Climate policy threatens human rights
Heidelberg, 29.11.2010. On the occasion of the 16th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 16), FIAN International demands that Governments worldwide commit to avoid negative effects of climate protection measures and to design these measures in full compliance with human rights.
At the climate negotiations in Cancún, Mexico, from 29th November to 10th December, 2010, heads of governments and states will decide how to set the course for a post-2012 agreement. They will also discuss how to continue the climate protection measures of the Kyoto Protocol.
FIAN demands all governments to acknowledge the fact that some climate protection measures have devastating effects on human rights and that this has to be prevented in the future.
“In the international human rights treaties, the community of states pledges to protect the rights to food and water as fundamental human rights. However, in many parts of the world access to food and water is being threatened by rising temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, as well as an increasing frequency of storms and floods”, states Anton Pieper, climate advisor at FIAN Germany. “This primarily affects the poorest sectors of the population, which have least contributed to the causes of the situation. Paradoxically, in addition to the grave effects on human rights through climate change itself, human rights are further being violated through climate protection measures”, Pieper goes on.
In the course of implementing climate protection measures within the framework of the Kyoto Protocol, conflicts with local populations are constantly coming up. One example is the expansion of agrofuels – classified as renewable energy sources – which repeatedly leads to forced evictions. In addition, people often have to face slavery-like working conditions on the agrofuel plantations.
Therefore FIAN International demands that Governments in Cancún take into consideration human rights criteria in the implementation of climate protection projects. “CO2 reduction measures can no longer be implemented at the expense of human rights”, Pieper concludes.
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Read the summary of a report “Climate Change and Human Rights” by FIAN