1. Introduction
1.1. A
significant Parliamentary Assembly contribution
1. After holding thematic debates
on the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and on artificial intelligence,
the Parliamentary Assembly decided to address another burning issue,
the environment and climate change, in the same manner and thus
make a contribution to the Council of Europe’s work in this field. Having
already underscored the link between the environment and human rights,
the rule of law and democracy, with this decision, the Assembly
will ensure that it provides a valuable and co-ordinated contribution
to the Council of Europe’s work in this regard.
2. The final declaration adopted at the
High-Level
Conference on environmental protection and human rights held under the aegis of the Georgian Presidency of the
Committee of Ministers, which was attended by the President of the
Assembly who has taken a particular interest in this topic, called
for pan-European legal standards to be upgraded in the light of
the urgent environmental challenges posed by climate change today. Not
only does the Assembly’s action support the Council of Europe’s
work on the environment, human rights and rule of law, but it also
contributes to the advancement of the UN Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development
Goals, of which environmental issues are an integral part.
1.2. Role
of the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination
3. The Committee on Equality and
Non-Discrimination was instructed by the Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly
to prepare a report on addressing inequalities in access to environmental
rights, focusing on access to a healthy environment without discrimination.
The Bureau specified that the report should take the following into
consideration:
- UN Sustainable
Development Goals 3 and 10 aiming to “ensure healthy lives and promote
well-being for all at all ages” and to “reduce inequality within
and among countries”;
- the fact that countries with the means to ensure a safe,
healthy and clean environment must work to protect both their own
citizens and those most at risk in less privileged countries and
thereby work towards “climate justice”, in the interests of equal
access to these rights for all, and to avoid a domino effect in
environmental deterioration;
- issues concerning injustice for indigenous peoples and
minorities in Council of Europe member States whose lifestyles –
and often territories – are at risk due to climate change and environmental
damage;
- women’s heightened vulnerability to climate change and
other environmental issues, particularly in developing countries,
where their livelihoods are often linked to farming and rural activities,
and the need to mainstream a gender perspective into environmental
and development co-operation policies.
4. At its meeting on 15 October 2020, the committee appointed
me rapporteur. My work on another Assembly report on the issue of
“Climate change and the rule of law” on behalf of the Committee
on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development has enabled
me to have a broader overview of the subject, and I have ensured
that the two reports are complementary. In this report, I examine
the initiatives already being implemented to tackle environmental
inequalities at international, as well as national, regional and
local levels.
5. At a hearing on 2 February 2021, Committee members stressed
that inequality was both a cause and consequence of the growing
phenomenon of forced displacement due to climate change, as well
as the issues relating to the reception and treatment given to “climate
refugees”. These important areas of unequal access to the right
to a safe, healthy and clean environment do not feature in this
report, as they are addressed in the report prepared in parallel
by the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons.
2. What
are environmental rights?
6. Before examining the main sources
of inequality in access to environmental rights, it is important
to understand their scope. The Assembly addressed this question
in several recent texts, including
Resolution 2210 (2018) “Climate change and implementation of the Paris Agreement”
and
Resolution 2307 (2019) “A legal status for ‘climate refugees’”.
7. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, “human
rights cannot be enjoyed without a safe, clean and healthy environment;
and sustainable environmental governance cannot exist without the establishment
of and respect for human rights”.
The Final Declaration of the abovementioned
Council of Europe conference employed similar wording. For this
reason and to ensure a coherent, inclusive definition, I proposed
changing the title of this report to clarify that we are dealing
here with the right to “a safe, healthy and clean environment”,
which was accepted by the committee on 2 February 2021.
8. The close relationship between rights and the environment
is increasingly recognised, as the right to a healthy environment
is currently enshrined in over 100 constitutions. Despite this,
the High Commissioner for Human Rights has estimated that at least
three people a week are killed protecting our environmental rights, while
many more are harassed, intimidated, criminalised and forced from
their lands.
