32/23 Analytical study on the relationship between climate change and the human right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health



Human Rights Council Thirty-second session

Agenda items 2 and 3

Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner

for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the

High Commissioner and the Secretary-General

Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,

political, economic, social and cultural rights,

including the right to development

Analytical study on the relationship between climate change and the human right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health

Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for

Human Rights

Summary

The present analytical study on the relationship between climate change and the

human right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and

mental health is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 29/15. In the

study, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights examines

the impacts of climate change on human rights, particularly the right to health; related

human rights obligations and responsibilities of States and other actors; and the elements

and benefits of a rights-based approach to addressing climate change. It concludes with

several recommendations.

Contents

Page

I. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 3

II. Impacts of climate change on enjoyment of the right to health ........................................................ 3

A. Key impacts of climate change on health ................................................................................ 5

B. Disproportionate impacts on persons and groups in vulnerable situations .............................. 8

III. General human rights obligations and principles that apply in the context of climate change ......... 10

IV. Climate change and the human right to health ................................................................................. 13

V. Applying a rights-based approach to health and climate action ....................................................... 14

VI. Conclusions and recommendations .................................................................................................. 16

I. Introduction

1. The present study is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 29/15,

in which the Council requested the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for

Human Rights (OHCHR) to conduct a detailed analytical study, in consultation with

relevant stakeholders, on the relationship between climate change and the human right of

everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.

2. On 21 August 2015, OHCHR circulated a note verbale and questionnaire to Member

States requesting inputs for the study. Communications were also sent to other

stakeholders, including civil society organizations, international organizations and national

human rights institutions. These inputs were summarized in a conference room paper1

prepared by OHCHR in advance of the Human Rights Council panel discussion on climate

change and the right to health which was held on 3 March 2016.2 The panel discussion, the

above-mentioned written submissions and independent research have informed the study.

3. In the present study, OHCHR examines the impacts of climate change on human

rights, particularly the right to health, related human rights obligations and responsibilities

of States and other actors, and the elements and benefits of a rights-based approach to

addressing the impacts of climate change on human health. It concludes with concrete

recommendations for fulfilling human rights obligations, particularly those relating to

health, in the context of climate change.

II. Impacts of climate change on enjoyment of the right to health

4. All human rights are universal, inalienable, indivisible, interdependent and

interrelated. In the context of the right to health, these characteristics are eminently clear.

Enjoyment of the right to health is contingent upon the availability of, inter alia, good

quality health services, safe working conditions, adequate housing, food, water and

sanitation, a healthy environment, and education, all on the basis of non-discrimination, as

well as broad stakeholder participation in health policy formulation and implementation.3

Climate change is real, human-made greenhouse gas emissions are its primary cause, and it

contributes, among other things, to the increasing frequency of extreme weather events and

natural disasters, rising sea levels, floods, heatwaves, drought and the spread of tropical and

vector-borne diseases.4 These extremes alter ecosystems, disrupt food production and water

supply, damage infrastructure and settlements and increase morbidity and mortality. They

are also responsible for the displacement of affected communities, among whom an

important consequence is an increased incidence of poor mental and physical health. Thus,

climate change directly and indirectly threatens the full and effective enjoyment of a range

of human rights, including the rights to life, water and sanitation, food, health, housing,

self-determination, culture and development.

1 The questionnaire, the original inputs received and their summary are available from

www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/HRAndClimateChange/Pages/StudyImpact.aspx. In the present study,

references to stakeholder inputs will be to “(Stakeholder name) input”.

2 The summary report of the panel is contained in A/HRC/32/24. Full statements are available from

www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/HRAndClimateChange/Pages/StudyImpact.aspx.

3 In paragraph 3 of its general comment 14 (2000) on the right to the highest attainable standard of

health, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights states that the right to health is

closely related to and dependent upon the realization of other human rights.

4 See Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report.

5. Many of the negative impacts of climate change, such as loss of livelihood,

reductions in crop yields, destruction of homes, increased food prices and food insecurity,

are disproportionately borne by persons and communities already in disadvantageous

situations owing to geography, poverty, gender, age, disability, or cultural or ethnic

background, among others, who have historically contributed the least to greenhouse gas

emissions. In the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change it is stated that people who are socially, economically, culturally, politically,

institutionally or otherwise marginalized are especially vulnerable to climate change and

also to some adaptation and mitigation responses.5 For example, the biofuel agro-industry,

hydroelectric power and forest conservation efforts can contribute to food insecurity and

displacement. Persons, communities and even entire States that occupy low-lying coastal

lands, tundra and Arctic ice, arid lands and other delicate ecosystems and territories at risk

and rely upon such land for housing and subsistence, face substantial risks of displacement.

6. The World Health Organization (WHO) maintains that climate change is affecting

health now, and will do so in the future. WHO describes the main health risks posed by

climate change as more intense heatwaves and fires; increased prevalence of food-, water-

and vector-borne diseases; increased likelihood of undernutrition; and lost work capacity in

vulnerable populations. Additional potential risks include: breakdown in food systems;

violent conflict associated with resource scarcity and population movement; and

exacerbation of poverty. Climate change is expected to widen existing health inequalities,

both between and within populations, and “the overall health effects of a changing climate

are likely to be overwhelmingly negative”.6

7. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change confirms that the health of human

populations is sensitive to shifts in weather patterns and other aspects of climate change.

