Kavya Gupta
Law Student at Dharmashastra National Law University
INTRODUCTION
Climate change is such a serious issue that it barely needs any introduction. It is strikingly apparent in recent times. We have seen time and again how climate change has affected the eco system. Every person, every creature and every continent has been affected by this. The declaration of 2023, by the World Meteorological Organization as the hottest year[1], the coral bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef[2], wildfires in Amazon rainforest and in Australian bushlands[3], floodings, storms, disasters, the cases are innumerable. They are the ill effect of the increased global temperatures.
There is a balance of energy on earth, it is created by the entering of energy on earth and the reflection of the same in the space, but when this balance gets affected, it causes damage to the ecosystem. This is caused by climate forcings[4]. The climate forcings can be natural (volcanic eruptions) or man-made (greenhouse gases, aerosols etc.). However, in recent times the man-made forcings are more dominant and they are causing serious environmental energy disbalance. As a result of which we see the events happening in real life which are life threatening.[5]
The anthropogenic climate forcings have caused irreparable damage to our environment and it has the tendency to cause much more harm if the actions are not taken in the right direction at the right time. The question arises, have we taken such steps forward? The answer is yes but is it sufficient? Will the result of our current actions lead us to reverse the damage caused? Can the damage reverse to the old times? Is it affecting our fundamental rights? Where exactly are we lacking or did we get stuck in the vicious cycle of climate change? These are the questions we come across when we study about climate change in practical aspects.
This article critically examines the complex interplay of the climate change and its impact on the human and lives rights while also arguing that various steps have been taken by the heads by more holistic and integrated measures are required to overcome the paradox created by the adaptation undermining the mitigation.
STEPS TAKEN BY THE HEADS
The heads of state and international organizations have taken various measures to combat climate change. For instance, the Intergovernmental Pannel on Climate Change, was established in 1988 is a United Nations body to assess the science related to climate change,[6] in 2015, the world took the first significant step by adopting the Paris Agreement, wherein all the countries committed to take steps to combat climate change, submission of Nationally Determined Contributions by various countries to curb the emissions, promotion of investment in renewable energy, climate finance, legislations and many others. But even in the existing measures, some people have found loopholes and started using these loopholes for their personal benefit at the expense of our ecosystem. An example of this can be greenwashing by financial institutions. Greenwashing refers to the misleading claims made by the financial institutions. An example of it can be any financial institution making claims that they are investing in only green technologies making brands look more sustainable but in reality, they are giving loans to the industries who still operate on fossil fuel as the source of energy. For example, claims made by Mc Donald that they are using paper straws when they are actually using the non-recyclable straws.[7]
The increasing greenhouse gases are causing climate change to occur much faster than anticipated. Since most of the energy is going into the oceans and into the melting of ice caps[8], it is damaging to life, both terrestrial and marine. It can cause instability, wars, destruction to the structures, marine life and vegetation. These measures are not sufficient. Much must be done. There should be counter measures to the loopholes, which the selfish people are using to earn profit. Focus should be on effective communication (for active articulation of the reasons and benefits for any measure taken) and better implementation of policies and framework by maintaining accountability and providing better access to funds. The frameworks should be action oriented and as conveyed by Michael Buser, the policies to be effective, should be conveyed in the form of narratives or stories. As people will be more motivated and feel emotionally connected to the actions to be done. Even the United Nations has stated that one must transform its energy, transport, forestry system and other resources to keep the temperature below 2 degrees Celsius or maybe below 1.5 degrees Celsius[9].
Although the damage caused cannot be reversed more harm can fall upon us if we do not take the necessary actions on time.
FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
The fundamental rights are those human rights which are inalienable to humans. In other words, these are the basic freedoms and rights which are applicable to everyone regardless of their caste, creed, religion, background, sex, place of birth or occupation. It is the duty of the state heads to ensure that these rights are well protected, and no one encroaches them.
If we look back to the past, with the development in society and the period of industrialization, there was increased competition among the nations. There was a classification of countries into the developed, developing and least developed. The hunger to be on the top of the list got the countries to increase industrialization. This caused climate forcing in the form of excessive greenhouse gas (like carbon dioxide, methane, Sulphur) releases, aerosols, black carbon or soots, water vapors and air pollutants. These substances are energy absorbents. They trap the energy emitted by the sunlight which came to earth and do not let them reflect into the space, which was necessary to maintain the balance of the environment.
