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Environmental Human Rights and Climate Change pp 171–199Cite as

Challenges Confronting a Human Rights-Based Approach to Climate Change

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Abstract

There are many variations of a human rights-based approach to climate change. In its most legalistic form, a human rights-based approach entails claims pursued through legal processes to seek accountability and compensation for human rights violations caused by the effects of climate change. While such an approach has the potential to result in meaningful changes to government policy and positive impacts on the lives of affected individuals and communities, there are numerous challenges to its effectiveness, particularly when it relies on conventional systems of international human rights law. These challenges flow from the cumulative, transnational and intergenerational nature of climate change impacts, as well as from the norms, structures and methods of human rights law itself. This chapter analyses these various obstacles, drawing on recent jurisprudence from domestic and regional jurisdictions. Despite the challenges which are identified, the chapter argues that there are many benefits to be gained from a human rights-based approach to climate change, particularly when we look beyond the confines of traditional legal mechanisms to alternative forms of advocacy.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There have been several cases before the European Court of Human Rights which have successfully argued that environmental interference amounts to a violation of the rights protected in the European Convention. See for example Fadeyeva v Russia (2005) and Lopez Ostra v Spain (1994), where the State failed to meet domestic standards by allowing excessive levels of pollution; Taskin v Turkey (2004) and Giacomelli v Italy (2006), where the State failed to implement a domestic court’s decision to close a facility; and Onyeryildiz v Turkey (2004), where the State failed to take adequate precautions to guard against a foreseeable risk of harm.

  2. 2.

    See for example Powell and Rayner v United Kingdom (1990); G and E v Norway (1983); LCB v United Kingdom (1998).

  3. 3.

    A hearing was held in the Hague Court of Appeal in May 2018.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Bridget Lewis

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  1. Bridget Lewis
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Correspondence to Bridget Lewis .

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Lewis, B. (2018). Challenges Confronting a Human Rights-Based Approach to Climate Change. In: Environmental Human Rights and Climate Change. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1960-0_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1960-0_8

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  • Print ISBN: 978-981-13-1959-4

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