9. Environmental rights are composed of substantive rights and
procedural rights. Substantive rights are those in which the environment
has a direct effect on the existence of or access to fundamental
rights such as the rights to life, freedom of association and freedom
from discrimination; rights to health, food and an adequate standard
of living; cultural rights such as rights to access religious or
traditional sites, and collective rights affected by environmental
degradation, such as the rights of indigenous peoples.
Procedural rights involve steps
to be taken in enforcing legal rights, and include rights such as
access to information, public participation and access to justice.
10. In my report, I have looked at measures implemented to eliminate
discrimination and to compensate for inequalities in access to these
two types of rights, in particular, drawing on the 16 Framework
Principles on Human Rights and the Environment established by the
United Nations Special Rapporteur,
which summarise the main
human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean,
healthy and sustainable environment.
11. Input for the report was also provided during a hearing held
on 2 February, where the committee had the opportunity to exchange
views with Ms Jannie Staffansson, a Sami reindeer herder in Sweden
and representative of her people, and with Pegah Moulana, Chairperson
of the Programming Committee on Youth of the Council of Europe’s
Advisory Council on Youth (CCJ), and British Youth Council representative
to the Advisory Council, which has worked extensively on identifying
and denouncing climate injustice.
3. Inequalities
in access to environmental rights: numerous and widespread
3.1. Health
and the environment
12. According to a report by the
World Health Organisation (WHO) published in March 2016, 23% (12.6 million)
of the world’s deaths in 2012 were attributable to unhealthy environments.
The
causes of this mortality affect us all: air and water pollution,
poor sanitary and hygiene conditions, chemical and biological agents,
noise pollution, ultraviolet and ionising radiation, occupational
hazards, farming methods (pesticides, reuse of waste water), built
environments (housing and roads) and climate change. It is clear,
however, that the poorest regions and populations suffer far more
from inadequate protection against these risks than the richest,
and that certain groups, among them children and minority communities,
are left particularly exposed.
3.2. Reducing
inequalities relating to climate change is the duty of all developed
countries
13. The issue of “climate justice”
and the disproportionate impact of climate change on the poorest population
groups has been part of the environmental debate from the outset.
These inequalities are obvious when countries are compared with
one another, but the issue of “within-country” inequality and discrimination, an
aspect which has been the subject of little research to date, also
deserves attention.
14. Since the 1990s, action to combat climate change has been
guided by the desire to achieve climate justice.
This
requires the proper distribution of tasks and responsibilities between
“rich” and developing countries. The 1997 Kyoto Protocol to the
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change established the principle
of “common but differentiated responsibilities”.
15. The aim of climate justice is to achieve a world without “inequalities
in access to a healthy [safe and clean] environment and its resources”.
Such inequalities
can be divided into four categories: inequalities in exposure to
and access to the environment, inequalities in the impact of climate
change, those caused by climate policies and those relating to access
to information and decision-making.
16. The 10% of richest states are responsible for 50% of CO2 emissions
every year, whereas the 50% of poorest states account for only 10%.
Given this fact, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has
referred to the environmental duties of the most heavily polluting
countries or social groups.
Moreover, people
who live in “poor” countries have more limited access to water,
health care and decent housing; climate change exacerbates existing
inequalities and thereby compounds the violation of a series of
fundamental rights.
3.3. Unequal
individual access to environmental rights
17. Climate change also increases
inequalities between individuals, in all countries.
When discussing the role
which “rich” countries must play in reducing inequalities, it is
necessary to consider the issue of inequalities between individuals
and not only inequalities between States as all too often happens
today.
It must be reiterated
that existing inequalities (based on individual characteristics,
economic and political inequality, etc.) are linked and compounded
by climate change.
18. Individuals affected by such inequalities are thus caught
up in a “vicious cycle” of multiple discrimination, with, for instance,
people already affected by racism being harder hit by climate change.
The same applies to the poorest
groups, as adaptation to climate depends largely on wealth.