Direct effects on health occur “due to changes in temperature and precipitation and

occurrence of heat waves, floods, droughts, and fires”, while indirectly, “health may be

damaged by ecological disruptions brought on by climate change (crop failures, shifting

patterns of disease vectors), or social responses to climate change (such as displacement of

populations following prolonged drought)”.7

8. At its most extreme, climate change kills. A study commissioned by the Climate

Vulnerable Forum linked 400,000 deaths worldwide to climate change each year.8 WHO

has estimated that between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause

approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and

heat stress alone.9 Taken by themselves, premature deaths from climate change would be

ample cause for urgent action. Climate change, however, also endangers the underlying

determinants of health at every level, acting as a threat multiplier. According to the Lancet

Commission on Health and Climate Change, climate change threatens to undermine the last

5 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2014—Impacts, Adaptation, and

Vulnerability: Summary for Policymakers, p. 6.

6 WHO input (see footnote 1 above); WHO, “Climate change and health”, Fact sheet No. 266, available

from www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs266/en/.

7 K.R. Smith and others, “Human health: impacts, adaptation, and co-benefits”, Climate Change 2014:

Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment

Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, p. 713.

8 See DARA, Climate Vulnerability Monitor: A Guide to the Cold Calculus of a Hot Planet, 2nd ed.

(2012).

9 See WHO, Quantitative Risk Assessment of the Effects of Climate Change on Selected Causes of

Death, 2030s and 2050s (2014).

half century of gains in development and global health. 10 One recent study found that

“unmitigated warming is expected to reshape the global economy by reducing average

global incomes roughly 23 per cent by 2100 and widening global income inequality,

relative to scenarios without climate change”.11

9. In the Human Rights Council panel discussion and in their written submissions,

stakeholders overwhelmingly agreed that climate change posed a grave threat to human

health, including the social and environmental determinants of health such as clean air, safe

drinking water, sufficient food and secure shelter (see A/HRC/32/24). This is confirmed by

expert analysis. For example, the World Bank has estimated that climate change may result

in 1 billion to 2 billion people lacking an adequate supply of water.12

10. Negative impacts caused by climate change are global, contemporaneous and

expected to increase exponentially according to the degree of climate change that ultimately

takes place. Climate change, therefore, requires a global, rights-based response. The Human

Rights Council, its special procedures mechanisms and OHCHR have consistently brought

attention to the links between human rights and climate change through a series of

resolutions, reports and activities on the subject, and by advocating a human rights-based

approach.13 A rights-based approach to climate change, as called for in various Council

resolutions,14 has the potential to inform and strengthen international, regional and national

policy, promoting policy coherence, human well-being and sustainable development.

11. The importance of a rights-based approach and the right to health is explicitly

recognized in the Paris Agreement, which calls on States to respect, promote and consider

human rights, including the right to health, in their respective climate actions. Improved

understanding of the key impacts of climate change on the health of all persons, particularly

those in vulnerable situations, should inform a rights-based approach. Some of these

impacts are detailed below.

A. Key impacts of climate change on health

1. Heat-related health impacts

12. According to WHO, projected increases in average seasonal temperatures and the

frequency and intensity of heatwaves will contribute to increases in heat-related deaths

among people aged over 65 years. Compared to a future without climate change, this is

projected to result in nearly 38,000 additional deaths per year as of 2030 and nearly

100,000 additional deaths per year as of 2050. The largest impacts will be felt in South-East

Asia.15

13. Heatwaves also contribute to respiratory and cardiovascular disease, and pose a

health risk for people working outdoors or under ineffectively climate-controlled

conditions. Occupational health risks include clinical heatstroke and death. Increasing

temperatures also have implications for labour productivity and poverty reduction,

10 See Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change, “Health and climate change: policy

responses to protect public health” (2015).

11 M. Burke, S.M. Hsiang and E. Miguel, “Global non-linear effect of temperature on economic

production”, Nature, vol. 527, pp. 235-239 (12 November 2015).

12 World Development Report 2010: Development and Climate Change, p. 5.

13 See www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/HRAndClimateChange/Pages/HRClimateChangeIndex.aspx.

14 See resolutions 7/23, 10/4, 18/22, 26/27 and 29/15.

15 WHO, Quantitative Risk Assessment.

increasing the vulnerability of poor populations particularly in developing countries, many

of which also have a weak health infrastructure.16

2. Impacts of air pollution

14. Air pollution is not caused by climate change, but climate change can exacerbate

some forms of air pollution, and the sources of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants

are often the same. Promoting access to clean energy would simultaneously reduce levels of

greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful pollutants. Given that household air pollution

and ambient air pollution are estimated to cause nearly 4.3 million deaths and 3.7 million

deaths per year, respectively,17 this would have substantial health benefits. Air pollutants

have also been linked to health impacts, such as cardiovascular and respiratory disease and

autism,18 which can affect quality of life and labour productivity.

3. Extreme weather events and natural disasters

15. Direct impacts on health are caused by crises such as hurricanes, heatwaves,

flooding, landslides, drought and wildfires, among others. Climate change contributes to the

increasing frequency and intensity of these events and their associated health impacts,

which include injury, disability, death and infectious disease transmission. For example,

climate change is expected to enhance coastal flooding hazards through both a rise in sea

levels and the increasing intensity and frequency of extreme weather events. In addition to

mortality, flooding can cause injuries, infections, mental health problems, loss of income

and crops, and damage to water and sanitation facilities and other infrastructure with

resultant health impacts such as increased transmission of vector-borne diseases.19

