Hague climate change judgement could inspire a global civil movement

You have been negotiating all my life”, cried out 21-year-old Anjali Appadurai from the lectern of a UN climate change conference four years ago. The activist, speaking on behalf of her nation’s youth, could have been speaking for anyone who has taken a mild interest in more than two decades of international negotiations on climate change and stood aghast as world leaders have failed to protect the most basic of human rights – to exist.

Urgenda’s legal team celebrate on Wednesday after court ruling
 in the Hague that ordered the Dutch government to cut
emissions by 25% within five years.

But today, thanks to 886 Dutch citizens who decided to sue their government, all of that may change. We may not have to wait for the politicians to save us – the lawyers may step in instead. In the first successful case of its kind, a judge in the Hague has ruled that the Dutch government’s stance on climate change is illegal and has ordered them to take action to cut greenhouse gas emissions by a hefty 25% within five years.

Read the story from The Guardian by Emma Howard - “Hague climate change judgement could inspire a global civil movement .”

Human Rights Hearing: Emotional Testimony, No Oil Industry Response

NEW YORK—In a steady, unflinching voice, Marinel Ubaldo told a story of a life torn apart by a powerful typhoon and set the tone for a hearing in New York City by the Philippines Commission on Human Rights in an unusual investigation about corporate responsibility and climate change.

As the first to testify on Thursday, Ubaldo recounted the horror of witnessing buildings topple and debris flying as Typhoon Haiyan swept through her village in Samar, killing 11. The category 5 storm reduced her home to a heap of rubble that buried her most precious possession—a box of medals and certificates that helped frame her identity as a good student—and left behind a family torn apart by the struggle to rebuild. In all, the monster 2013 storm killed 6,300 in the Philippines.

The human toll of Typhoon Haiyan was steep in Tacloban,
Philippines in 2013 and now a human rights investigation
eyes the role of fossil fuel companies.

She explained how her father, a fisherman, had trouble catching enough fish even when he sailed farther out to sea. Her mother abandoned the family saying she couldn’t handle it anymore. Ubaldo was 16.

Read the Climate Liability News story by Ucilia Wang - “Human Rights Hearing: Emotional Testimony, No Oil Industry Response.”

Oil, coal, cement and mining sued as greenhouse gas emissions violate human rights

Typhoon Haiyan, known locally as Yolanda,
struck in 2013 and was one of the 
most powerful storms ever recorded.

The world’s largest oil, coal, cement and mining companies have been given 45 days to respond to a complaint that their greenhouse gas emissions have violated the human rights of millions of people living in the Philippines.

In a potential landmark legal case, the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (CHR), a constitutional body with the power to investigate human rights violations, has sent 47 “carbon majors” including Shell, BP, Chevron, BHP Billiton and Anglo American, a 60-page document accusing them of breaching people’s fundamental rights to “life, food, water, sanitation, adequate housing, and to self-determination”.

The move is the first step in what is expected to be an official investigation of the companies by the CHR, and the first of its kind in the world to be launched by a government body.

Read John Vidal’s story inThe Guardian - “World's largest carbon producers face landmark human rights case.”

Norway leads the way on deforestation

Norway becomes first country in the world
 to commit to zero deforestation.

Norway has become the first country in the world to commit to zero deforestation.

The Norwegian parliament pledged the government’s public procurement policy will become deforestation-free after a committee of MPs recommended imposing regulations to ensure the state did "not contribute to deforestation of the rainforest".

Norway funds forest conservation projects worldwide and also supports human rights programmes for forest communities.

Nils Hermann Ranum, the head of Policy and Campaign at Rainforest Foundation Norway, said in a statement: “This is an important victory in the fight to protect the rainforest. Over the last few years, a number of companies have committed to cease the procurement of goods that can be linked to destruction of the rainforest.

Read the Independent story - “Norway becomes first country in the world to commit to zero deforestation.”

Climate Change Film Tells Us 'How to Let Go of the World'

China’s smog-ridden skies have driven some people to rebel in the streets—even if their communist government punishes them severely for doing so. This is a country, after all, where Facebook is blocked and Google is censored.

