Humanity has recently found itself amidst crisis, from the COVID-19 pandemic to the war in Ukraine, in addition to numerous other human rights issues such as socioeconomic polarization and inequality, as well as the digital divide caused by advanced technologies. The crisis caused by climate change, however, is becoming the most widespread universal human rights violation, endangering the very existence of humanity.
The international community has long approached the issue of climate change from a human rights perspective, including the Local Governments Climate Roadmap by UCLG in 2007 and the Paris Agreement (COP 21) in 2015. More specifically, the UN Human Rights Council began to express concern in its 2008 Resolution, stating that climate change “poses an immediate and far-reaching threat to people and communities around the world.” In October 2021, the Human Rights Council recognized for the first time the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. The 2022 IPCC Sixth Assessment Report assessed that climate change has already brought diverse impacts on human systems, including impacts on water security and food production, health and wellbeing, and cities, settlements and infrastructure.
Climate change poses a grave threat to the stable foundation of all areas of life, with people’s rights worsening through food shortage, poverty, infectious diseases, job insecurity, displacement, and diverse forms of inequality. In this regard, the actions or inactions by decision-makers at the local level exert significant consequences on the human rights of people, and thus we need to devise measures for the protection of human rights at the local level with global level solidarity.