By Brendan Sweeney
Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm, based in the USA, which is dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment.
Yves Lador, who represents Earthjustice at the United Nations in Geneva, participated in a workshop organised by the Danish Institute for Human Rights entitled ‘Human Rights and Climate Change’ on 29-30 October 2009. In the following interview he explains why he believes human rights must be incorporated into the forthcoming climate change agreement.
Q: How do you feel this workshop can help you in your work?
A: It was a very timely meeting, as we’re just one week away from the negotiations in Barcelona which will be the last event before the climate change conference in Copenhagen. We are still very worried, because the human rights language which would need to be put into the final text, the final document, is not there. This is not just a question of being symbolic, because anybody could say that we want this issue included in climate change [solutions] and leave it like that. What it’s really about is providing possibilities to the people most affected by climate change and preventing harm. Firstly, the harm which is a direct result of climate change itself, but also the harm caused by the measures of mitigation or adaptation employed to combat it.
Q: Why is this worth stressing?
A: It’s very important that in combating climate change we continue to make it possible for people to keep their fundamental rights. If ever we go over the tipping point, which is now being discussed as around 2 degrees above the existing average [world] temperature, we will enter a totally new ground where the institutions which we have today will become totally irrelevant. How could we ever have the rule of law in a world where you would have a lot of extreme weather, major changes, and disasters and so on? It would just become an unmanageable world. Now if we stepped into that world, and this is unfortunately possible, there is just no way of maintaining rights and rule of law and states, and this is exactly where we don’t want to step in at all. And that is where the challenge lies with this coming conference in Copenhagen.
Q: What other human rights challenges do we face in tackling climate change?
A: We must not think we can escape this problem by exchanging one catastrophe with another. For example by reducing CO2 in the atmosphere at any cost, via the implementation of very dangerous bio-engineering, we could cause enormous damage […] and a lot of ecosystems may disappear. Perhaps we could avoid major climate change, but the result at the end of the process would still be a disaster for the planet. It would just be another type of disaster and this is exactly what we must avoid. So in order to make sure that we achieve a really useful and immediate outcome, all the basic elements must be contained in this agreement, and that includes human rights. Of course human rights will be implemented if there is an agreement. But that agreement must also be in accordance with existing human rights instruments. It goes both ways and this is what we need. Otherwise its objective will not be reached.
Q: Should these challenges be met at the national or international level?
A: Involving people in the management of the climate issue means that first - as a state - you have more information about what’s going on in your own country. You have a view of what changes are taking place and what adaptations are necessary. After that you have a stronger involvement of the people in the implementation of the decisions in your own state, but also in dealing with all the international dimensions of climate change, because nothing can be done at the national level alone. You cannot avoid the national level and you cannot limit yourself to the national level. Decisions taken nationally affect others and the decisions other nations take will inevitably affect you. So we need more international involvement by people at the national and international level in order to be able to improve the management of climate change. We cannot just keep on using the old recipes that we have developed over time for completely different types of issues.
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