Uganda

Climate Change: A Human Rights Emergency

“Climate Change is about the people” Vanessa Nakate (Young Leader for Sustainable Development Goals and a Climate Activist)

With the escalating patterns of climate change, the world is brought to a dawning realization that climate change is no longer an environmental issue, it is a human rights emergency. Its offsprings such as but not limited to heatwaves, prolonged droughts, floods, hurricanes, tornados and environmental destruction grasping the neck of human rights and dignity on a global scale. It’s high time we act on this urgent reality.

The most vulnerable – children, the poor, marginalized, and displaced populations are exposed to the wrath of climate change, suffering unimaginable pain, forced to flee their lands finding themselves homeless, stateless and struggling to access basic needs. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, climate change is a defining crisis of our time with displacement being one of its most devastating consequences. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre shows that 26.4 million individuals were internally displaced in 2023 because of weather-related catastrophes. [Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, IDMC [2024]. The 2024 Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID)] This phenomenon goes far beyond a natural disaster but is rather a human rights catastrophe.

The Right to Life, a fundamental human right enshrined in Article 3 and 6 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) respectively and regionally, in Article 4 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, is directly endangered by climate change. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that between 2030–2050, climate change will be the cause of approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year due to malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and heat stress alone. Vanessa Nakate emphasizes the fact that climate change is more than statistics, as such these numbers do not merely represent statistical values – they stand for human lives – each death is a tragedy that could have and should be avoided through immediate action.

Various rights such as the right to health shelter, food and water, encapsulated in various International and regional instruments as well as Constitutions and domestic/municipal laws are gradually being eroded by climate change. Harsh weather conditions lead to loss of homes, livelihood, animals, poor crop yields, low fish stocks and loss of and contamination of waterbodies. The WHO emphasizes that climate change worsens health problems, leading to the spread of diseases like malaria and dengue fever and that heat waves, pollution and natural disasters impact health directly, particularly affecting vulnerable people. [Supra 2] The FAO cautions that food production is now more and more threatened, this can also cause higher food prices with a parallel increase in malnutrition. The World Bank expresses that water scarcity, worsened by climate change, may cause conflicts and displace more than a billion people by 2050. This begs the question whether this is the “legacy” we desire to leave behind for the future generation.

Climate change is much more than a policy issue; it’s a moral imperative requiring a human rights-based approach to climate action and justice. In dealing with climate change, governments and societies are morally obliged to take bold steps toward reducing carbon footprints, transitioning to renewable energy sources, and supporting climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. The Paris Agreement is one very critical step toward this end, where the target is to keep global warming well below 2⁰C above the pre-industrial levels. However, agreements are one thing; and action another.

What must we do

“Until you dig a hole, plant a tree, water it and make it survive, you have not done a thing. You are just talking” Wangari Maathai (a Kenyan environmentalist, political activist and women’s rights advocate)

The Climate Crisis is a Human Rights emergency that commands immediate action, through though not limited to:

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions: This requires cutting down on the emissions of greenhouse gases from cars, factories, industries, power plants, to mention but a few, transitioning to renewable energy. It is no doubt commendable that in the past decades, the European Union upon taking a firm action against climate change saw a more than 31% drop in its emissions in 2022 compared to its emissions in 1990, and further looking forward to meet set goals of a net 55% or greater reduction below the 1990 levels by 2030 and a climate neutrality objective by 2050. However, other nations or States must take action to amplify such effects on a global scale. States must not only implement policies and practices to significantly cut emissions.
Transitioning to Renewable Energy: International and Regional organizations must invest alongside States and promote the usage of renewable sources of energy, such as solar energy, wind power, hydropower, geothermal power and bioenergy. International co-operation to provide financial and technical assistance is highly advised seeing as some States and communities may fail to attain the necessary resources on their own.
On a domestic level, every individual has a role to play, as individuals should employ the Reduce, Reuse, Repair and Recycle model. Various household and daily use items such as electronics, plastics, clothes, and others can cause gas emissions at various stages of production and as such it is necessary that to buy fewer items, reuse, recycle and repair where possible. Individuals should invest in companies that make environmentally favorable decisions to reduce their carbon emissions and waste. This eventually would drive other companies, factories and other businesses to change from their environmentally harmful practices.
Furthermore, individuals should speak up against environmental degradation as well as participate in favorable practices such as afforestation, re-afforestation and cleanup programs in their communities.
Individuals and companies can also adopt sustainable infrastructure and building strategies and construction materials. For instance, weatherproofing buildings, installing cool roofs to mention but a few.

In a nutshell, Human Rights must be first. Climate actions must respect and promote human rights in all activities, giving special attention to the most vulnerable. The principle of climate justice lies at the heart of international efforts to combat climate change, as reflected in the preamble of the Paris Agreement. Climate change is not just a problem around environmental protection; it is a profound challenge to our collective humanity, and we owe it to ourselves to set up a sustainable future.

Marie Patricia Natakwa