The energy so trapped causes the temperature to rise. This rise in temperature is causing the sea levels to grow and glaciers to melt. The results of which is the drier regions to become drier, increased occurrence of drought, less cultivation of food, inflation, flooding in the regions which are normally wet, vegetation destruction, mass migrations, submerging of the human made structures, poor quality of water, destruction of coral reefs and many other things. The consequences are innumerable, and people are suffering from it.
It is affecting the right to life of the people; it does not matter whether the person is rich or poor, young or old (however the extent to which they are affected can be different). Many precious lives are already lost, and the lifespan of individuals is decreasing. Their health is also deteriorating, the climate has exacerbated the health issues, and this has increased the mortality rate. The right to clean and drinkable water is also under threat; this climate emergency has caused droughts and floodings and the increased temperature has caused many harmful bacteria to develop. The right is food is also under threat; there is no food security and there is presence of inflation, for example, the price of tomato reaching Rs 100/ kg, it is not affordable to the economically unprivileged ones.
With more than 260 million people living near the coastal area, the rise in the sea levels has caused them to relocate their houses.[10] This has caused mass migration. There can be ill effects of mass migration in the form of wars, chaos, instability in human relations and pressure on natural resources which are limited in number. This is how the right to housing and healthy environment is disrupted. Moreover, these migrations can disturb the cultures, and the practices followed in the countries. And many times, the climate changes cause monumental destruction. Even the courts have recognized the direct relation between the impact of climate change and the violation of fundamental rights, in the cases of Urgenda Foundation v. State of Netherlands, 2015 (the court recognized the direct threat of climate change to human rights), Juliana v. United States, 2015 (court established the interconnection between the climate policies and constitutional rights).
There have been grave violations of human rights, but these violations are not under full control of the government. This is because climate change cannot be manipulated to come to terms with the humane livable conditions of living beings. The people must come together to take necessary measures to protect their lives, their loved ones, their ecosystem and their future generations.
ADAPTATION OR MITIGATION
To combat the effects of climate change we should focus on both adaptation and mitigation. They can be drawn parallel to the two sides of a coin. Wherein, one focuses on lessening or halting the impact of an event, on the other hand, adaptation focuses on getting used to an event whatever the ill impacts they have. The IPCC defines climate adaptation as the process of adjustment to the actual or expected climate and its effect[11]. For instance, relocation on flooding.
Just like a coin they go hand in hand. While mitigation takes decades to show the result of the process and takes long term planning process, adaptation is quicker on the result side, and it requires planning to meet the short-term needs. For the mitigation, we must first adapt to the newly existing situations and instead of worrying about the past, we should be action oriented on what to do to ensure that we or any of us do not face this situation again. Such as, if there is knowledge that the coastal areas submerged under water because of the growing sea level and that rise in sea is caused by the greenhouse gas emission then mitigation is using more of renewable sources (disposing of fossil fuels) and causing less pollution.
ARE WE STUCK IN VICIOUS CYCLE OF CLIMATE CHANGE
Paradoxically, not every time mitigation and adaptation go together[12]. By adapting to the change, we might lessen the chances of mitigation and our efforts in adaptation might worsen the mitigation. For instance, in this scorching heat, to adapt to the hat waves we might turn up to the air conditioners, but these conditioners, if used more, require more electricity to be produced which will lead to more carbon production (depending on which source is being used for energy generation).[13] For helping the people suffering from drought or landslides, the government has to provide funds for the evacuation or for providing with another livable environment, this however, diverts the funds from being invested into the advanced technology which might help in mitigation.
There are many such instances where adaptation may prove to be a burden in mitigation. This causes us to get stuck in the vicious cycle of climate change[14]. By looking out to fulfill our short-term requirements we are hampering our long-term goals or achievements.
We can get out of this cycle by focusing on research and innovation, investment in greener technologies, making effective policies, education and awareness and international cooperations. There have been instances where the governments have taken such measures which rather than obstructing the mitigation, support it. For example, Japan’s cool roof initiative[15], wherein due to the heat, the people have used the reflective material on roof which reduces energy consumption for cooling, and it proves to be sustainable or the Urban Green Infrastructure of Singapore[16], wherein the government focuses on the green infrastructure in its urban planning which in turn lessens the chances of flooding and heat waves and it is also sustainable in nature.
CONCLUSION
In the crisis of climate change that threatens the very existence of humans, it becomes very important to understand the how human rights are affected by this climate change and the complex interplay between the adaptation and mitigation of the climate change. The urgency of this situation demands a clear and deeper understanding of where we are standing today, what our goal is and what to keep in mind while creating or bringing out the policies and frameworks. There are innovative solutions which we can implement in our country such as Japan’s cool roof initiative which offer sustainable development without compromising the long-term goals for the fulfillment of the short-term requirements. For overcoming these challenges, we all have to come together and take collective action, commitment and take unifies approach to protect our ecosystem and our rights as well.
