Of COP26, climate change and socio-economic rights in developing countries

Introduction

As the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference rambles on, questions of what’s at stake for developing countries gain traction. The Conference which is underway in Glasgow seeks to address the climate urgency that faces mother earth. Scientists have predicted the short-term and long-term catastrophes that can inflict our earth if swift measures to curtail carbon emission are not put in place. There is a plethora of dolour that is associated with climate change, pertinent amongst which are, starvation, health hazards and increased poverty. All these mishaps thrive in developing countries that tend to depend on agriculture, fisheries and tourism for their economies. Further, developing countries bear a nasty record of sub-standard health care facilities. Thus, the advent of adaptation to the impacts of climate change deals a major blow on developing countries in as far as the fulfillment of social and economic rights is concerned. It is against this backdrop and the discussions going on in Scotland that this canto gains relevance.

Background

There is always a cumulative effect between climate change and human rights, in particular, socio-economic rights. All over the globe, climate change has been a determinant of States’ capacity to meet their international human rights obligations. Thus, it can be construed that, the delivery of social and economic rights is a dependent variant when juxtaposed against climate change, which, in the 21st century epoch, has gained much needed attention. The Glasgow Conference is just, but one of the global conferences that have sought to address climate change. This Conference marks the 26th on the list of others that ventured into this thematic concern of universal salience. Various global economic activities coupled with nuclear manufacturing and technological innovations have dealt a blow on the earth’s ozone layer much to the destruction of the ecological processes. While the contribution of developing states to climate change remains relatively low, the detrimental effects of the same hugely impact on these Less Developed Countries (LDCs).

Climate change

Climate change is referred to as the change in weather patterns over a certain period of time due to various human activities. It includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse-gases and the resulting large scale shifts in weather patterns. While there are natural variations in the climate, intensive use of fossil fuels, extensive commercial farming, deforestation, and nuclear production are some of the environmentally unfriendly human activities that have led to an unprecedented rise on the earth’s temperatures. This has led to an upsurge of melting glaciers threatening floods and a diminished rainfall pattern, all impacting negatively on agricultural activities. For Agro-centric countries like Zimbabwe, Kenya and Angola, the effects of climate change have been deeply felt, results being food insecurity and a relatively reduced agricultural export. Thus, the budgetary contribution to national fiscus that agriculture used to boast of has been halved.

The impact on socio-economic rights

Social and economic rights are a group of rights that essentially provide for legal protection of the welfare and well-being of a people. These are a set of fundamental human rights which are characterized by a positive obligation of the State to cater for them. Examples that resonate with this write-up are the rights to food, health and water. The internationally binding instrument that primarily provide for these rights is the January 1976 International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural rights (ICESCR). UNICEF emphasizes that the right to water is an indispensable element of other rights, particularly the rights to adequate food or nutrition. In addition to this, economic and social rights imply the need to abide with environmental rights since they form the core for the realization of most of social and economic rights. Climate change and its effects constitute a direct threat to the delivery of social and economic rights. The excessive emission of carbon dioxide in the ozone layer has led to a rapid emergence of diseases .Thus, this has undermined the globally recognized right to health. It is against this backdrop that, States, in conformity with their various obligations, must undertake to deal with the cancer of climate change head-on. This is because its effects are widespread and usually impact on the poor who mostly rely on agricultural activities.

International Environmental law and Climate change

International environmental law is the law that specifically deals with the protection of the mother earth at international level. It is the law that sets forth standards that States have to abide by in pursuit of the environmental agenda to curb climate change, deforestation and land degradation. It comprises international treaty law, customary law and soft law. The international convention that deals with climate change specifically is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The ongoing Scotland Conference comprises these State parties. Under this framework, State parties are obliged to monitor the activities that cause and likely lead to greenhouse gas emissions into the ozone layer. The convention empowers State parties to intervene even where corporates carrying out activities within their jurisdiction partake in harmful extractive, business and manufacturing activities that can contribute to climate change.

Soft law -United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Soft law refers to those policy formulations crafted at international fora. At the center of the Glasgow Conference is the concept of Sustainable development goals. There is a global call for the universe to go green. While soft law is not a law in strict sense, it wields a soft effect on the parties involved. Thus, issues agreed upon are implemented by virtue of the political connotations that they carry at international level. A very relevant example are the SDGs that the United Nations General Assembly established which include the goals to ensure sustainable development through fighting agents of climate change. The soft law effect with regards to this sensitive theme can be realized when observing the compliance measures that the global governments are taking up. If the implementation of the SDGs is done with utmost good faith under the international law principle pacta sunt servanda, the globe looks to reduce global warming by a huge margin by 2030. However, this phenomenon of environmental law is not always met with strict compliance. The law always encounters passive resistance from powerful countries whose contribution to climate change is immense .In response to this; there is a principle of law known as the common yet differentiated responsibility over environmental harm.

Conclusion Principle seven of the environmentally charged Rio Declaration (Common yet differentiated responsibilities) implores States to cooperate in a spirit of global partnership to conserve, protect and restore the health and integrity of the Earth's ecosystem. Under this balance of equity principle, developed countries commit themselves to assist developing countries in shielding themselves against the dire effects of climate change through adaptation, mitigation and food security since they contributed more to climate change. Thus, the greatest State contributors of climate change have an onus to assist developing States with means to adapt and mitigate the dire effects of global warming.

Munashe O’brian Gutu is a Law student at the University of Zimbabwe Law Faculty. He is also a social and economic justice ambassador (Seja) with the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (Zimcodd).