Chapter XX - Climate Justice: Climate Change and Human Rights

Summary

The inadequate commitment of academia to climate change research, and the neglected, under-developed state of climate justice, must be addressed and counter-acted. The following paper aspires to pay a small contribution to that specific cause. This essay is based on the fact that climate change is undermining the fulfillment of internationally protected human rights, like the rights to health and life; the right to food, water, shelter, property; rights associated with livelihood and culture; with migration and resettlement; and with personal security in the event of conflict. The worst effects of climate change are principally felt by those whose rights protections are already insufficient. In this essay, I highlight these risks and advocate their consideration. Additionally I ask questions such as: what are the human rights repercussions of climate change, and how does the extensive organisation of international human rights law and knowledge, convey that phenomenon? Where does international human rights law overlap with or provoke duties under the embryonic climate justice regime? Where should climate change strategies challenge human rights essentials? My ambition is to clarify the confusion covering this area of study, and by examining the relationship between climate change and human rights, an attempt is made to discover, examine, and analyse their most essential links.

INTRODUCTION

It seems to me that any discourse on climate justice would be incomplete without a reflection on climate change denial. However, allow me to start by stressing the need to draw clear distinguishing lines between, denialism, denialist, and denial. Scholars tend to use them interchangeably, as if these terms refer to the same thing, but from the perspective of the author of this paper on the issues at stake, they do not signify the same idea.

So, the first realisation on the topic at hand is that we need to construct a comprehensive theory that will explain denialism's essence. In an Aristotelian sense, discovering the essence of the subject of our concern, requires breaking it down into its most essential elements. In the same line of reasoning, any epistemological discourse, implies a quest for Truth, while approaching on occasions at the ‘unconcealedness’ of the ‘aletheia’ in language. This is not the purpose of this paper, but by staying with that train of thought, I will just touch upon a necessary philosophically driven clarification.