No greater climate change expert than Nicholas Stern, chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and Environment at the London School of Economics, has heralded the Paris COP 21 UN Climate Change Conference agreement as ‘historic’,Footnote1 a description seconded by Xinhua, the Chinese news agency.Footnote2 Moreover, French President François Hollande declared the agreement to be the ‘first universal climate agreement’.Footnote3
Reflecting on the agreement, Lord Stern said it ‘provides a strong and clear signal that could unlock trillions of dollars in investment in the global low-carbon economy’ over the next 20 years.Footnote4 However, in order for success to be achieved ultimately, he noted that ‘governments must now respond to the Paris agreement by unleashing the private sector, which will drive the acceleration now required to cut emissions and improve resilience to those impacts of climate change that cannot now be avoided’.Footnote5
On the other hand, Financial Times’ economics columnist Martin Wolf cautioned that whether the agreement is considered a ‘breakthrough’ or ‘is just another way station on the road to calamity’ depends in part on what happens in the near term.Footnote6 As he noted, ‘[w]hat really matters is not the Paris agreement, but what follows’, adding that national plans to meet carbon reduction targets ‘must be ambitious and become more so, swiftly’.Footnote7
Interestingly, one of the countries that had entered the Paris conference with initial ambivalence, India,Footnote8 was perhaps the first to speak about the agreement in the context of ‘climate justice’. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the ‘outcome of [the] Paris agreement has no winners or losers. Climate justice has won [and] we are all working towards a greener future.’Footnote9 The final agreement did include a reference to climate justice in the recitals where it noted ‘the importance for some of the concept of “climate justice”, when taking action to address climate change’.Footnote10 Moreover, another recital acknowledged that since ‘climate change is a common concern of humankind, Parties should, when taking action to address climate change, respect, promote and consider their respective obligations on human rights, the right to health, the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, migrants, children, persons with disabilities and people in vulnerable situations and the right to development, as well as gender equality, empowerment of women and intergenerational equity’.Footnote11 As Dr Annalisa Savaresi writes in this special issue, while the recitals do not establish new legal obligations, they do provide ‘political and moral value, drawing an explicit link between treaty obligations under the climate regime and those under the human rights instruments they have ratified. It therefore flags that Parties are expected to interpret their obligations under the climate regime in light of their existing commitments concerning matters such as, for example, public participation, the rights of women and indigenous peoples.’Footnote12
The objective of this special issue
Notwithstanding the achievements in Paris, the way forward is likely pockmarked with any number of challenges, as well as opportunities. For example, the ‘knotty questions’ involving verification rules and climate finance will require careful consideration.Footnote13 And, despite all of the words and celebrations, serious questions remain involving how countries will fulfill their carbon reduction pledges.
Bearing in mind what was accomplished at Paris – and what was not – makes the International Bar Association's report Achieving Climate Justice in an Era of Climate Disruption Footnote14 a particularly important undertaking as it relates to the challenge of addressing justice issues in the context of climate change. This report, prepared by the IBA Task Force on Climate Change Justice and Human Rights, was published in 2014 and underscored the important relationship between climate change and human rights in what it referred to as ‘climate justice’.
This special issue considers the linkages of human rights and climate change in the context of climate justice. The contributors – all of whom were specially sought out based on their expertise and experience – provide thoughtful and sometimes provocative contexts in which to think about the future, in particular the risks as well as the opportunities that lay ahead.
The contributors
This special issue begins with a short introduction by David W Rivkin, President of the International Bar Association, who explains why and how the IBA decided to commission this report and the role the IBA aims to play in the events ahead.
Mr Rivkin's introduction is followed by three articles in this special issue. The first article, written by Nicola Leslie, Secretary to the IBA Task Force on Climate Change and Human Rights and an Associate at Debevoise & Plimpton, surveys the key recommendations made in the report. Next, Dr Annalisa Savaresi, Research and Teaching Fellow at the University of Edinburgh Law School, United Kingdom, provides an excellent and insightful overview into the run-up to the Paris meeting, as well as what was accomplished and why. The third article, by Damilola S Olawuyi, Director of the Institute for Oil, Gas, Energy, Environment, and Sustainable Development, considers the practical and logistical concerns that must be clarified and addressed to further enhance the utility and relevancy of the IBA proposal as it relates to corporate risk management in climate actions.
