Human rights on a warming Earth
Overview
The evidence on the human threat posed by climate change is clear. The planet is getting hotter. Seas are rising. Rainfall patterns are changing. In Australia, our bushfire seasons are getting longer and more dangerous. The risk of drought, floods and heatwaves is increasing.
We wrote this report to raise awareness of the connection between climate change and human rights and to outline the critical importance of addressing climate change to protect people’s rights in Australia.
Climate change directly threatens our human rights to life, health, a healthy environment, housing, food, water and work. The message of the report is clear: if we want to protect our quality of life, we must address climate change with greater urgency.
The report outlines:
- the human rights affected by climate change
- Australia’s human rights and climate change obligations
- our legislative framework
- climate legal action
- the role of national human rights institutions.
Recommendations
The report makes 7 recommendations to the Australian Government and businesses. They outline how the Australian Government should:
- adopt and enforce laws to phase out fossil fuels, prohibit new fossil fuel projects and strictly regulate the import and export of fossil fuels
- end fossil fuel subsidies
- undertake stringent due diligence to identify and assess serious climate and human rights risks
- enact a national Human Rights Act.
The report recommends that businesses should reduce emissions across operations and supply chains and disclose climate risks.
Fossil fuel companies should urgently plan to phase out operations, fund worker retraining and site closure and clean-up.
The pace at which we cut climate pollution from fossil fuels will determine how dangerous the future is.
Downloads
Read the full report:
(13.06 MB)
Read the executive summary:
(569 KB)