Human rights “offers the path we need to take out of climate chaos,” says High Commissioner

Excellencies, 
Dear colleagues,

Our planet is in pain.

We keep breaking climate records none of us have any interest in breaking.

May this year was the world’s warmest May since global record-keeping commenced in 1850.

Unbearable, unbelievable heat.

At its most extreme, climate change kills. Flooding in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul in April and May killed more than 170 people and displaced more than half a million. In India, the longest heatwave since records began has killed dozens of people since March, and extreme heat has reached 50 degrees Celsius in some Indian states. 

Climate change also aggravates existing threats and challenges. It exacerbates insecurity and can drive conflict. It has already forced millions of people inside their own country to uproot their lives, livelihoods and families in search of a safer future.

And that search is only becoming harder. 

As despoiled lands, polluted waters and clear-cut forests leave people with few alternatives.

Make no mistake, the climate crisis is a crisis for the planet, but also for human rights. 

And not just for the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

For the right to food. The right to health. Even the right to life.

Dear colleagues,

The science has been clear all along.

Based on current commitments by States, it has been estimated that the world is on track to heat an estimated 2.7 degrees Celsius. 

This is an unimaginable, dystopian future.

Increasing all efforts urgently to limit warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius is crucial.

Even in the best-case scenario, we face multiple climate tipping points.

Mr. President,

Food security is just one area that is under grave threat. 

In 2023 and 2024, climate-related shocks were the main drivers of food crises in 18 countries, where almost 72 million people faced high levels of food insecurity. 

We are at real risk of seeing a failure of food systems in some places, as a result of the impact of climate change.

But food systems are not just a casualty of climate change or environmental damage. 

They are a contributor to it as well.

Some researchers estimate that food systems are responsible for a third of global emissions.

Effective, rights-based action to reduce food system emissions must continue urgently.

Unjust food systems not only decimate the environment, but can impoverish rural communities. 

Agrochemicals used in industrial food production harm the health of agricultural workers and farmers. And down the line, they harm communities and consumers.

There is nothing safe, sustainable or scientifically sound about the mass production of unhealthy food. 

Agroecological, regenerative, rotational, organic, biological and other sustainable farming practices can and do help to reduce human exposure to toxins and chemicals and ensure food systems are devoid of polluting fossil fuel-based products.  

In this vein, my Office’s recent report on climate change and the right to food outlined concrete measures both to address the adverse impact of climate change on food security and the contributions of food systems to climate change. 

It advised measures to minimise and reverse the contributions of food systems to climate change.

And universal social protection systems to strengthen resilience of those affected. 

We called on businesses involved in food systems to fulfil their human rights responsibilities in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

For equitable land-related policies to empower people and support regenerative and sustainable food systems.

For a massive injection of funding into climate policies and measures.  

And for economic and trade policies which have human rights, including the right to food, at their core.

Colleagues,

The right to health is also inextricably linked with the health of the planet and safe and sustainable food systems.

This has long been recognized through the “One Health” concept that seeks sustainably to balance the health of people, animals and ecosystems.

And yet, very real impacts of climate change on our health and wellbeing are manifesting at pace. Food-borne, water-borne and vector-borne diseases are on the rise in all regions. 

Air pollution kills seven million people every year.

And existing health inequalities are only getting wider.

The World Health Assembly’s recent landmark resolution recognizing climate change as an imminent threat to global health is an important step. 

This Council’s recognition of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is another.

But we must do much more to ensure a healthy future.

Dear colleagues,

Under the current economic paradigm, our global food and climate systems are locked in a vicious cycle that harms both people and planet.

We do have a way forward.

We must advance and uphold the interrelated rights to food, health and a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a cornerstone of all policies and approaches. 

We need a just transition to a sustainable economy that is guided by human rights and dedicated to their fulfilment. In short, a human rights economy.

We cannot simply exchange one growth-driven, environmentally intensive resource paradigm like the fossil-fuel economy for another. We need transformative changes at all levels - economic, social, environmental, legislative, political and technological – to help those who are most affected by the climate crisis.

And we must commit to empowering and protecting people on the frontlines of this crisis, be they marginalised communities, peasants or Indigenous Peoples. Their knowledge is invaluable. Their voices are crucial.

The Summit of the Future, and the negotiation of the Pact for the Future and, in particular, the Declaration for Future Generations, represent a crucial opportunity to advance a long-term vision.

To recognize the obligation of current generations to safeguard the ability of future generations to enjoy their rights – including the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

And to think about the accountability mechanisms that are necessary to secure these rights, to put a stop to the current crises and to prevent future ones. 

There are a growing number of decisions by regional and international courts and tribunals along these lines, such as the recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that States have justiciable, positive human rights obligations to protect against the growing risks of climate change. 

This Council and its mechanisms also have an important role to play.

I hope our work, including this discussion, will inform the critical next steps we all need to take.

Dear colleagues,

We owe it to future generations to be smarter, to do better, to act now.

We need urgent, renewed commitment to prevent the vast, deepening human rights impact of the triple planetary crisis, the biggest threat to existence humanity has ever known.

The human rights framework offers the path we need to take out of climate chaos.

I urge you all to commit to implementing it. 

Thank you.