21st Informal Asia Europe Meeting Seminar on Human Rights

Ambassador Morikawa,

Excellencies,

Colleagues and friends,

It is a pleasure to be with you all today. I want to thank the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, along with the co-organizers, for hosting this seminar, and for your principled leadership to advance international solidarity in our climate crisis.

The ASEM is exactly the kind of multilateral platform that we need at a time when the world is facing multiple human rights challenges, including the triple planetary crises of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss.

As the United Nations Secretary-General has outlined in Our Common Agenda, multilateralism is key to advancing human rights and sustainable development for all, in a world that is better able to handle interlinked challenges such as climate change, the continuing pandemic, growing hunger, extreme poverty, and injustice.

Environmental degradation is among the greatest threats that humanity faces, and addressing it must be at the core of all policy making. We are running out of time.

In terms of global policymaking, 2021 saw two milestones related to human rights, climate change and the environment at the Human Rights Council:

The Council recognized that a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is a universal human right. Its resolution 48/13 recognized environmental degradation and climate change as interconnected human rights crises, and acknowledged the massive damage inflicted by climate change and environmental destruction on millions of people worldwide.

The Council’s resolution 48/14 also created a Special Rapporteur on human rights and climate change. This will contribute to increased expert knowledge and awareness about the range and severity of human rights impact from climate change. It will support the resilience and adaptive capacities of people in vulnerable situations to respond to these adverse impacts.

Environmental degradation affects a wide range of human rights, including the rights to life, to self-determination, to development, to health, to food, water and sanitation, adequate housing and cultural rights. It can lead to social tensions and fuel conflict over resources. Its heaviest burdens are shouldered by those who are always least protected from harm – people and communities who are already in vulnerable situations, because of poverty, sex, age, disability, migration status, or any other factor leading to discrimination. This harms all of society.

Across Asia, Europe and every other region of the world, climate change is already damaging lives, affecting livelihoods and curtailing rights. In such a context, States have an obligation under international human rights law to take mitigating measures to prevent human rights harms caused by climate change, and to provide people with the means to adapt. They have a responsibility to mobilize the maximum available resources for sustainable, human rights-based development. And they have a duty to support climate action.

Many low-income countries are among the hardest hit – and they cannot do this work alone. International cooperation and assistance for climate change mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage is essential to address the effects of climate change on those who face its worst impacts.

I therefore welcome recent commitments by a number of States, including Luxembourg, to bolster international climate finance, particularly mitigation and adaptation assistance. Luxembourg's International Climate Finance Strategy for 2021-2025 doubles its international climate funding, to 200 million Euro – a significant step in the right direction. In 2020, the European Investment Bank committed 37 per cent of its financing to fight climate change.

At the regional level, the European Climate Law requires all European Union member States to significantly reduce net greenhouse gas emission by 2030 and achieve climate neutrality by 2050. The recently launched ASEAN State of Climate Change Report presents a number of climate action measures needed to move towards the ASEAN 2050 Climate Vision and transit towards net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.

A wide number of countries are taking climate action. In January, the government of Indonesia announced the revocation of 192 palm oil and forestry permits, as part of its efforts to reach its net carbon sink target by 2030.

But far more needs to be done to fulfill existing climate finance commitments, and to meaningfully address the loss and damage that is already being suffered by so many. We are dangerously close to the crucial 1.5° temperature threshold established by the Paris Agreement. If Europe and Asia can work together to meaningfully combat climate change through human rights-based action, they can bring much needed relief to our entire planet.  

We need to place people’s rights at the heart of the response to climate change, and ensure that no one is left behind. This means prioritizing the views, the needs, and the protection of marginalized groups and others in vulnerable situations.

They, like everyone, have a right to meaningful and informed participation in climate policy-making, and to access justice for the harms they suffer. Together with the right to access information about climate change, these are critical elements of the human rights-based approach to policy-making.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, risks from climate change can be reduced through rights-based approaches that focus on capacity-building, meaningful participation of the most vulnerable groups, and their access to key resources, including financing.

By empowering the people and communities at the forefront of the climate crisis, human-rights based climate action increases their resilience and effectiveness as agents of change. Women, youth, and indigenous peoples – many of whom act as environmental human rights defenders – are crucial partners in the efforts to protect the environment.

Human Rights Council resolution 40/11 highlighted the critical linkages between the work of environmental human rights defenders and the public's enjoyment of human rights, environmental protection and sustainable development – and it called for States to better protect their lives and rights.

The UN Secretary-General has also called for better protection for environmental human rights defenders, who face increasing threats to their lives and work in numerous countries, often with little hope for accountability. My Office is assisting the development of detailed, practical guidance on this issue. We stand ready to support States in their efforts to address all aspects of the climate crisis through a human rights-based approach.

For example, OHCHR’s South-East Asia Regional Office strongly advocates a human rights-based approach in States’ climate actions, with a focus on the right to participation. With South East Asia among the world's most lethal regions for environmental human rights defenders, protecting their valuable work is a priority.

Recommendations to be issued by the first dedicated forum for environmental human rights defenders in the Asia-Pacific region – which we were honoured to organise – provide useful guidance regarding accountability for threats or violence against environmental human rights and recognition of the value of their work, among other points.
Children are also profoundly impacted by climate change and environmental damage, and we have partnered with UNEP and UNICEF in publishing Principles and Policy Guidance on Children’s Rights to a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment in the ASEAN Region. In May, we will host an Asia Regional Dialogue on Climate Justice for Children, Youth and Future Generations.

Excellencies,

Failure to adopt human rights-based policy to fight climate change will increase people's suffering; fuel greater grievances; undermine development policy; and lead to greater poverty, greater displacement, and higher risks of conflict.

There is a better way. This seminar can make a difference, by contributing to deeper, more meaningful collaboration between Asia and Europe to advance human rights-based environmental action towards our joint goal of stopping the triple planetary crisis.

Please know that my Office is committed to supporting you in this work. I wish you productive and action-oriented discussions.

Thank you.