Environment and Climate Change
A safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is essential to the full enjoyment of a wide range of human rights, including the rights to health, food, water and sanitation. Climate change threatens the enjoyment of these rights.
States have an obligation to prevent the foreseeable adverse effects of climate change and to ensure that those affected, particularly people in vulnerable situations, have access to remedies and means of adaptation to live in dignity.
UN Human Rights promotes a human rights-based approach to environmental and climate action. It works with partners to integrate human rights into environmental laws and policies, supports civil society participation in decision-making, ensures access to information and remedies, advocates for environmental human rights defenders, and conducts research on the human rights impacts of environmental degradation.
Our work on Environment and Climate Change
The UN Human Rights Europe Office engages closely with EU institutions and bodies, in cooperation with UN Human Rights headquarters and field offices, to advance human rights in environmental and climate policies.
Our work in this area focuses on the following priorities:
- Firmly anchoring international human rights standards in EU legislative and policy work related to environment and climate change
- Supporting stakeholders with tools, knowledge, and guidance to integrate a human rights-based approach into environmental and climate action
- Contributing to the operationalization of the right to a healthy environment
- Supporting engagement of UN human rights mechanisms with European institutions