16. Between 2005 and 2015, more than 1.5 billion people were affected by disasters,

with women, children and people in vulnerable situations being disproportionately

affected.20 The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre has estimated that over the past

seven years 22.5 million people have been displaced each year by climate or weather-

related disasters.21

17. The impacts of these crises are disproportionately felt by persons in vulnerable

situations. For example, when there are gendered inequalities in access to economic, social

and cultural rights, women suffer from higher rates of mortality as a consequence of natural

disasters.22 Further, a direct correlation has been observed between women’s status in

society and their likelihood of receiving adequate health care in times of disaster and

environmental stress.23

4. Expanding disease vectors

18. Climate change helps expand disease vectors in a number of ways. Natural disasters

destroy water and sanitation infrastructure, leading to outbreaks of water and insect-borne

16 United Nations Development Programme input.

17 See WHO, “Climate change and health”.

18 See M.F. Cortez, “Air pollution exposure in pregnancy linked to autism in study” (Bloomberg,

18 December 2014).

19 WHO, Quantitative Risk Assessment.

20 United Nations Development Programme input.

21 Global Estimates 2015: People Displaced by Disasters, p. 8 (July 2015).

22 E. Neumayer and T. Plümper, “The gendered nature of natural disasters: the impact of catastrophic

events on the gender gap in life expectancy, 1981-2002”, Annals of the Association of American

Geographers, vol. 97 (3), pp. 551-566 (2007).

23 See WHO, “Gender inequities in environmental health”, document EUR/5067874/151 (2008).

diseases. Cholera, for example, thrives in a warming climate and insects and other carriers

of disease are very sensitive to heat, humidity and rainfall. Climate change has greatly

expanded the range of dengue fever and could do the same for malaria. More than half of

the world’s population currently lives in an area where Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the

principal vector for zika, dengue and chikungunya, are present. Warming temperatures

threaten to expand this geographical range even further. In addition to the aforementioned

diseases, panellists and survey respondents linked climate change to outbreaks of

leptospirosis, diarrhoea, viral infections, meningitis, varicella, viral hepatitis, leishmaniasis

and pertussis.24

19. Changes in the climate have multiple impacts on transmission of diseases, including

lengthening their transmission season and expanding their geographic range. WHO has

projected that these impacts will result in 48,000 additional deaths from diarrhoeal disease

for children aged under 15 years and 60,000 additional deaths from malaria by the year

2030. These increases in mortality would have a disproportionate impact on persons living

in Africa and South-East Asia.25

5. Nutrition

20. Climate change affects nutrition through changes in crop yields, loss of livelihood,

increases in poverty, and reduced access to food, water and sanitation, among others.

Elevated carbon dioxide levels cause climate change and directly decrease the protein,

mineral and vitamin content of many staple food crops.26 The World Bank recently

estimated that a 2°C increase in average global temperature would put between 100 million

and 400 million more people at risk of hunger and could result in over 3 million additional

deaths from malnutrition each year.27 By 2050, climate change is expected to result in an

additional 24 million undernourished children.28 WHO estimates that climate change will

lead to nearly 95,000 additional deaths per year due to undernutrition in children aged 5

years or less by 2030.29 Beyond starvation, undernutrition contributes to higher incidences

of morbidity and mortality from diseases such as diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria and

measles. These impacts will be felt disproportionately in South Asia and sub-Saharan

Africa. Climate change is projected to increase severe child stunting by 23 per cent in

central sub-Saharan Africa and by 62 per cent in South Asia by 2050.30

6. Impacts on mental health

21. The consequences of climate change can have a profound impact on mental health

through both its direct impact and its impact on social support systems and cultural

traditions. People who experience the loss of homes or loved ones, or are exposed to life-

threatening situations, face higher risks of developing stress and anxiety-related conditions,

24 Various inputs, including WHO; and G. Mercer, “The link between Zika and climate change”, The

Atlantic (24 February 2016).

25 WHO, Quantitative Risk Assessment.

26 L. Ziska and others, The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A

Scientific Assessment, U.S. Global Change Research Program (Washington, D.C., 2016), pp. 189-216.

27 World Bank, World Development Report 2010, pp. 4-5.

28 See G.C. Nelson and others, Climate change: Impact on Agriculture and Costs of Adaptation,

International Food Policy Research Institute (Washington, D.C., 2009).

29 WHO, Quantitative Risk Assessment.

30 S.J. Lloyd, R. Sari Kovats and Zaid Chalabi, “Climate change, crop yields, and undernutrition:

development of a model to quantify the impact of climate scenarios on child undernutrition”,

Environmental Health Perspectives, vol. 119, pp. 1817-1823 (2011).

including post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.31 Climate impacts on mental health

stem from the immediate physical effects of climate change and the more gradual effects on

the environment, human systems and infrastructure.32 For example, a study on the mental-

health effects of climate change found that prolonged drought can lead to increasing farmer

suicides, along with impaired mental health and stress.33

7. Other health impacts of climate change

22. As a threat multiplier, climate change has more impacts on health than can be

addressed in the present report. It has, for example, been linked to displacement, forced

migration, insecurity and violent conflict, all of which pose substantial health risks.34

Declining biodiversity as a result of climate change also has an impact on the development

of new medicines and access to medicines. Ecosystem damage has far-ranging implications

for health, infrastructure, ecosystem services and traditional livelihoods. Climate change

and associated natural disasters further increase burdens on Governments struggling to

allocate limited resources to fulfil human rights obligations.

