CLIMATE CHANGE: TACKLING THE GREATEST HUMAN RIGHTS CHALLENGE OF OUR TIME

This briefing paper by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) and CARE International argues that climate change is a critical human rights challenge. It examines how climate impacts and the responses to them threaten fundamental rights and provides a set of policy recommendations to integrate a human rights-based approach into the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process.

• Climate change is described as the "greatest human rights challenge of our time," creating issues of justice and inequality for millions of people and future generations. The document asserts that the international community's failure to take urgent mitigation action threatens the rights of vulnerable communities already experiencing adverse impacts.
• Direct climate impacts threaten various human rights across different regions: sea level rise and flooding threaten rights to life, health, and housing in coastal areas; melting snow and ice threaten the security of indigenous peoples in the Arctic; and glacial melt puts communities in the Andes and Himalayas at risk. Additionally, weather extremes constrain food security and increase costs for the world's poorest people.
• Climate mitigation and adaptation efforts can themselves cause human rights violations. Specifically, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) activities may negatively impact the rights of indigenous peoples and local forest communities, while large-scale energy projects may force communities from ancestral lands without consent.
• The UNFCCC has been slow to operationalize human rights protections despite recognizing in the 2010 Cancun Agreements that Parties should "fully respect human rights" in all climate-related actions. The document notes that the draft negotiating text for the 2015 climate agreement contained only one reference to rights in the preamble paragraphs.
• The authors recommend that the 2015 climate agreement include a commitment to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels to prevent severe human harm. They also call for the establishment of a mechanism to provide compensation for those experiencing loss and damage to lives, livelihoods, property, and culture.
• To ensure accountability, the briefing recommends that the UNFCCC establish an institutional safeguard system consisting of social and environmental policies, monitoring systems, grievance mechanisms, and opportunities for meaningful participation. It specifically suggests the creation of a dedicated work programme on human rights and climate change reporting to the COP.

APA

Center for International Environmental Law (2015). CLIMATE CHANGE: TACKLING THE GREATEST HUMAN RIGHTS CHALLENGE OF OUR TIME. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/CCandHR_Feb2015.pdf

Chicago

Center for International Environmental Law. CLIMATE CHANGE: TACKLING THE GREATEST HUMAN RIGHTS CHALLENGE OF OUR TIME. 2015. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/CCandHR_Feb2015.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Center for International Environmental Law |title=CLIMATE CHANGE: TACKLING THE GREATEST HUMAN RIGHTS CHALLENGE OF OUR TIME |date=February 2015 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/CCandHR_Feb2015.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centerforinternationalenvironmentallaw2015climate, author = {{Center for International Environmental Law}}, title = {{CLIMATE CHANGE: TACKLING THE GREATEST HUMAN RIGHTS CHALLENGE OF OUR TIME}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2015}, month = feb, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/CCandHR_Feb2015.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }