Amicus Curiae Brief On the Issues in the Request for an Advisory Opinion on the Climate Emergency and Human Rights Submitted by the Republic of Colombia and the Republic of Chile

The brief provides scientific and legal arguments to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, asserting that the climate emergency constitutes a threat to fundamental human rights. It emphasizes that States have a positive obligation to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions based on the best available science, specifically the 1.5°C target. The document argues that this duty includes regulating 'Carbon Majors' and avoiding 'false solutions' like carbon offsetting and unproven geoengineering, which may undermine genuine decarbonization. It concludes that failure to take effective, science-based action violates the rights to life, health, and a healthy environment, particularly for marginalized groups and future generations.

• The IPCC establishes that every increment of global warming intensifies multiple and concurrent hazards, and that limiting warming to 1.5°C is essential to reduce the most severe risks, although harms occur even below this level.
• Climate change is a 'threat multiplier' that disproportionately affects marginalized groups, including women, children, Indigenous Peoples, and minority groups, resulting in mortality rates 15 times higher in highly vulnerable regions between 2010 and 2020.
• There is a clear causal link between fossil fuels and the climate crisis, with 86% of anthropogenic GHG emissions attributed to fossil fuels over the last decade; consequently, most proven fossil fuel reserves must remain unburned to meet 1.5°C pathways.
• International human rights law (IHRL) imposes positive obligations on States to implement timely and adequate adaptation and mitigation measures to protect individuals from foreseeable climate harms, as demonstrated by the UN Human Rights Committee's decision in Billy et al v Australia.
• States have a duty to regulate the conduct of business enterprises, including 'Carbon Majors'—the 100 fossil fuel and cement companies responsible for 71% of industrial GHG emissions between 1988 and 2017—to ensure the effectiveness of human rights protections.
• Reliance on 'false solutions' such as carbon offsetting, geoengineering, and unproven carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies is criticized as speculative and potentially harmful, risking 'mitigation deterrence' and the violation of the precautionary principle.
• National courts in the Netherlands (Urgenda), Germany (Neubauer), and Belgium have increasingly recognized that insufficient state action on climate change violates human rights, often utilizing the concept of a 'carbon budget' to define the scope of state obligations.

APA

Jones, S. H., Main-Klingst, L., Marjanac, S., Newman, V., Weiss, A., & White, J. (2023). Amicus Curiae Brief On the Issues in the Request for an Advisory Opinion on the Climate Emergency and Human Rights Submitted by the Republic of Colombia and the Republic of Chile. ClientEarth. https://www.clientearth.org/media/uoxe0p0j/iacthr_ce_final.pdf

Chicago

Jones, Sam Hunter, Lea Main-Klingst, Sophie Marjanac, Vesselina Newman, Adam Weiss, and Jonathan White. Amicus Curiae Brief On the Issues in the Request for an Advisory Opinion on the Climate Emergency and Human Rights Submitted by the Republic of Colombia and the Republic of Chile. ClientEarth, 2023. https://www.clientearth.org/media/uoxe0p0j/iacthr_ce_final.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Jones |first1=Sam Hunter |last2=Main-Klingst |first2=Lea |last3=Marjanac |first3=Sophie |last4=Newman |first4=Vesselina |last5=Weiss |first5=Adam |last6=White |first6=Jonathan |title=Amicus Curiae Brief On the Issues in the Request for an Advisory Opinion on the Climate Emergency and Human Rights Submitted by the Republic of Colombia and the Republic of Chile |publisher=ClientEarth |date=December 2023 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/uoxe0p0j/iacthr_ce_final.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{jones2023amicus, author = {Jones, Sam Hunter and Main-Klingst, Lea and Marjanac, Sophie and Newman, Vesselina and Weiss, Adam and White, Jonathan}, title = {{Amicus Curiae Brief On the Issues in the Request for an Advisory Opinion on the Climate Emergency and Human Rights Submitted by the Republic of Colombia and the Republic of Chile}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2023}, month = dec, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/uoxe0p0j/iacthr_ce_final.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }