Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)

🚨 NEW REPORT 🚨A new Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) analysis reveals the US is poised for a massive petrochemical buildout that would add annual emissions equivalent to nearly 40 coal power plants, undermining climate targets and locking in fossil fuel emissions for decades to come.  On the heels of the hottest summer on record, the need to phase out fossil fuels has never been more clear. 📣 Join us in urging US leaders to reject the petrochemical expansion and the compounding harm it will cause communities and the climate. Links below to 👀 read the report and 💪 take action. #BeyondPetrochemicals #EndFossilFuels #PlasticsTreaty 

As the 79th UN General Assembly and New York Climate Week draw to a close, momentum to reject solar geoengineering is growing. Countries across Africa, Latin America, the Pacific, and Europe have signaled their support for the Solar Geoengineering Non-Use Agreement initiative. "We welcome the growing commitment to Non-Use of Solar Geoengineering as governments around the world identify the enormity of the geopolitical, environmental, and social risks inherent to these technologies. Impossible to test for their intended climate impact without large-scale deployment, these highly speculative technologies put billions of people's human rights at risk while giving polluting industries a free pass," CIEL's Mary Church. Read more in our statement [link in the first comment]. #SayNoToSolarGeo #Geoengineering #HumanRights

Don't miss our side event to the 57th session of the Human Rights Council on human rights to access justice and effective remedy in the context of climate-induced human rights violations and the role of national, regional, and UN human rights institutions in advancing them. Thursday, 3 October, 14:00-15:00 (CEST) Palais des Nations, Room XXV – Geneva, Switzerland and virtual Join online [link in the first comment] #RightToRemedy #ClimateReparations #HRC57

🚨BREAKING! Nearly 60% of planned plastic production projects by emissions, are on hold, showing that a combination of local opposition and market forces are beginning to constrain the expansion of plastic production. 💸investors already perceive significant risks around these petrochemical projects, especially around plastic • The 🇺🇸President and climate policy leaders should: • Publicly and officially acknowledge the role of petrochemicals in driving and exacerbating the climate crisis. 🛢️Publicly acknowledge that the full life-cycle scope of the future plastics treaty covers petrochemical production and its associated toxic impacts, in line with the July 2024 Interagency Policy Committee action plan on plastic pollution. 🇺🇳Highlight the need for the US to support legally binding measures in global plastics treaty negotiations to stop the expansion of petrochemical production facilities, including through mandatory global targets for production reduction.

I am very happy to share the latest edition of the synthesis note "States’ Human Rights Obligations in the Context of Climate Change: Guidance Provided by the UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies". This annual publication, which I have prepared with Magdalena Rochi Monagas, with the support of other colleagues from the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) and the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, provides an overview of the work that human rights treaty bodies have been conducting on climate change, situating it in the wider legal and policy context at the international level. Treaty bodies play an important role in advancing the interpretation of human rights norms and how these apply in the context of environmental action. I hope that this publication can shed further light on their important contribution and on the opportunities they still have for further work on climate change. Enjoy the reading!

Human Rights Treaty Bodies (HRTBs) have a critical role to play in elaborating on the obligations of States to respect, protect and fulfill human rights in climate governance. Our synthesis note with Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights explores how human rights monitoring bodies have called upon States to uphold States’ human rights obligations in climate harm and the role of these institutions in the context of climate justice [link in the first comment]. At a glance: - UN Treaty Bodies are the expert bodies established by intl. human rights treaties. They are mandated to: 1⃣ Review States’ implementation of the human rights treaty, 2⃣ Guide States on the interpretation of the treaty, 3⃣ Adjudicate complaints of any treaty's violations. - Since 2010, the majority of these Treaty Bodies have asked States to report back regarding their measures to prevent climate-induced harms and made recommendations regarding how these States should uphold their obligations in context of the climate crisis. In a year when the ongoing Advisory Opinion process from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and International Court of Justice (ICJ) will clarify States' legal obligations in the context of the climate crisis and the legal consequences of breaching those obligations, the role of HRTB is ever more critical. - HRTBs recommendations also address a wide range of  human rights issues, such as the: - Need to phase out fossil fuels, - Protection of the most marginalized, - Prevention of harmful policies, - Importance of public participation & empowerment. - Our Synthesis Note explores a few of these issues that are particularly relevant when discussing human rights obligations in the context of climate change, yet are still little explored by human rights mechanisms: - Fossil fuels, - Loss and Damage, - The right to a healthy environment, - Carbon markets and offsets, - The rights of future generations, - International financial cooperation and climate finance,  - Just energy transition to a climate-safe future. #HumanRightsTreatyBodies #ClimateRights #HumanRights

🆕 📜 Important new article from Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Climate Advisory Opinion and the Future of Climate Responsibility. (linked in the first comment below) 👉🏽 In unpacking the ongoing climate advisory proceedings she writes: "Most important, however, is the question of legal consequences for States that have caused significant harm to the climate system. The Court’s answer to this question could pave the way for #reparation for climate damages and enhance #accountability." #ClimateReparations #RightToRemedy #ClimateJusticeAtTheICJ #AOLetsGo

📺 ⚖ video recording: "𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐑𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐡(𝐬) 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝" - watch the recording of our side event to the 🇺🇳#SummitOfTheFuture. 📢 While the outcomes of the 🇺🇳 Summit are disappointing, this does not take away the fact that legal norms for the protection of future generations already exist and that we have the opportunity both to leverage those and to buttress the legal understanding of States' obligations towards future generations. 🔗 🗣 Please help us get the word out by sharing this link: https://lnkd.in/ebNUb5W5 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇫🇷 The side event took place in English, Spanish and French. 🙏 Thank you to all the participants for their extremely thoughtful questions, to all the panelist 🙌 This event was jointly organized by the Permanent Missions of 🇻🇺 Vanuatu and 🇱🇺 Luxembourg to the UN in New York, the 🇺🇳 United Nations Human Rights, the 🇺🇳 UN Environment Programme, FIAN International, and the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). 🎙 The speakers included H.E. Mr. Ambassador Odo Tevi, Permanent Representative of the Republic of 🇻🇺 Vanuatu to the United Nations, H.E. Mr. Ambassador Olivier Maes, Permanent Representative of 🇱🇺 Luxembourg to the United Nations, Astrid Puentes Riaño, UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to a healthy environment, Surya Deva, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to development, Sandra Liebenberg, University of Stellenbosch, Aditi S., World's Youth for Climate Justice (WYCJ), Juliana Almeida, UN Environment Programme, Christian Courtis, OHCHR, Ashfaq Khalfan of Oxfam America #OurCommonFuture

📣 Ministers will be meeting this week to discuss the future of the plastics treaty negotiations 📣 160 organizations call on leaders to demonstrate unwavering commitment to securing an international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution that controls and reduces plastic production, specifically by: 1️⃣ Delivering concrete supply-side rules by the end of the negotiations that prevent the growth and reduce the production of virgin plastics. 2️⃣ Including a global reduction target that serves as a collective benchmark, unequivocally accompanied by mandatory targets and clear pathways for each country to deliver the necessary reductions to achieve it. https://lnkd.in/e8i8tYdJ

Last week, CIEL joined over 160 organizations around the world in calling on leaders to maintain their commitments to reducing plastic production in the future #PlasticsTreaty. There are nine weeks between now and the final scheduled negotiation #INC5. Starting this week around the UN General Assembly and New York Climate Week, negotiators will hold a series of closed-door meetings to discuss key provisions, including production. Production is essential to the future treaty's success. We're demanding that they maintain their commitments and not trade away essential measures. LINK in comments.