Director Josh Fox discovered this first-hand when he headed to Beijing for his latest film, How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change.

“Even the nicest hotel room can turn into a prison,” he said in the film as a guard stood outside his hotel room at 4:30 a.m. Even on the streets in broad daylight, he and his crew were tailed by secret police who drove behind them in a white car. The film’s producer was detained, and the team nearly lost its footage. A trip that had set out to cover the polluting effects of coal quickly evolved into a segment on political repression and human rights.

“Human rights is the air that we breathe,” Fox says.

Three years after his Gasland series showed viewers the detrimental effects of fracking, Fox explores the hard truths of climate change and, recognizing the immensity of the struggle we confront, challenges us to let go of what can’t be helped.

Read the Yes! magazine story - “Climate Change Film Tells Us “How to Let Go of the World”.”

'She'll be right mate' won't stop climate change or protect human rights

H

uman rights appear to have little impact on the daily lives of most Australians as it is a concept and issue the falls beyond the boundaries of “she’ll be right mate”.

Most Australians would consider they are free and clear of any human rights issues, but the reality is that those rights are being clearly contravened and abused every day in communities throughout the country.

Beyond those clearly identifiable abuses that are cultural, racial and economic, there is a more sweeping instances of rights abuses evolving from the human induced disruption of the world’s climate system that will impact on everyone, beginning with those least able to counter the difficulties of climate change.

Subsequently, and interestingly, the UN's Human Rights Council (HRC) has unanimously adopted a new resolution that stresses the importance of addressing the impact of climate change on the human rights of some of the world's most vulnerable people.

A BusinessGreen story says, “The Human rights and climate change resolution, championed by the Philippines and Bangladesh and co-sponsored by more than 100 countries, highlights the importance of considering the "direct and indirect" impact of climate change on a wide range of human rights, including the right of life, and the right to adequate food and housing.

“It also expresses concerns that the countries likely to be worst hit by climate change are those without the resources to implement effective adaptation plans. This puts some of the world's most vulnerable citizens at risk, the resolution said,” the story adds.

Read the BusinessGreen story - “Climate change is a human rights issue, says UN”.

We choke on the gnat and swallow the elephant with ease

-       Robert McLean

Our earth is facing
the firing squad.

Australians, from the Prime Minister down, presently agonize over the impending execution of two countrymen in Indonesia.

The fate of the drug smugglers has produced bipartisan unison in Australia and yet the world-wide deaths emanating from climate change pass almost unheeded, producing little but confrontation and disagreement throughout the country.

It is beyond time that the people of the world recognized that metaphorically our behaviour is committing untold numbers of people to a fate that is different, but little worse.

A story published on Fusion - “Why Climate Change is a Human Rights Violation” – removes whatever doubt you might have, pointing out that climate change is violence—it is a force of death, impoverishment, and displacement.

It ends: “We know our planet is in peril. But it’s time to start talking about the people dying because of our failure to get real about climate change”.

The fate of the two Australians in Indonesia is important, but irrelevant when considered within the scope of climate change and the fact that it is a dilemma we still have time to do something about - it simply needs commitment and the will.

 

It's a little like as choking on the gnat (the death of two Australians in Indonesia) and swallow the elephant with ease (climate change and the thousands of deaths it causes pass almost unnoticed).

Inattention to climate change and human rights linked

Inattention to climate change and its link to human rights surfaced briefly at a public forum in Euroa on Saturday.

The matter was really only mentioned in passing and although there was a noted bias in the group’s make-up, there appeared consensus that governments failing to actively respond to climate change were abdicating their human rights responsibilities.

The sense of a direct link between human rights and a move to mitigate the cause of climate change is not uncommon and the Climate Action Network reports on a call to have human rights included in any future climate agreement.

The story - “NGO Submission to the ADP Calling for Human Rights Protections in the 2015 Agreement, 7 February 2015” – tells of the call.

Saturday’s meeting at Euroa, organized by Strathbogie Voices and the Euroa Environmental Group, featured presentations by University of Melbourne climate scientist, Professor David Karoly. It attracted more than 120 people.