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Climate Change Policy Report Released 4 of December 2009

Two students in the International Human Rights Law Clinic have written a report calling on nations to address the human rights impacts of climate change policy for presentation at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. The report, Protecting People and the Planet: A Proposal to Address the Human Rights Impacts of Climate Change Policy, highlights the unintended consequences of climate change policies, and recommends that states adopt a program for action to develop policies that incorporate international human rights standards.

Students Zoe Loftus-Farren ‘11 and Cáitrín McKiernan ‘11 received support and guidance from clinic professors and other faculty, as well as from Berkeley Law’s Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law, and the Center for Law & Global Justice at the University of San Francisco School of Law.

Loftus-Farren and McKiernan will travel to Copenhagen to present the paper at the Climate Change Conference, which runs from December 7-18th. Our research revealed serious gaps in how countries are incorporating the issue of human rights into their climate change policies, said McKiernan. We are offering a concrete proposal to fix this problem.

There is growing concern that policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gases will create or exacerbate human rights concerns. For example, a policy designed to increase hydropower production may curb greenhouse gas emissions, but it may also harm fisheries and the indigenous peoples who depend on them. Access to information, public participation in policy decisions, and respect for livelihood rights can help these communities thrive despite climate change.

Similarly, policies to relocate people because their environment becomes uninhabitable must take into account the social and physical impacts on communities, lest competition for scarce resources generate conflict. Will the relocated communities have access to water, food, and shelter? What legal rights will they have if they are moved to a new country? Currently, there is no coordinated effort to address the human rights impacts of climate change policies or to use human rights standards to improve the resiliency of populations.

The report recommends that countries work together to clarify existing human rights standards, facilitate information sharing, and provide technical assistance so that all states develop and implement sustainable and humane climate change policies.

The students are also using social media to promote their ideas. Loftus-Farren and McKiernan launched a Facebook page to disseminate an open letter to President Obama