[1] State of the global climate 2023 (2024) World Meteorological Organization. Available at: https://wmo.int/publication-series/state-of-global-climate-2023 (Accessed: 14 October 2024).
[2] Admin (2021) Bleaching on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Coral Reef Alliance. Available at: https://coral.org/en/blog/bleaching-on-australias-great-barrier-reef/?utm_term=&utm_campaign=CORAL%3A%2BBlog&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=7804351857&hsa_cam=20969464292&hsa_grp=158150830476&hsa_ad=688785054153&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=dsa-2273371786953&hsa_kw=&hsa_mt=&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwgrO4BhC2ARIsAKQ7zUklUeXDPLceLyDUdeu9qAp4njwy8NsfAoDPEv5I0WDZNIR04gjPlIQaAgNNEALw_wcB (Accessed: 14 October 2024).
[3] (No date) How to help the amazon right now: WWF’s emergency fund for Amazon fires | pages | WWF. Available at: https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/how-to-help-the-amazon-right-now-wwf-s-emergency-fund-for-amazon-fires (Accessed: 14 October 2024).
[4] Hansen James, Defusing the Global Warming TIME BOMB, vol. 290, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, pp. 68-77 (9 pages), 2004
[5] Hansen James, Defusing the Global Warming TIME BOMB, vol. 290, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, pp. 68-77 (9 pages), 2004
[6] The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (no date) IPCC. Available at: https://www.ipcc.ch/ (Accessed: 14 October 2024).
[7] Akepa (2024) Greenwashing examples for 2023 & 2024: Worst Products & Brands, The Sustainable Agency. Available at: https://thesustainableagency.com/blog/greenwashing-examples/ (Accessed: 14 October 2024).
[8] Hansen James, Defusing the Global Warming TIME BOMB, vol. 290, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, pp. 68-77 (9 pages), 2004
[9] Sixth assessment report (no date) IPCC. Available at: https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar6/ (Accessed: 14 October 2024).
[10] Research guides: Persistent links for library resources: JSTOR (no date) JSTOR - Persistent Links for Library Resources - Research Guides at University of Oregon Libraries. Available at: https://researchguides.uoregon.edu/persistentlinks/jstor (Accessed: 14 October 2024).
[11] Climate adaptation is key to a climate resilient future. but what does it mean? (2023) unfoundation.org. Available at: https://unfoundation.org/blog/post/climate-adaptation-is-key-to-a-climate-resilient-future-but-what-does-it-mean/?gad_source=1 (Accessed: 14 October 2024).
[12] Research guides: Persistent links for library resources: JSTOR (no date) JSTOR - Persistent Links for Library Resources - Research Guides at University of Oregon Libraries. Available at: https://researchguides.uoregon.edu/persistentlinks/jstor (Accessed: 14 October 2024).
[13] Research guides: Persistent links for library resources: JSTOR (no date) JSTOR - Persistent Links for Library Resources - Research Guides at University of Oregon Libraries. Available at: https://researchguides.uoregon.edu/persistentlinks/jstor (Accessed: 14 October 2024).
[14] Research guides: Persistent links for library resources: JSTOR (no date a) JSTOR - Persistent Links for Library Resources - Research Guides at University of Oregon Libraries. Available at: https://researchguides.uoregon.edu/persistentlinks/jstor (Accessed: 14 October 2024).
[15] Tokyo government announces 2006 cool-roof projects｜jfs Japan for Sustainability (no date) JFS Japan for Sustainability. Available at: https://www.japanfs.org/sp/en/news/archives/news_id026405.html (Accessed: 14 October 2024).
[16] Leslie FotsoEnvironmental Research Assistant at EnvironFocus IncorporatedLeslie holds a Masters of Science degree in Environmental Practice. Her experience in the environmental sector ranges from various roles in environmental laboratories (2024) Green infrastructures: What can dense cities learn from Singapore – the city in a garden?: EnvironBuzzTM Magazine, EnvironBuzz. Available at: https://environbuzz.com/green-infrastructures-what-can-dense-cities-learn-from-singapore-the-city-in-a-garden/#:~:text=Singapore%20possesses%20about%2047%20percent,way%20of%20life%20in%20Singapore. (Accessed: 14 October 2024).
Comments