What’s in a Right? Concretizing States’ Climate Change Mitigation Obligations under Human Rights Law
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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.
Original language | English |
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Article number | ngae001 |
Journal | Human Rights Law Review |
Volume | 24 |
Issue number | 1 |
ISSN | 1461-7781 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Mar 2024 |
Bibliographical note
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].
- climate change, emissions reductions, European Convention of Human Rights, human rights, international law, mitigation
Research areas
ID: 388587325