B. Disproportionate impacts on persons and groups in vulnerable

situations

23. Negative impacts of climate change are disproportionately felt by the poor, women,

children, migrants, persons with disabilities, minorities, indigenous peoples and others in

vulnerable situations, particularly those living in geographically vulnerable developing

countries. Populations living in small island developing States, on coasts, in high

mountains, in deserts, at the poles and in other delicate ecosystems are most vulnerable to

climate change.35 For example, persons living in small island developing States currently

suffer from climate-sensitive health problems and vulnerability to extreme weather events,

which can have short and long-term health effects, including drowning, injuries, increased

disease transmission and deterioration of water quantity and quality.36 In extreme cases,

rising sea levels threaten the very existence of some atoll nations the residents of which

face imminent displacement and associated physical and mental health impacts.

24. The Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change affirmed that certain

population groups are particularly vulnerable to the health effects of climate change due,

inter alia. to existing socioeconomic inequalities, cultural norms and intrinsic psychological

factors.37 The World Bank has emphasized that poor people are disproportionately affected

by climate-related shocks and that climate change could result in an additional 100 million

31 Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of

health, statement made during the panel discussion on climate change and the right to health on

3 March 2016.

32 See S. Clayton, C. Manning and C. Hodge, Beyond Storms & Droughts: The Psychological Impacts

of Climate Change (Washington, D.C., American Psychological Association and ecoAmerica, 2014).

33

S.K. Padhy and others, “Mental health effects of climate change”, Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, vol. 19 (1), pp. 3-7 (2014).

34 See statement by the Special Rapporteur on the right to health during the panel discussion; and S.M.

Hsiang, M. Burke and E. Miguel, “Quantifying the influence of climate on human conflict”, Science,

vol. 341, issue 6151 (13 September 2013).

35 See WHO, “Climate change and health”.

36 Smith and others, “Human health”.

37 Lancet Commission, “Health and climate change”.

people living in extreme poverty by 2030.38 Climate change increases the incidence and

range of diseases like malaria and diarrhoea that disproportionately affect the poor. The

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has also highlighted the fact that health losses

due to climate change-induced undernutrition occur mainly in areas that are already food

insecure.39 These types of impact increase health expenditures and ill-health among those

who can least afford it, contributing further to the vicious cycle of poverty.

1. Health impacts and gender

25. Gender differences in health risks are likely to be exacerbated by climate change.40

At the global level, natural disasters kill more women than men, with younger women

being more vulnerable. Evidence suggests that differences are also present in vulnerability

to indirect and long-term effects of climate change. For example, during droughts, the

health of women and girls suffers disproportionately due to reduced water availability for

drinking, cooking and hygiene, and food insecurity. The poorest households in the world

typically rely on the most polluting energy sources for household activities such as cooking,

which are often performed by women and girls. Use of such energy sources is associated

with more than 4.3 million deaths each year.41

2. Health impacts on children

26. Many of the countries that are highly vulnerable to climate change also have higher

proportions of children in their overall population. According to the United Nations

Children Fund (UNICEF), the right to health of children is particularly affected by climate

change. Children are especially vulnerable to changes in air and water quality, temperature,

humidity, and vector-, water-, and food-borne infections due to their less developed

physiology and immune systems. The majority of the existing global disease burden

resulting from climate change occurs in children, and their main causes of death (diarrhoea,

malaria, malnutrition) are likely to increase owing to the impact of climate change.

Children are also more likely than adults to die because of natural hazards or succumb to

malnutrition, injuries or disease in their aftermath.42 The risk of extreme weather events and

other climatic impacts can affect children’s futures in a number of other significant ways.

There has, for example, been a link to an increase in child marriage as a component of

family survival strategies.43

27. Climate change has a disproportionate effect on marginalized and excluded

individuals and groups, including those whose ways of life are inextricably linked to the

environment, such as indigenous children. It exacerbates existing health inequities and

threatens the very notion of intergenerational equity because its impacts will be felt most

severely by children and future generations who have contributed little or nothing to its

making.

38 See S. Hallegatte and others, Shock Waves: Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty, Climate Change and Development Series (Washington, D.C., World Bank, 2016).

39 Smith and others, “Human health”.

40 See WHO, Gender, Climate Change and Health (2014); and Mainstreaming Gender in Health

Adaptation to Climate Change Programmes: User’s Guide (2012).

41 See WHO, ”Climate change and health”.

42 UNICEF input.

43 Human Rights Watch input.

3. Health impacts on migrants

28. Environmental factors and climate change are critical drivers of migration. Although

migration can be a strategy for adapting to climate change, it also contributes to increased

health risks. According to the International Organization for Migration, health risks

associated with migration or displacement are caused by reduced access to health-care

facilities, goods and services; loss of social networks and assets; and other negative impacts

on availability of and access to the underlying determinants of health. In the case of

displacement owing to sudden onset disasters, infectious disease can be a major cause of

mortality. Population movement due to natural disasters often occurs within vulnerable

areas, posing major challenges to public health systems and access to health goods and

services. Migrants may also suffer mental health impacts resulting from their displacement

and the discrimination to which they may be subject.44

4. Health impacts on indigenous peoples

29. Climate change has an impact on the livelihoods and traditions of indigenous

peoples, and can have particularly severe repercussions on their mental and physical health.

For many indigenous peoples, their health is directly related to their immediate

environment, which often serves as their primary source of water, food and medicine.45 A

recent study carried out in Latin America and the Caribbean found that indigenous

communities face multiple difficulties in adapting to environmental changes which

contribute to food insecurity and poor health. For instance, climatic changes in the Andean

and sub-Andean region have resulted in variations in seasonality that affect the food

security, social stability, health and psychological well-being of Aymara and Quechua

peoples.46

30. Similarly, nomadic herders are greatly affected by changes in rainfall that threaten

their herds, reduce milk production and cause the premature death of young cattle.

