“Earth provides a life support system for 8 billion people and millions of other species, but we are in the midst of an unprecedented planetary crisis,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, David Boyd, adding that large businesses were primarily responsible for attacks on the biosphere and growing inequalities.

“The 1 percent produce the same total volume of climate-wrecking greenhouse gas emissions as the poorest 66 percent of humanity,” he said.

In his last report to the Human Rights Council, Boyd called for a rethink of business and economic models based on exploiting people and nature that have pushed humanity to the brink of disaster.

According to the expert, many large businesses are violating the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment by polluting air, water and soil, destroying biodiversity, releasing toxics that are a dangerous to humans and wildlife, and producing and marketing unhealthy and unsustainable food. Air pollution annually costs the Earth USD 8.1 trillion in damage to health and the environment and industrial food production more than USD 10 trillion.

For Boyd, today’s economic model is flawed because is it based on the belief in limitless growth and is more concerned with maximizing profits for shareholders, to the detriment of human rights obligations.

“Fossil fuel companies make hundreds of billions of dollars in profits while their products kill millions of people and exacerbate the climate emergency. Transnational food businesses enjoy record profits while food prices, hunger and malnutrition spike upwards,” he said.

The expert did concede, however, that the private sector could be a force for good in reaching a just and sustainable future, citing examples of businesses that produce or use 100 percent renewable energy, make their products more ecofriendly and use regenerative approaches to farming, forestry and fishing. He further pointed out that investing in a green economy could generate 40 million new jobs by 2030.

Businesses have a responsibility, “over and above compliance with national laws and regulations,” to respect human rights norms and standards, including the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, Boyd said.

For Boyd, States are complicit in the planetary crisis by enabling and subsidizing destructive business activities. He also stressed their obligation to protect human rights and their duty to enact strong laws, regulations, standards and policies, including comprehensive human rights and environmental due diligence legislation.

Speaking of people in the global South who want to achieve economic development, Boyd said that humanity needs to confront a paradox. “Humanity needs to shrink its collective ecological footprint, yet billions of people in the global South need to expand their energy and material use to achieve a comfortable standard of living and fully enjoy their human rights,” he said. “Wealthy States must take the lead in reducing their footprints and financing green growth in the global South.”

Reflecting on his six years tenure at the helm of the environment and human rights mandate, Boyd said that he was most proud of the universal recognition of the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment at the Human Rights Council in October 2021 and the UN General Assembly in July 2022.

“These are landmark advances in international human rights,” he said.