3.4. Climate
change, minorities and indigenous people
19. On 29 March 2021, the Sub-Committee
on the Rights of Minorities of the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination
and the No Hate Parliamentary Alliance (of the Assembly) organised
a webinar in the framework of the Council of Europe’s World Forum
for Democracy on “Environmental rights and climate change in Europe:
Hearing the voices of minorities and indigenous people”, as a contribution
to the March theme campaign, “Inequalities, democracy and climate
change”. The webinar, chaired by Mr František Kopřiva, Chairperson
of the Sub-Committee, was a great opportunity to examine in further
depth and first-hand the particular challenges of climate change
faced by certain groups in society.
I
was able to ask participants what they thought parliaments could
do to help meet these challenges. Their responses included the need
to reduce political marginalisation of minorities, combat stereotypes
related to perpetrators of climate damage and address root causes
by learning from some traditional ways of life how to move from
a fully “anthropocentric” to a more “ecocentric” relationship between
human beings and their environment. These valuable elements will
appear in the recommendations emerging from this report.
20. Climate change is putting the way of life, and in some cases
the very existence, of indigenous peoples under threat, both worldwide
and in Council of Europe member states such as Denmark (Inuit),
Finland, Norway and Sweden (Sami) and the Russian Federation (Sami
and other groups). The discrimination in these cases is clearly
both substantive and procedural – minority and “small country” groups
are often the first to be affected by these changes because of their
dependence upon, and close relationship with, their lands, and they have
difficulty making their voices heard in national and international
environmental decision-making.
21. The identities of ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples
are closely bound up with traditional knowledge. As the planet’s
environment changes, or minority groups are obliged to move away
from their historic territories as a result of natural disasters
or slow-onset climate deterioration, the cultural specificities
of these communities tend to disappear through a disconnect between
the natural surroundings and the cultural concepts from which they
emerged. Lifestyle adaptation leads to a loss in cultural diversity,
and gradually even to the extinction of minority cultures, including
languages, and unique perceptions by these peoples of the world we
live in. The youth representatives I exchanged views with were acutely
aware of how this trend affects the specific identities and heritage
of young people, leading to uniformisation of minority communities
and to a lack of cultural, biological and linguistic diversity.
In this respect, the correlation between biodiversity and cultural diversity
deserves further research and attention.
22. An unintended outcome of measures intended to mitigate climate
change was described by the Sami representative at the 29 March
webinar: the increasing installation of wind turbines and other
“green constructions” in the Sápmi region, without due consultation
of Sami inhabitants, had resulted in the reduction of lands for
the indigenous population and the destruction of biodiversity. This
demonstrates an unfair distribution of the burden in the fight against
climate change, disclosing patterns of inequality and injustice where
indigenous people keep on having no say in the management of land.
23. Another problematic issue for indigenous peoples involves
the above-mentioned concept of ecocentrism, which could also lead
to “fortress conservation”, in which access to nature is forbidden
in the name of protection. In some cases, this can result in indigenous
people being pushed off their own lands and deprived of resources.
3.4.1. The
particular case of Roma: intersectionality and “environmental racism”
24. Climate change increases the
discriminatory situation endured by Roma communities on several different
levels. Firstly, Roma settlements are often relegated to areas on
the margins of residential areas where they occupy untended wasteland –
used otherwise for various types of dumps or landfill sites next
to polluted main roads – where they are frequently excluded from
basic environmental services such as the supply of clean drinking
water, adequate sanitation and waste management. Roma are thus disproportionately affected
by environmental burdens, such as pollution and environmental degradation,
contamination of sites or dirty industries. In order to sufficiently
address climate justice, the concept of environmental racism and
its links with discrimination and exclusion need to be further researched
and documented.
25. The marginalisation also translates into “victim blaming”,
where Roma are so closely associated with the degraded surroundings
in which they are forced to live that they are seen as continuing
and perpetuating its deterioration. The media, among others, tend
to depict Roma as a key part of the problem, instead of the main victims
of the combination of pollution and poverty that forces them to
live by landfills, for instance. In addition, some practices linked
solely to their extreme conditions of poverty (for instance, burning
waste for heating purposes) lead to further stigmatisation of Roma
as contributors to pollution and environmental damage.