Droughts also increase respiratory diseases, diseases related to malnutrition and waterborne

diseases such as cholera, particularly affecting women and young children.47 The

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has observed that health inequities rooted in

race and ethnicity can increase vulnerability to climate change.48 This is especially the case

for many indigenous peoples who are at a greater risk of economic hardship, discrimination

and poor health and often rely on vulnerable ecosystems for subsistence.

III. General human rights obligations and principles that apply in the context of climate change

31. Human rights are universal legal guarantees that protect individuals, groups and

peoples against actions and omissions that interfere with their fundamental freedoms and

entitlements. Human rights law obliges Governments (principally) and other duty bearers to

respect, promote, protect and fulfil all human rights. Human rights are legally protected,

and impose obligations in relation to actions and omissions, particularly of States but also

of other duty bearers. Human rights obligations, standards and principles have the power to

44 International Organization for Migration input.

45 Statement by Hindou Ibrahim during the panel discussion on climate change and the right to health.

46 See J. Kronik and D. Verner, Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change in Latin America and the

Caribbean (Washington, D.C., World Bank, 2010).

47 Statement by Hindou Ibrahim.

48 Smith and others, “Human health”.

shape policies for climate change mitigation and adaptation and hold countries accountable

for implementation of climate commitments.

32. As the preceding analysis indicates, climate change caused by human activity has

negative impacts on the full enjoyment of human rights, particularly the right to health.

These impacts trigger obligations and responsibilities among all duty bearers.49 States, for

example, must limit anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases (for example, mitigate

climate change), including through regulatory measures, in order to prevent to the greatest

extent possible current and future negative human rights impacts of climate change. When

climate mitigation efforts fail to adequately protect rights, States must ensure that

appropriate adaptation measures are taken to protect and fulfil the rights of all persons,

particularly those most endangered by the negative impacts of climate change.

33. The human rights framework requires that global efforts to mitigate and adapt to

climate change be guided by relevant human rights norms and principles, including the

rights to participation and information, transparency, accountability, equity and non-

discrimination.

34. The Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Declaration on

the Right to Development all make clear that human rights obligations of States require

both individual action and international cooperation. Under these core human rights

instruments, States acting individually and collectively are obligated to mobilize and

allocate the maximum available resources for the progressive realization of economic,

social and cultural rights, as well as for the advancement of civil and political rights and the

right to development. Failure to adopt reasonable measures to mobilize resources to prevent

foreseeable human rights harm caused by climate change breaches this obligation.

35. In the Declaration on the Right to Development, States are called on to establish,

through their individual and collective actions, national and international conditions

favourable to the realization of all human rights, including through international

cooperation to provide developing countries with appropriate means and facilities to foster

their comprehensive development. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and

Cultural Rights further states that everyone has the right to enjoy the benefits of science and

its applications. All States should, therefore, actively support the development and sharing

of new climate mitigation and adaptation technologies.

36. The Declaration on the Right to Development also emphasizes that all human beings

have a responsibility for development, and they should therefore promote and protect an

appropriate political, social and economic order for development. The Guiding Principles

on Business and Human Rights affirm that States have an obligation to protect human

rights from harm by businesses, while businesses have a responsibility to respect human

rights and to do no harm. Accordingly, all actors should be accountable for negative

impacts caused by their activities and share responsibility for remedying them.50 In

particular, businesses must be accountable for their climate impacts and participate

responsibly in climate mitigation and adaptation actions that fully respect human rights.

37. The human rights principles of equality and non-discrimination require action to

address and remedy the disproportionate impacts of climate change on the most

49 See OHCHR, Key messages on human rights and climate change (2015), available from

www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/ClimateChange/KeyMessages_on_HR_CC.pdf.

50 The legal obligations of States and enterprises to address climate change are subject to growing

consensus and analysis. See, for example, the Oslo Principles on Global Climate Change Obligations

(1 March 2015).

marginalized; to ensure that climate actions benefit persons, groups and peoples in

vulnerable situations; and to reduce inequalities. Efforts to address climate change should

not exacerbate inequalities within or between States. For example, indigenous peoples’

rights should be fully reflected in line with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of

Indigenous Peoples and actions likely to have an impact on their rights should not be taken

without their free, prior and informed consent. Care should also be taken to ensure that a

gender perspective, including efforts to ensure gender equality, is included in all planning

for climate change mitigation and adaptation. The rights of children, older persons,

minorities, migrants and others in vulnerable situations must be effectively protected.

38. The disproportionate impact of climate change on persons in vulnerable situations

raises concerns of climate justice, fairness, equity and access to remedy. The Universal

Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and

other human rights instruments make it clear that all persons who suffer human rights harm

are entitled to access to effective remedies. Those affected by climate change, now and in

the future, must have access to meaningful remedies, including judicial and other redress

mechanisms. The obligations of States in the context of climate change and other

environmental harm extend to all rights holders and to harm that occurs both inside and

beyond boundaries. States should be accountable to rights holders for their contributions to

climate change, including for failure to adequately regulate the emissions of businesses

under their jurisdiction.

39. The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, the Vienna Declaration and

Programme of Action, and the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on

Sustainable Development all call for the right to development to be fulfilled so as to meet

equitably the developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change calls on States to protect

future generations and take action on climate change on the basis of equity and in

accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective

capabilities. While climate change affects people everywhere, those who have contributed

the least to greenhouse gas emissions (that is, the poor, children and future generations) are

often those most affected. Equity in climate action requires that efforts to address climate

change benefit people in developing countries, indigenous peoples, future generations and

others in vulnerable situations.

40. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is subject to

evolution and continuing negotiations regarding its implementation that take place during

its annual Conference of the Parties. In these negotiations and related processes, the human

rights principles of transparency, participation and accountability have an important role to

play.51 In order to ensure sustainable development and appropriate mechanisms for climate

mitigation and adaptation, climate negotiations should be participatory and transparent. A

rights-based framework should shape both the substantive commitments of Parties and the

processes by which they are agreed and carried out.

41. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other human rights

instruments, such as the Declaration on the Right to Development, guarantee all persons the

right to free, active, meaningful and informed participation in public affairs. Particular care

should be taken to comply with relevant human rights obligations relating to participation

of persons, groups and peoples in vulnerable situations in decision-making processes and to

ensure that adaptation and mitigation efforts do not adversely affect those that they should

51 The Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to

Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention) highlights these principles in the context of

environmental issues.

be benefiting. With regard to environmental issues, the Convention on Access to

Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in

Environmental Matters provides a potential model for promoting good environmental

governance and addressing the interlinked rights of access to information, public

participation and access to justice.52

IV. Climate change and the human right to health

42. The protection of all human rights from the impact of climate change is fundamental

for the protection of the right to health. Internationally, however, there is growing

recognition of the specific interlinkages between climate change and the human right to

health. Elements of this relationship are recognized in the text of the United Nations

Framework Convention on Climate Change. Article 1 defines the adverse effects of climate

change as changes in the physical environment or biotite resulting from climate change

which have significant deleterious effects on human health and welfare. Article 3 calls upon

Parties to the Convention to take measures to minimize the causes of climate change and

minimize its adverse effects, including on health. Article 4 further calls for Parties to

minimize the public health implications of mitigation and adaptation projects and measures

they undertake, using relevant tools such as impact assessments. The first direct reference

to human rights in the context of the Convention was made in 2010 in decision 1/CP.16, in

which the Conference of the Parties refers to Human Rights Council resolution 10/4 in

which the Council recognizes the adverse effects of climate change on the effective

enjoyment of human rights. In the decision, it is emphasized that Parties to the Convention

should fully respect human rights in all climate change-related actions.

43. Subsequent negotiations and discussions led to the inclusion of human rights

language in the outcome reached at the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties

to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The outcome of the

twenty-first session makes reference to the outcome of the sixteenth session, which

included health as a priority sector for adaptation, and includes explicit references to the

right to health in the preambles of both its decision and the Paris Agreement. The outcome

emphasizes the importance of health co-benefits under the section relating to enhanced

action prior to 2020. The Agreement also calls on States to respect, promote and consider

human rights, including the right to health, in their respective climate actions.

44. The right to health is explicitly protected in a number of international human rights

treaties, including the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial

Discrimination, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the

Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Convention on the Protection of

the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and the Convention on

the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Countries that have ratified international legal

instruments relating to climate change and/or the right to health are obliged to implement

them and translate their obligations into national law.

45. States, therefore, have clear obligations to take measures to prevent and remedy the

negative impacts of climate change on the right to health, including with regard to the

environmental and social determinants of health. This was explicitly recognized by the

Committee on the Rights of the Child in its general comment No. 15 (2013) on the right of

the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, in which the

Committee calls on States to take measures that address the dangers and risks that local

52 United Nations Economic Commission for Europe input.

environmental pollution poses to children’s health in all settings, and to implement

environmental interventions that “should, inter alia, address climate change, as this is one

of the biggest threats to children’s health and exacerbates health disparities”. Since climate

change disproportionately affects the rights of persons living in vulnerable situations, the

principles of equality and non-discrimination are particularly relevant to climate actions,

requiring that States ensure that health facilities, goods and services are available,

accessible, acceptable and of good quality. For example, in the context of climate

displacement, the right to health requires that States enact and implement transparent and

socially inclusive public health strategies that give priority to the needs of vulnerable and

marginalized groups, including migrants.53

V. Applying a rights-based approach to health and climate action

46. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement, the Sendai

Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third

International Conference on Financing for Development all reaffirm State commitments to

a rights-based approach to development and climate action. These commitments must now

be implemented. The Declaration on the Right to Development and the Statement of

Common Understanding among United Nations agencies on Human Rights-Based

Approaches to Development Cooperation and Programming offer a road map for doing

so.54 A rights-based approach analyses obligations, inequalities and vulnerabilities, and

seeks to redress discriminatory practices and unjust distributions of power. It anchors plans,

policies and programmes in a system of rights and corresponding obligations established by

international law. The essential attributes of a human rights-based approach are the

following:

(a) As policies and programmes are formulated, the main objective should be to

fulfil human rights;

(b) The rights holders and their entitlements must be identified to strengthen their

capacity to make claims and ensure their participation in relevant decision-making

processes;

(c) The duty bearers and their obligations must be clarified to ensure their

accountability;

(d) Principles and standards derived from international human rights law —

especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the core universal human rights

treaties, should guide all policies and programming.

47. This approach should be integrated in any climate change adaptation or mitigation

measure, such as the promotion of alternative energy sources, forest conservation, tree-

planting projects and resettlement schemes. Individuals and communities affected must

participate, without discrimination, in the design and implementation of the projects. They

must have access to due process and to remedy if their rights are violated. Climate justice

requires a rights-based approach to climate action founded on principles of equity,

accountability, equality, inclusiveness and solidarity. These principles are essential in

guiding support for developing countries, including financial and technological assistance.

