The Rising Tide of Rights: Addressing Climate Loss and Damage through Rights-Based Litigation

This article offers a comprehensive analysis of rights-based climate litigation aimed at addressing climate change-induced loss and damage, underlining its potential as a transformative force amid the minimal progress towards a coordinated global response on this topic. It builds on literature highlighting the potential of rights-based climate litigation to fill the gap in accountability for climate change and its consequences, noting that research to date has not systematically analyzed the remedies that plaintiffs have sought or secured. By focusing on remedy claims, this study illuminates the capacity and the limitations of such litigation to unlock redress for loss and damage while highlighting its reciprocal relationship with international negotiations. This synergy implies a promising trajectory towards a more equitable climate governance framework, despite the complexities and challenges inherent in this rapidly evolving field

State Responsibility for Human Rights Violations Associated With Climate Change

While there is widespread agreement that climate change has negative implications for the enjoyment of human rights, it remains unclear in what circumstances State action associated with climate change amounts to a human rights violation. To unpack this question, this chapter analyses how the law of State responsibility may apply to human rights violations associated with climate change. This involves a discussion of the nature of States’ obligations to prevent human rights violations and to take measures to ensure the realisation of human rights at home and abroad. Specifically, the chapter discusses to what extent human rights obligations and principles prescribe particular forms of climate action at the national level and in the context of international cooperation and support. Finally, the chapter sheds light on the potential legal consequences of human rights violations associated with climate change.FdR – Publicaties niet-programma gebonde

Climate Migrants’ Right to Enjoy their Culture

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) first observed in 1990 that ‘migration and resettlement may be the most threatening short-term effects of climate change on human settlements’. 1 Numerous studies have since confirmed that climate change – in combination with multiple other ‘stressors’ – will force an increasing number of people across the globe to relocate temporarily or permanently to safer habitats. 2 The threat of forced relocation is particularly urgent for Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS) such as Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Solomon Islands, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Fiji and Vanuatu, which are already losing habitable territory as a result of climate change. At the same time, empirical evidence suggests that a significant proportion of people from low-lying PSIDS could be ‘trapped’ by worsening climate conditions, declining living standards and few opportunities for migration or income-generation for adaptation. 3 The lack of mobility options only decreases the chances that cultural heritage could be preserved in face of climate change, as well-managed migration is widely recognised as a means of enhancing resilience and adaptive capacity in island communities. 4FdR – Publicaties niet-programma gebonde

In Defence of Future Generations: A Reply to Stephen Humphreys

In this reply to Stephen Humphreys, we challenge the dismissal of future generations as a locus of responsibility for present generations. Drawing from diverse sources such as indigenous law, environmental jurisprudence and practice, we demonstrate that global discourse on intergenerationality is broader and more nuanced than Humphreys suggests. Our response highlights the importance of incorporating diverse perspectives to enrich discourse and promote an inclusive approach to the progressive development of international law. Further, we contend that ‘future generations’ discourse has emancipatory power, offering potential for reshaping international law based on a vision of justice and solidarity across time and space. We call for increased dialogue and collaboration among scholars, practitioners and frontline communities to ensure that future generations discourse remains grounded in real-world experiences. By persistently interrogating and developing our understanding of responsibilities owed to future generations, we can imagine and cultivate a more inclusive – and, hence, more promising – approach to addressing climate change and related global crises

Between Negotiations and Litigation: Vanuatu’s Perspective on Loss and Damage from Climate Change

This contribution explores how climate-vulnerable states can effectively use the law to force action in order to address loss and damage from climate change, taking the Pacific Island state of Vanuatu as an example. Vanuatu made headlines when its Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and External Trade, the Hon. Ralph Regenvanu, announced his government’s intention to explore legal action as a tool to address climate loss and damage suffered in Vanuatu. Our contribution places this announcement in the context of Vanuatu’s own experience with climate loss and damage, and the state’s ongoing efforts to secure compensation for loss and damage through the multilateral climate change regime. We then discuss the possibilities for legal action to seek redress for climate loss and damage, focusing on two types of action highlighted in Minister Regenvanu’s statement: action against states under international law, and action against fossil fuel companies under domestic law. After concluding that the issue of compensation for climate loss and damage is best addressed at the multilateral level, we offer proposals on how the two processes of litigation and negotiation could interact with each other and inspire more far-reaching action to address loss and damage from climate change.NWO016.Veni.195.342Exploring the Frontiers of International La

A Next Generation of Climate Laws in Fiji and the Pacific:Exploring the Role and Value of the <i>Climate Change Act 2021</i> (Fiji)