Following the three articles, the focus of the special issue moves to a selection of commentaries that both illuminate the concept of climate justice and provide thoughtful assessment about specific parts of the IBA report. The first commentary, written by one of the world's leading environmental jurists, Justice Brian J Preston of Australia, was first delivered in the form of remarks at the 2013 IBA Annual Conference showcase session on ‘Climate change justice and human rights – concepts for legal and institutional reforms’. In this commentary, Justice Preston, who served as a member of the Task Force, sets out the key elements that underpin climate justice.
Next, London School of Economics Professor Steven Humphreys, who advised the Task Force, reviews the broader set of international law challenges related to the human cost of climate change, including potential legal hurdles in the areas of trade and human rights law.
Climate change justice and corporate responsibility are then explored in the next three commentaries. Professor Sharon Mascher, of the Faculty of Law at the University of Calgary, Canada, focuses her commentary on the interplay between implementation of the UN Framework on Corporate Responsibility to Protect Human Rights, corporate reporting, and regulation of corporations, which together provide, in her view, important mechanisms to address the growing calls for corporate responsibility in the quest for climate justice. A different look at corporate responsibility is offered by Professor Jessica M Smith of the Colorado School of Mines, USA, an anthropologist, who analyses the mining industry's evolving approach to corporate responsibility and human rights as a way of shedding light on some of the opportunism and challenges for corporations to play a role in promoting climate change justice. A final commentary, co-authored by Professor Sara L Seck, a senior fellow at the International Law Research Program, Centre for International Governance (ILRP CIGI) in Canada, and Michael Slattery, a research assistant at ILRP CIGI, asserts that one important step forward in the fight against climate change is the responsibility of business to respect human rights impacted by climate change.
The next four commentaries reflect on various additional aspects of the IBA report. First, Motoko Aizawa, Managing Director USA of the Institute for Human Rights and Business, maintains that measures to address climate change should generally integrate social and human aspects in order to ensure that any effort to benefit the environment and climate should not come at the expense of people. Next, Professor Lee Godden and colleagues from the University of Melbourne Law School highlight the challenges in adopting a human rights framework for the REDD+ programme, which is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The third commentary, authored by Murray Carroll, Co-founder and Director of the International Court for the Environment Coalition, reflects on the geopolitics of climate justice. Finally, Dr David Carlson, an adjunct professor at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, US, writes about WTO reforms, sustainable development and ‘climate clubs’, and the need for new thinking on how to address climate change.
Taken as a whole, these articles and commentaries should be of enormous value to policy makers, businesses and the legal and financial communities who serve them. I am greatly appreciative to each contributor who has offered cogent and thoughtful advice that will benefit a world seeking to address climate change, realise the promises of the Paris COP21 agreement, and avoid the destination at the end of Martin Wolf's road to calamity.
Notes
1 Nicholas Stern, ‘COP21: Public-private collaboration key to climate targets', Financial Times, 13 December 2015.
2 Xinhua, ‘Xi, Obama promise to work together to ensure implantation of Paris climate deal' 14 December 2015, at http://en.people.cn/n/2015/1214/c90000-8990328.html.
3 Eric J Lyman, ‘Historical global agreement reached at Paris climate summit' Bloomberg BNA Daily Environment Report, 12 December 2015.
4 Nicholas Stern, ‘COP21: Public-private collaboration key to climate targets' Financial Times, 13 December 2015.
5 Ibid.
6 Martin Wolf, ‘The Paris summit is a small step forward on climate change' Financial Times, 14 December 2015.
7 Ibid.
8 Arvind Subramanian, India's chief economic adviser, wrote in the run up to the conference, ‘The time is ripe to create a global green and clean coal coalition. That, rather than unconscionable calls to phase out India's cheapest form of energy, would best serve the cause of fighting climate change'. Arvind Subramanian, ‘India is right to resist the west's carbon imperialism' Financial Times, 27 November 2015.
9 The Hindu, ‘Paris agreement a victory of “climate justice” says Modi', 13 December 2015, at www.thehindu.com/news/national/paris-agreement-a-victory-of-climate-justice-says-modi/article7983268.ece.
10 Adoption of the Paris Agreement, proposal by the president, FCCC/CP/2015/L.9, page 21, at http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/cop21/eng/l09.pdf
11 Ibid, 1–2.
12 Annalisa Savaresi, ‘The Paris Agreement: A New Beginning?' 2016 Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law 16.
13 Dean Scott ‘Still plenty of climate work ahead after Paris' Bloomberg BNA International Environment Reporter, 14 December 2015.