Faced with climate change, persons in vulnerable situations must have their rights

53 International Organization for Migration input.

54 See http://hrbaportal.org/the-human-rights-based-approach-to-development-cooperation-towards-a-

common-understanding-among-un-agencies.

protected, obtain access to measures of adaptation and resilience, and receive the support of

the international community.

48. Critically, it is not enough to simply focus on ensuring that action against climate

change respects human rights. A rights-based approach requires States to take affirmative

action to respect, protect, promote and fulfil all human rights for all persons. Failure to

prevent foreseeable human rights harm caused by climate change, or at the very least to

mobilize maximum available resources in an effort to do so, constitutes a breach of this

obligation. Action should focus on protecting the rights of all those vulnerable to climate

change. Human rights principles articulated in the Declaration on the Right to Development

and other instruments call for such climate action to be both individual and collective and

for it to benefit all persons, particularly the most marginalized.

49. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change further elaborates

upon the need for equitable climate action, calling on States to address climate change in

accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities

in order to benefit present and future generations.55 State commitments require international

cooperation, including financial, technological and capacity-building support, to realize

low-carbon, climate-resilient and sustainable development, while also rapidly reducing

greenhouse gas emissions. By integrating human rights in climate actions and policies, and

empowering people to participate in policy formulation, States can promote sustainability

and hold duty bearers accountable for their actions. This, in turn, will promote consistency,

policy coherence and the enjoyment of all human rights, including the right to health.

50. A human rights framework for realizing the right to health calls for national

Governments to ensure that health facilities, goods and services are available in sufficient

quantity, and are physically accessible and affordable on the basis of non-discrimination.

Health facilities, goods and services are also required to be gender sensitive and culturally

appropriate, scientifically and medically appropriate, of good quality, and respectful of

medical ethics. All relevant stakeholders should be able to participate, through transparent

processes, in the development and implementation of health policies. Health authorities and

other duty bearers should be held accountable for meeting human rights obligations in the

area of public health, including through the possibility of seeking effective remedies via

complaints mechanisms or other avenues for redress. A human rights-based approach also

takes account of, and incorporates, the many factors which affect the enjoyment of the right

to health — the underlying determinants of health — such as access to safe and potable

water and adequate sanitation, an adequate supply of safe food and nutrition, healthy

occupational and environmental conditions, and adequate housing.56

51. In addition to being a legal and ethical imperative, a rights-based approach to

climate action counters the negative impacts of climate change on health and prevents

mitigation and adaptation efforts from undermining all human rights. Accountability,

transparency and meaningful and informed participation can strengthen mitigation and

adaptation efforts, making them more ambitious, effective, inclusive, responsive and

collaborative while ensuring that they leave no one behind. While the impact of climate

change will be overwhelmingly negative on health, tackling climate change could also be

an important global health opportunity.57 WHO has noted that there is a tremendous

55 See also the Paris Agreement.

56 See Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights general comment No. 14 (2000) on the right

to the highest attainable standard of health, paras. 4 and 11.

57 Lancet Commission, “Health and climate change”.

potential for health co-benefits from policies that address climate change.58 A rights-based

approach has a crucial role to play in identifying and implementing effective climate

actions that benefit people and the planet.

52. For instance, a study by the World Resources Institute has found that legal

recognition of community forest rights can substantially reduce carbon dioxide emissions

from deforestation.59 Importantly, such actions also protect traditional livelihoods and

access to traditional foods and medicines with positive health benefits for local

communities. In this way, a rights-based approach has the potential to address cross-cutting

issues relating to health, sustainable development, natural resource management and

climate change, while empowering the most marginalized. It is imperative for States to

employ rights-based approaches across all aspects of climate action at the international,

regional, national and local levels, if they are to successfully meet their human rights

obligations and effectively address the threat posed by climate change.

VI. Conclusions and recommendations

53. Participants in the Human Rights Council panel discussion on climate change

and the right to health and those who responded to the call for inputs to the present

study overwhelmingly agreed that climate change has substantial negative impacts on

the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. In

order to fulfil the right to health, Governments, civil society, the private sector,

international partners and individuals must collaborate to protect the environment

and achieve sustainable development that meets the needs of present and future

generations.

54. Since climate change directly contributes to the violation of human rights,

States have an affirmative obligation to take measures to mitigate climate change; to

prevent negative human rights impacts; to ensure that all persons, particularly those

in vulnerable situations, have adequate capacity to adapt to changing climactic

conditions; and to regulate the private sector in order to mitigate its contribution to

climate change and ensure respect for human rights.

55. The negative health impacts of climate change will increase exponentially with

every incremental increase in warming. Limiting warming to the greatest extent

possible and achieving the target of 1.5 o C above pre-industrial levels should therefore

be the objective of all climate action. Beyond setting and achieving an ambitious goal,

protecting the right to health from climate change will require climate mitigation and

adaptation measures that are rights-based, effective and participatory and benefit the

vulnerable.

56. This starts with effective laws and policies at all levels and ends with effective

monitoring and implementation. Many States reported that they had constitutional

protection of health and the environment and employed concrete measures focusing

on mitigation of and adaptation to the negative impacts of climate change on human

health. Further analysis of those policies and actions is needed to identify and promote

good practices. States should integrate policies on health and human rights in their

national action plans for climate mitigation and adaptation, in the intended nationally

58 See WHO, “Promoting health while mitigating climate change”, Technical briefing for the World

Health Organization Conference on Health and Climate Change (27-29 August 2014).

59 See C. Stevens and others, Securing Rights, Combating Climate Change: How Strengthening

Community Forest Rights Mitigates Climate Change (World Resources Institute, 2014).

determined contributions submitted to the United Nations Convention on Climate

Change, and in other climate policies and actions at all levels. They should improve

cross-sectoral cooperation and design specialized frameworks for tackling threats to

health relating to climate change.

