Individuals in low-income communities are more affected by inadequate waste management and resource exploitation. People who live in poverty are more susceptible to the consequences of climate risks and lack the adaptive abilities to reduce their exposure than those who have access to education
Only 18 % of appointed ministers worldwide are women. The vulnerability of women to the climate crisis is not only environmental but it is also rooted in its intersection with socio-economic and cultural factors, as well as lack of gendered policy. The inclusion of women in decision making and climate related policies is vital to combating women’s vulnerability to the climate crisis.
The ICC has the power to prosecute people (and not nations or organisations) for four types of crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and aggression.There is a formulated legal definition of ecocide as a prospective 5th offence under the Rome StatuteEcocide: activities done with knowledge that those acts have a strong possibility of causing severe and either widespread or long-term environmental damage
The carbon cycle is a biogeochemical process in which carbon is exchanged between reservoirs through fluxes over a period of time. The dynamic equilibrium of the carbon cycle is heavily disrupted due to human emissions from burning fossil fuels and land degradation, leading to increased levels of carbon dioxide. The Keeling curve is the longest recorded graph of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere on Earth; it indicates that CO2 levels today are the highest in 800,000 years.
Within the strict interpretation of the law, “corporate environmental crimes are strictly speaking not a crime”. The 2008 Environmental Crime Directive states that there is no need to demonstrate the defendants' intention, negligence or fault concerning the harm caused.
As it hasn’t sufficiently reduced greenhouse gas emissions, the Netherlands couldn’t fulfill its duty of care towards its citizens, neither under Dutch Tort Law nor from a Human Rights perspective. According to the issuing courts there is a sufficient causal link between the greenhouse gas emissions of the Netherlands, global climate change, and the Dutch living environment, even if these emissions are relatively small. The courts played an important role in this case and were able to interfere in policy matters (despite the separation of powers) as they only set the required mitigation outcome but no specific measures on how to reach this outcome.
The increase in worldwide water temperatures creates environments where waterborne zoonoses such as schistosomiasis, cercarial dermatitis, fascioliasis, and fasciolopsiasis thrive Displacement of species into human settlements increases the risk potential of zoonotic disease Two instances where Orthopoxvirus species Alaskapox has been unearthed since 2017.
Human rights cannot be guaranteed without environmental protection The necessity for environmental law only came after WWII Better legislation and implementation is needed to ensure the effectiveness of environmental law
Climate litigation has surged in recent years as activists seek strategic legal victories to influence government and corporate climate policies. These legal arguments tend to be grounded in human rights, emphasising the positive obligations on states to respect the lives, health and futures of their citizens. However, claimants face difficulties in proving causation and satisfying procedural standing barriers; it is hoped that improvements in attribution science will ease these issues in the future.
Although the Paris Agreement rules that states must all do what they can to keep global warming below 1.5°C, it does not provide binding requirements on how they should do so, in accordance with the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities”. It also does not bind corporations, who are the world’s largest GHG emitters. Although the Paris Agreement and the NDCs are the best climate framework we have been able to develop to this day, there are ways in which they could be strengthened. We could establish clear minimum emission requirements, for instance, or apply a similar framework of NDCs to large businesses.