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~ A ~ - Human Rights Law Can Drive Climate Change Mitigation

from Debate 6: Human Rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2021

By
Nicola Pain
Edited by
Benoit Mayer  and
Alexander Zahar
Benoit Mayer
Affiliation:
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Alexander Zahar
Affiliation:
Southwest University of Political Science and Law
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Summary

This chapter debates the relevance of human rights law to climate law. No doubt the impacts of climate change hinder the enjoyment of many types of human right. On this ground, Nicola Pain makes the case that climate change can be viewed as a human rights problem, entailing that states must mitigate climate change in order to comply with their positive obligations to protect human rights. Fanny Thornton explores the weaknesses in this position. She counters that viewing climate change through a human-rights lens is misconceived and leads to absurd results, not least because there is no standard by which to assess the adequacy of governmental mitigation action.

Keywords

Human rightsHuman rights lawClimate changeClimate law as human rights lawState obligationsPositive obligationsDebating
Type
Chapter
Information
Debating Climate Law , pp. 145 - 158
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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