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UUSC Partner Advocates for Fair Climate-Change Finance
Climate change is an imminent threat to human rights — a disheartening truth for low-income and marginalized people around the world. Millions already battle with a host of human-rights issues, including lack of access to safe drinking water and extreme poverty. Because climate change is exacerbating the situation, activists around the world continue to call on wealthy countries to keep their commitments under the U.N. Climate Convention and support low-income countries in adapting to climate change and helping their people live a life of dignity. The Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN), a UUSC partner, is sounding that call loud and clear.
APRN and sister organization IBON International are at the forefront of the movement for just and equitable climate-change finance that supports the full realization of all human rights. What is fair climate-change finance? For APRN, it's the idea that wealthier countries should finance climate-change adaptation in a way that takes into consideration how climate change impacts human rights — especially for the most impoverished people in the world.
Recently, Maria Theresa Nera-Lauron, the coordinator of the Peoples' Movement for Climate Change, an organization founded by APRN and IBON International, participated in a panel convened by the U.N. Human Rights Council to address the adverse human-rights impacts of climate change. Speaking as an advocate for low- or no-income people, Nera-Lauron called on rich countries to take responsibility for financing essential climate-change measures. She drew attention to the fact that "human rights language is mostly absent in official climate finance discourse" even though "a human rights framework for climate finance is a very useful tool especially for climate justice advocacy."
Nera-Lauron also reminded the Human Rights Council that industrialized nations are failing to keep their promise to reduce greenhouse emissions, which means an exacerbation of the impacts of climate change and deepening poverty for millions of people. In addition, countries in the Global North are not fulfilling commitments to finance climate-change mitigation and adaptation. She advocates for a climate-change finance system that "must lead to the protection, fulfillment or redress of rights that are undermined by climate change." Such a system must also be democratically governed, democratically owned, and supportive of sustainable development, and must ensure adequate, predictable, and equitable compensation for the harms of climate change.
Meanwhile, grassroots organizations around the world are leading mitigation and adaptation efforts in their communities through projects that protect the environment, ensure food security, and promote alternative sources of income for the poor. For example, UUSC supports the Hope in Crops project in Kenya, a mitigation and adaptation project that protects the environment and supports community-driven initiatives. In addition to Nera-Lauron's suggestions, the United Nations should also support models like the Hope in Crops project to make sure that climate-change finance actually reaches those who need it most.
