Climate change. Towards a Human Rights-Based Approach

Matters related to climate change have gained significant traction across the world as a result of the many impacts we see every year, including forest fires, melting ice water, rising floods, changes in the environment, harm to numerous crops, and many more. These repercussions have now reached the point where they constitute an imminent threat to human life, necessitating a strategic shift away from the current global approach to the issue of climate change.

The climate summit, which is held at the end of each year, always aims to reach an agreement in which industrialized countries commit to reducing emissions from their use of fossil fuels and increasing reliance on clean or renewable energy, as well as compensating and assisting developing countries in mitigating the effects of  industrial activities for wealthy and developed nations.

 The image here is not limited to economic assistance for nations or other countries' commitment to environmental criteria to mitigate the severity of the consequences of climate change, but the driving force behind all of this is the human right to life.

The hazard to which humans are exposed as a result of climate change are the main driver of all of this, and thus human rights are perceived as a reason to address the environmental crisis and adapt to its effects as a survivor and a goal, while nations and governments pursue methods to nurture and preserve them to the greatest extent possible. 

We are not merely contemplating the right to life here, but also other rights. The right to self-determination, the right to development, the right to health, the right to an adequate standard, the right to appropriate habitation, and the right to water and sanitation are among them.

When each right is examined in depth, the ramifications of climate change will become evident. The right to self-determination, on the other hand, has been impacted by climate change due to its effects, which may result in the disappearance of some countries from the map, necessitating that the peoples of these countries have the right to self-determination and the ability to choose whether or not to survive on this biosphere. 

The right to development is an essential and fundamental right for all people, especially those residing in developing nations. However, the effects of climate change may impede the attainment of the required sustainable development; hence, wealthy nations must aid their impoverished counterparts in attaining sustainable development.

In terms of the essential rights to health, food, adequate housing, and water, they are all significantly impacted by climate change, which hinders their realization. The increment in emissions has a direct impact on human health, and the effects of climate change may threaten food security due to desertification and a decrease in the proportion of water, which threatens the ability to provide food in light of the increase in the world's population, which is tied to the right to access of water, whose proportion has decreased, while ignoring the mitigation of these effects. The effects of climate change pose a threat to locating a suitable place to live as a result of the intensifying frequency of natural catastrophes over the past several years

Based on the foregoing, the countries of the world must adopt a new approach to climate change that is predicated primarily on human rights, and it should be noted that the preamble that began with the Paris Agreement within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change states that it is the responsibility of all countries "to respect, promote, and observe their respective human rights obligations when taking measures to address climate change." 

As a corollary, it is vital to emphasize that the major purpose of producing recommendations and state policies is the realization of human rights, from identifying the problem to providing remedies and programs. 

In addition, it is necessary to identify the rights holders and the concerned parties who are committed to these rights and to strengthen their capacity to fulfill their obligations, with an emphasis on raising awareness among senior and junior government officials of the fundamental rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.