57. To ensure climate-resilient populations, States should also take measures to

develop sustainable and resilient health systems and infrastructure, including for

water and sanitation, and to fulfil their minimum core obligations with regard to the

right to health,60 including by promoting universal health coverage and social

protection floors.

58. Effective rights-based climate action requires open and participatory

institutions and processes, as well as accurate and transparent measurements of

greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, including its impacts. States should make

early-warning information regarding climate effects and natural disasters publicly

available and easily accessible. Adaptation and mitigation plans should be public and

transparently financed and designed in consultation with the groups affected.

Vulnerable groups must participate in efforts to integrate human rights in climate

policies and be empowered to address climate change and its impacts, including

throughout relevant processes and mechanisms relating to the United Nations

Framework Convention on Climate Change. Health and climate education should be

promoted to facilitate the meaningful, informed participation of those groups. Impact

assessments should ensure that climate actions respect human rights, particularly the

right to health.61 Further, States should develop and monitor relevant human rights

indicators in the context of climate change; keep disaggregated data to track the

varied impacts of climate change across demographic groups; and enable effective,

rights-compliant climate action.

59. Climate mitigation and adaptation efforts should place people at the centre, be

gender sensitive, and ensure the rights of persons, groups and peoples in vulnerable

situations, including women, children, indigenous peoples, migrants and the poor.

States should develop a rights-based approach to environmental migration by

integrating climate change and migrants’ health into their development, health and

disaster risk reduction and management plans and policies. To ensure gender equality

and women’s empowerment, States should promote the full and equal participation of

women in decision-making processes, including those relating to disaster risk

reduction and resilience; and improve women’s access to education, land,

technologies, credit, social protection and resilient health systems. Measures should

also be taken to protect indigenous peoples’ traditional knowledge, lands and

resources and ensure their participation in relevant decision-making processes.

60. Health protection should be a priority for investment in climate adaptation and

mitigation. Efforts should be targeted to capitalize on climate and health co-benefits

that lead to direct reductions in the burden of ill-health, enhance community

resilience, alleviate poverty and address global inequity. These could include, for

example, measures that: reduce local emissions of air pollutants from energy systems

through improved energy efficiency and cleaner energy sources; promote active

transport systems leading to lower emissions and better health; shift consumption

away from animal products towards more sustainable and healthier diets; provide

access to reproductive health services, including modern family planning; and protect

60 See Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights general comment No. 14, para. 43.

61 See article 4 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (committing States to

consider the public health impacts of their mitigation and adaptation activities).

community landownership.62 Conversely, it must be ensured that climate action does

not adversely affect human rights as, for example, might sometimes be the case in

relation to biofuels and food security or displacement and hydroelectric dams.

61. States should enhance cooperation and development assistance on the basis of

principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibility to ensure adequate

funding of, and research into, adaptation measures that help the poorest countries and

those persons, groups and peoples most at risk. Specific measures could include:

equitable access to technology, including, if necessary, the lowering of intellectual

property standards and facilitation of technology transfer; targeted poverty reduction

efforts; and establishment of a special climate justice fund to finance climate

mitigation and adaptation policies with funds from both the public and private

sectors. Resources should be mobilized to enhance research and development relating

to, inter alia, data collection for the implementation of efficient and timely responses

to the negative impacts of climate change on determinants of health; diagnosis and

treatment of diseases and control of disease vectors; climate-resilient crops; renewable

sources of energy and energy conservation; and linkages between ecological health,

animal health and human health. Climate finance and adaptation should support

effective measures that bring health co-benefits particularly to persons in vulnerable

situations and in developing countries. Climate finance should be innovative, long

term and additional to existing funding for poverty reduction and sustainable

development.

62. It is also critical that mechanisms to address loss and damages be strengthened

and that both the public and private sectors be accountable for their actions. National

human rights institutions, for example, can combine analysis and action to promote

remedies for individual violations of human rights and systematic deficiencies relating

to climate change. Courts and other legal institutions must also play a role in

protecting the most vulnerable, ensuring accountability and providing access to

remedy.

63. Emergency responses need to be comprehensive and cover a broad range of

areas such as mental health, sexual and reproductive health, disability, loss and

damages. Immediate social protection measures, such as price subsidies, food

programmes, employment programmes, retraining programmes, loans for vulnerable

populations and special packages for children’s nutrition and for sexual and

reproductive health, should be included in emergency assistance. States should

establish, inter alia, early warning systems; utilize community-based monitoring,

including traditional knowledge; enhance emergency response capabilities; and

improve coordination in addressing climate migration and protecting migrants’ right

to health in disaster risk reduction and adaptation.

64. Human rights policies, climate change policies and development policies, as well

as relevant experts, all need to support rights-based climate action. Instruments like

the Geneva Pledge for Human Rights in Climate Action can provide a vehicle for

furthering this objective. States that have not done so should consider signing the

Pledge. The human rights machinery should be mobilized to monitor climate

commitments, including through consideration of the human rights impacts of climate

change during the universal periodic review and by treaty bodies and Human Rights

Council special procedure mandate holders. OHCHR, the secretariat of the United

Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and WHO should work together,

along with other relevant partners and States, to develop tools and promote climate

62 See, for example, Smith and others, “Human health”.

policies that benefit people and the planet and further the implementation of relevant

commitments such as those in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, the 2030 Agenda for

Sustainable Development, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the

Paris Agreement.