adequate and effective human rights safeguards. Some projects have even been linked to serious human rights abuses on indigenous communities. Their lands are home to over 80% of our planet’s biodiversity, which turn out to be valuable resources for carbon marketing projects. These projects, without adequate human rights safeguards, could significantly affect the communities. Their right to free, prior, and informed consent has not been respected, and they have been forcibly evicted from their land in some cases. Those who speak out against the projects have faced harassment and intimidation. In Cambodia, a carbon offset project encompasses half a million hectares of rainforest area that has been home to the indigenous Chong people for centuries. However, a recent study found that the project operated for more than two years without consulting the local Chong people, and Chong families were forcibly evicted from their homeland.
The Article 6.4 Supervisory Body has recently set up an Appeals and Grievances Procedure to provide a platform for victims of carbon offset projects under the Article 6.4 mechanism to seek remedy. The Procedure outlines the requirements for filing an appeal or submitting a grievance, the procedural steps for processing them, and the resulting consequences. The UNFCCC described the Procedure as “a historic step reinforcing the protection of environmental and social human rights”. However, weaknesses are found in the Procedure that could significantly undermine its effectiveness, including the lack of third-party review, limited access to the Procedure for civil society organizations that are not "vulnerable groups" eligible for a fee waiver (Standard appeal fee of USD 30,000) or that are not directly affected by the carbon offset projects, and unclear follow-up requirements for the recommendations made by the grievance panel.
The ongoing Bonn Conference is another chance for Parties to negotiate the full operationalization of the Article 6.2 and 6.4 mechanisms. They must ensure that carbon market activities respect the human rights of indigenous communities and other stakeholders.
Place the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly at the heart of climate negotiations
The rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly facilitate participation in public affairs, scrutiny of government actions, and the exchange and development of opinions and ideas. They are necessary for the full enjoyment of a wide range of other human rights, including those under the context of climate change. Regrettably, there have been numerous instances of human rights violations at recent and current UNFCCC meetings, including entry denial to the COP host countries, temporary de-badge of climate defenders who staged peaceful protests at the COP venues, excessive use of police force to disperse peaceful protesters outside the COP venues, harassment and surveillance of COP observers from civil society, and even self-censorship forced upon individuals in countries where civil society is severely restricted. In the ongoing Bonn Conference, three climate defenders were de-badged, two for staging a silent protest in solidarity with Palestine during the opening plenary session, and the remaining one for filming the protest and their removal from the venue. Climate defenders are worried about the civic space before, during and after COP29 in Azerbaijan, as the crackdown on freedom of expression and peaceful protests intensified. Anar Mammadli, a prominent human rights defender who connected human rights and climate justice in Azerbaijan and promoted civic space and environmental justice at COP29, was arrested in late April 2024 on bogus charges. UNFCCC, COP Presidencies and the global community must make efforts to guarantee civic space in the current and future UNFCCC meetings to facilitate meaningful and inclusive climate negotiations. The COP Host Country Agreement must be made public and include strong human rights safeguards.
Hong Kong must take proactive steps to address climate change and achieve climate justice
While we may consider some human rights issues to be distant from our daily lives, there are also important local issues to address. The extremely hot weather puts children at higher risk of heatstroke. The "Hong Kong Just Transition Report” published by CCIL in 2022 illustrates the disproportionate adverse impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities in Hong Kong, including outdoor workers, subdivided flats residents and persons with chronic diseases or disabilities. Many companies in Hong Kong are purchasing carbon credits to offset their residual carbon emissions in the voluntary market. Governments or corporations only passively consult young people rather than meaningfully engage them in the decision-making process, including policies related to climate change. Hong Kong must take proactive steps to address climate change and achieve climate justice.