UN expert condemns failure to
address impact of climate change on poverty
GENEVA (25 June 2019) - Climate
change will have the greatest impact on those living in poverty, but also
threatens democracy and human rights, according to a UN expert.
“Even if current targets are met,
tens of millions will be impoverished, leading to widespread displacement and
hunger,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights,
Philip Alston, in a report released today.
“Climate change threatens to undo
the last 50 years of progress in development, global health, and poverty
reduction,” Alston said. “It could push more than 120 million more people into
poverty by 2030 and will have the most severe impact in poor countries,
regions, and the places poor people live and work.”
Even the unrealistic best-case
scenario of 1.5°C of warming by 2100 will see extreme temperatures in many
regions and leave disadvantaged populations with food insecurity, lost incomes,
and worse health. Many will have to choose between starvation and migration.
“Perversely, while people in
poverty are responsible for just a fraction of global emissions, they will bear
the brunt of climate change, and have the least capacity to protect
themselves,” Alston said. “We risk a ‘climate apartheid’ scenario where the wealthy
pay to escape overheating, hunger, and conflict while the rest of the world is
left to suffer.”
Climate change has immense, but
largely neglected, implications for human rights. The rights to life, food,
housing, and water will be dramatically affected. But equally importantly will
be the impact on democracy, as governments struggle to cope with the
consequences and to persuade their people to accept the major social and
economic transformations required. “In such a setting, civil and political rights
will be highly vulnerable,” the Special Rapporteur said.
“Most human rights bodies have
barely begun to grapple with what climate change portends for human rights, and
it remains one on a long laundry list of ‘issues’, despite the extraordinarily
short time to avoid catastrophic consequences,” Alston said. “As a full-blown
crisis that threatens the human rights of vast numbers of people bears down,
the usual piecemeal, issue-by-issue human rights methodology is woefully
insufficient.”
Sombre speeches by government
officials at regular conferences are not leading to meaningful action. “States
have marched past every scientific warning and threshold, and what was once
considered catastrophic warming now seems like a best-case scenario,” Alston said.
“Even today, too many countries are taking short-sighted steps in the wrong
direction.”
States are failing to meet even
their current inadequate commitments to reduce carbon emissions and provide
climate financing, while continuing to subsidise the fossil fuel industry with
$5.2 trillion per year.
“Maintaining the current course is
a recipe for economic catastrophe,” Alston said. “Economic prosperity and
environmental sustainability are fully compatible but require decoupling
economic well-being and poverty reduction from fossil fuel emissions.”
This transition will require robust
policies at the local level to support displaced workers and ensure quality
jobs. “A robust social safety net will be the best response to the unavoidable
harms that climate change will bring,” Alston said. “This crisis should be a
catalyst for states to fulfil long ignored and overlooked economic and social
rights, including to social security and access to food, healthcare, shelter,
and decent work.”
Although some have turned to the
private sector for solutions, an overreliance on for-profit efforts would
nearly guarantee massive human rights violations, with the wealthy catered to
and the poorest left behind. “If climate change is used to justify
business-friendly policies and widespread privatisation, exploitation of
natural resources and global warming may be accelerated rather than prevented,”
Alston said.
“There is no shortage of alarm
bells ringing over climate change, and an increase in biblical-level extreme
weather events appear to be finally piercing through the noise, misinformation,
and complacency, but these positive signs are no reason for contentment,”
Alston said. “A reckoning with the scale of the change that is needed is just
the first step.”
ENDS
Mr. Philip Alston (Australia) took
up his functions as the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
in June 2014. As a Special Rapporteur,
he is part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights
Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN
Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent
fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country
situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’
experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a
salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization
and serve in their individual capacity.
Follow the Special Rapporteur on
Twitter @Alston_UNSR and Facebook at www.facebook.com/AlstonUNSR
For more information and media
requests, please contact Bassam Khawaja (+1 646 886 7211 /
bassam.khawaja@nyu.edu) or Patricia Varela (+41 22 928 9234 /
pvarela@ohchr.org)
For media inquiries related to
other UN independent experts please contact Jeremy Laurence, UN Human Rights –
Media Unit (+41 22 917 9383 / jlaurence@ohchr.org
Follow news related to the UN’s
independent human rights experts on Twitter @UN_SPExperts.
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