What is climate change according to the slides?
It is the significant variation of average weather conditions (e.g., becoming warmer, wetter, or drier) over several decades or longer, distinguished from short-term natural weather variability.
How is climate change different from natural weather variability?
Weather variability is short-term fluctuation, while climate change is a longer-term trend in average conditions over decades or more.
Why is climate change described as a social crisis highlighting inequalities?
Because the poorest and most vulnerable people bear the worst impacts despite contributing the least to greenhouse gas emissions.
According to the slides, who bears the worst impacts of climate change?
The poorest and most vulnerable people and communities, especially those already disadvantaged.
What kinds of additional challenges do disadvantaged communities face due to climate change?
Extreme weather, health problems, food and water shortages, job loss, forced migration, cultural loss, and other risks.
What root causes of vulnerability to climate change are identified in the slides?
Geographical location; financial and socio-economic status; and limited access to resources, services, decision-making power, and justice.
How can climate change intensify inequalities between societies?
By imposing disproportionate losses and adaptation burdens on poorer states and communities who have contributed least to emissions.
By how much has the Earth’s surface warmed since the late 1800s according to the slides?
About 1.1°C, and it is warmer than at any time in the last 100,000 years.
What are the main climate change effects listed in the slides?
Increase in temperature, disastrous storms, droughts, and poverty and displacement.
How does climate change contribute to more disastrous storms?
Higher temperatures cause more moisture to evaporate, intensifying rainfall and flooding, and warmer oceans fuel stronger cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons.
In what ways do droughts relate to climate change in the slides?
Climate change causes water scarcity and more frequent droughts, affecting agriculture, expanding deserts, and reducing land available for farming.
How does climate change intensify poverty and displacement?
Weather-related events like floods, storms, and wildfires displace millions every year, pushing vulnerable populations further into poverty.
Name four human rights identified as affected by climate change in the slides.
Right to life, right to health, right to water and sanitation, and right to adequate housing.
How does climate change threaten the right to life?
Through extreme weather events, sea-level rise, and changing disease patterns that can directly or indirectly lead to loss of life.
How does climate change affect the right to health?
Heatwaves, floods, storms, and related events cause injuries, illnesses, mental health issues, and stress on health systems.
How is the right to water and sanitation impacted by climate change?
Climate change disrupts water supplies, increases scarcity and contamination, and affects sanitation systems.
How can rising sea levels and natural disasters affect the right to adequate housing?
They can destroy homes, displace communities, and reduce habitable land, leading to loss of adequate housing.
Which Sustainable Development Goals are mentioned as affected by climate change?
SDG 1 No Poverty, SDG 2 Zero Hunger, SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being, and SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation.
What is the link between climate change and SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation)?
Climate change exacerbates water scarcity and degrades water quality, hindering access to clean water and proper sanitation.
What does Article 6 of the ICCPR recognise?
That every human being has the inherent right to life and that no person shall be arbitrarily deprived of life.
How has the Human Rights Committee interpreted the right to life in Article 6?
Not narrowly; it requires states to adopt positive measures to protect life, including measures related to environmental protection.
what are the five types of obligations in the context ofenvironmental harm?
- adaptation obligations, requiring states to enact frameworks for protecting people against the effects of climate change;
- domestic mitigation obligations, requiring states to regulate the sources of GHG emissions;
- international cooperation obligations, requiring states to participate in international negotiations for an effective global climate agreement;
- transboundary mitigation obligations, requiring states to mitigate the effect of their activities on the human rights of persons outside of their jurisdiction; and
- an obligation to ensure that mitigation and adaptation activities do not themselves contribute to human rights violations.
