TY - JOUR

T1 - What’s in a Right? Concretizing States’ Climate Change Mitigation Obligations under Human Rights Law

AU - Nordlander, Linnéa

N1 - Funding Information: The author acknowledges support from the Independent Research Fund Denmark (project: Enhancing Climate Action through International Law). The author would also like to extend thanks to the participants in the workshop ‘Climate and Investment Litigation’ hosted at University College London on the 2nd of February 2023 and to members of the Norwegian Institute for Human Rights for their useful feedback on an early draft of this article. Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) [2024].

PY - 2024/3/1

Y1 - 2024/3/1

N2 - States owe duties under human rights law to protect individuals from climate harm by mitigating climate change individually and collectively, in order to secure the Paris Agreement’s 1.5◦C goal. It is, however, unclear what human rights law requires of states generally in terms of emissions reduction trajectories. This article elucidates that question, by looking at what reduction obligations can be deduced from scholarship and the work of human rights enforcement mandates. It argues that it is not possible to deduce individualized reduction obligations or methods to calculate such obligations from the current body of human rights law. The article then explores three different pathways to achieve such concretization: law-making, litigation, and monitoring bodies. The analysis provides a platform for human rights law to realize its potential in advancing state ambition on mitigating climate change at the norm-level by assessing the promise of the different pathways to concretization.

AB - States owe duties under human rights law to protect individuals from climate harm by mitigating climate change individually and collectively, in order to secure the Paris Agreement’s 1.5◦C goal. It is, however, unclear what human rights law requires of states generally in terms of emissions reduction trajectories. This article elucidates that question, by looking at what reduction obligations can be deduced from scholarship and the work of human rights enforcement mandates. It argues that it is not possible to deduce individualized reduction obligations or methods to calculate such obligations from the current body of human rights law. The article then explores three different pathways to achieve such concretization: law-making, litigation, and monitoring bodies. The analysis provides a platform for human rights law to realize its potential in advancing state ambition on mitigating climate change at the norm-level by assessing the promise of the different pathways to concretization.

KW - climate change

KW - emissions reductions

KW - European Convention of Human Rights

KW - human rights

KW - international law

KW - mitigation

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85184491952&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1093/hrlr/ngae001

DO - 10.1093/hrlr/ngae001

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85184491952

VL - 24

JO - Human Rights Law Review

JF - Human Rights Law Review

SN - 1461-7781

IS - 1

M1 - ngae001

ER -