More than 100 million people's human rights will be impacted due to climate change caused by a rise of more than one degree Celsius in the Earth's average temperature.
The United Nations cited a recent study as the reason. Professor Joyeeta Gupta, co-chair of the Earth Commission, an international scientific advisory body, recently told UN News in an interview that the effects of climate change should be understood not only as an environmental emergency but also as a violation of human rights.
Professor Gupta said that human damage was never viewed in terms of statistics at the 1992 climate conference. She said that when the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015, there was global consensus to limit the temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius, later adopting 1.5 degrees Celsius as a safe target, but even that was too high for small island nations.
Ms. Gupta said that rising sea levels, saltwater intrusion in coastal areas, and severe storms are a serious threat to island nations. When wealthy nations demanded scientific proof, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was tasked with studying the difference between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius. The results were clear: 1.5 degrees Celsius is significantly less destructive, but still dangerous.
Professor Gupta, in her research published in the journal Nature, argues that one degree Celsius is the "absolute limit," because beyond that point, the effects of climate change violate the rights of more than one percent of the global population, or nearly 100 million people. She lamented that the world has already exceeded the one-degree limit in 2017 and is likely to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2030.
Ms. Gupta explained that achieving sustainable development goals requires energy and that wealthy nations must drastically reduce their emissions to make space for others. Failing to do so turns inequality into injustice. On the issue of migration, she said that climate change is causing the most migration in countries today.
According to Professor Gupta, it is difficult to address environmental damage through human rights law due to the diversity of international laws around the world. A recent advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) clarified that climate change cannot be addressed in isolation. Governments must also consider human rights and other environmental treaties along with their climate responsibilities.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, warned earlier this year in Geneva before the Human Rights Council, sounding the alarm on the same danger, that climate change is eroding fundamental rights. He emphasized that we need a roadmap to review our societies, economies, and politics in a fair and sustainable way.