In 2021, the Fijian parliament passed a comprehensive, ambitious new climate law: the Climate Change Act 2021. Framework climate legislation like this is being introduced around the world to frame and coordinate governmental responses to climate change under the international Paris Agreement. The Fiji example builds on best practice approaches internationally and has significant potential to strengthen domestic climate governance and help channel international climate finance to key areas of need. Yet its effective implementation relies heavily on the resources, capacity and political will of government and the engagement of other stakeholders, such as civil society and the private sector. This report draws on a research workshop involving key government and non-government stakeholders held in Suva in July 2023, as well as experiences implementing framework climate laws in other relevant jurisdictions, to discuss emerging barriers and challenges to the effective implementation of the Climate Change Act 2021. The discussion is intended as a foundation for the development of further applied research activities which can support policymakers and decision-makers across the Fiji government to develop and deliver processes, engage stakeholders, access data and other inputs to facilitate effective implementation of the legislation as part of Fiji’s evolving domestic climate change governance

Loss and damage and limits to adaptation: recent IPCC insights and implications for climate science and policy

Recent evidence shows that climate change is leading to irreversible and existential impacts on vulnerable communities and countries across the globe. Among other effects, this has given rise to public debate and engagement around notions of climate crisis and emergency. The Loss and Damage (L&D) policy debate has emphasized these aspects over the last three decades. Yet, despite institutionalization through an article on L&D by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the Paris Agreement, the debate has remained vague, particularly with reference to its remit and relationship to adaptation policy and practice. Research has recently made important strides forward in terms of developing a science perspective on L&D. This article reviews insights derived from recent publications by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and others, and presents the implications for science and policy. Emerging evidence on hard and soft adaptation limits in certain systems, sectors and regions holds the potential to further build momentum for climate policy to live up to the Paris ambition of stringent emission reductions and to increase efforts to support the most vulnerable. L&D policy may want to consider actions to extend soft adaptation limits and spur transformational, that is, non-standard risk management and adaptation, so that limits are not breached. Financial, technical, and legal support would be appropriate for instances where hard limits are transgressed. Research is well positioned to further develop robust evidence on critical and relevant risks at scale in the most vulnerable countries and communities, as well as options to reduce barriers and limits to adaptation

Written Statement for the National Inquiry on the Impact of Climate Change on the Human Rights of the Filipino People, Republic of the Philippines Commission on Human Rights

Effective Protection of Fundamental Rights in a pluralist worldExploring the Frontiers of International La

Protection of Climate Displaced Persons under International Law: A Case Study from Mataso Island, Vanuatu

International human rights law has evolved to offer specific protection to persons who are internally displaced. This protection is becoming increasingly important as the effects of climate change are putting more populations around the world at risk of displacement. However, there is still limited empirical insight into the factors that enhance or undermine effective protection of the rights of climate displaced persons in practice. This article seeks to fill this gap, drawing on a case study of climate displacement resulting from Tropical Cyclone Pam which struck the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu in March 2015. We note that Vanuatu has an expansive suite of laws and policies dedicated to disaster preparation, risk reduction and response, as well as climate change and disaster displacement. However, its capacity to fulfil its human rights obligations in the face of climate disasters is undermined by a lack of resources and institutional capacity. We argue that this gap must be addressed through an integrated approach to international law that emphasises human rights obligations of international cooperation and assistance along with obligations relating to climate change mitigation, adaptation and capacity building under international climate change law. Vanuatu's experience with Cyclone Pam also provides a clear case for strengthening the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage Associated with Climate Change Impacts ('Warsaw Mechanism') in a manner that results in enhanced human rights protection for climate displaced persons.FdR – Publicaties niet-programma gebonde

The Paris Agreement Implementation Blueprint: Avenues to Blueprint Implementation (Part 2)

The combination of political and climate crises in early 2017 create the conditions for the ultimate perfect storm. The dramatic collapse of polar ice-sheets, coupled with climatic and weather conditions increasingly hostile to human life and livelihoods, appear to demand an immediate international response at precisely the moment when coordinated political action appears unattainable. Governments have agreed to limit warming to 1.5C or ‘well below’ 2C, but the world remains on course for disaster. There is currently no plan or framework for closing the gap between action and goal. More specifically there is no common framework to support either the equitable division of the remaining carbon budget or the quantification of rights to finance (upon which any equitable division of the carbon budget must depend). In Part 2 of this paper we describe the legal avenues to implementation of the Blueprint framework described in Part 1 of this article. FdR – Publicaties zonder aanstelling Universiteit Leide