26. Regardless of the circumstances, information made available
and accessible to indigenous people and minorities would enable
them to give their informed consent and allow their meaningful participation
in decisions concerning their own immediate environment, with the
obvious knock-on effects, now widely identified, on the environment
as a whole. In recommendations proposed by the different persons
I have heard on this subject, the need to strengthen indigenous
peoples’ institutions, to create “competency centres” and to promote
community-driven data collection methods was underlined.
3.5. Gender-differentiated
impacts of climate change
27. In many countries, especially
developing countries and economically less advantaged regions, women are
more affected by extreme weather conditions and other climate change
impacts because of their greater dependence on agriculture and crops
for their livelihoods, among other things. 70% of women living in
the countries hardest hit by climate change work in agriculture.
And 70% of the poorest people in the world are women.
There must
therefore be gender mainstreaming in the management of environmental
policies and in any legal frameworks for development co-operation.
28. The under-representation of women in decision-making bodies
is also apparent: according to the European Institute for Gender
Equality, as well as the European Parliament, women are still under-represented in
the European Union’s decision-making bodies on climate change and
at national level.
In
2011, women held only 18.2% of senior positions in national [EU-27]
ministries responsible for the environment, transport or energy.
Although some progress has been made since then, true gender balance
is still far from being achieved.
29. Large numbers of women are therefore in precarious situations
and have great difficulty dealing with climate change. As a result,
women are 14 times likelier than men to die from natural disasters.
There
is also a heightened risk of violence towards women occurring during
population movements related to climate change.
Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable;
heatwaves increase the likelihood of giving birth prematurely. Living
in a polluted area or a high-risk area increases the risk of their
children being in poor health and unequal pay sometimes prevents
women from accessing health care.
30. In addition, women are over-represented in jobs in the care
sector, 90% of which are held by women.
Women
are therefore increasingly active and called upon in connection
with climate change, which places an additional burden on their
shoulders. Climate change affects children, the oldest individuals,
sick people and those in financial hardship. On average, more women
than men are elderly and/or suffer from poverty. And it is women
who look after children and the sick.
Climate change therefore
places a disproportionate burden on women worldwide.
31. Economic inequalities between women and men are reflected
in inadequate protection of some women, in particular single women
and elderly women, against the effects of climate change.
For instance, during the 2003
heatwave in Portugal, twice as many women as men died.
32. This disproportionate impact of climate change on women compared
with men jars with the fact that, on average, women consume less
energy than men and are more sensitive to environmental protection.
In Greece, for instance, men consume approximately 39% more energy
than women. In Sweden, the figure is 22%. In particular, women use
less electricity than men in general.
Women
use public transport more than men and use less energy for transport
than men.
Women produce
lower levels of greenhouse gases than men
and
usually act more responsibly in relation to climate change.
33. Against this background, the key problem is the lack of participation,
information and training for women. This has been recognised for
many years; at the World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995,
a declaration stated that “women have an essential role to play
in the development of sustainable and ecologically sound consumption
and production patterns and approaches to natural resource management.”
The first strategic objective in point K of the declaration provides
that it is necessary to “involve women actively in environmental decision-making
at all levels”.
34. This is the cornerstone for achieving gender equality. It
is only once this objective has been met that it will be possible
fully to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 13. In order to achieve
equal participation, it is vital to ensure equality in terms of
training and information, which allows better access to the structures involved
in combating climate change.
The involvement of women is a prerequisite
for the fight against climate change,
yet
their participation in decision-making concerning the environment
still lags far behind that of men.
Although
their involvement has increased since the 1990s, they are still
under-represented, both in the area of political decision making
and in industry, especially in the energy sector. Across all sectors,
whether in the political or industrial sphere, women’s participation
is generally below 30%.
Equal participation by women
must now be ensured at all levels (national, European, international)
and that requires equal access to information and training.
3.6. Inequalities
in access to information and participation
35. The 1998 United Nations Convention
on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and
Access to Justice in Environmental Matters
(the Aarhus Convention, signed by
the European Community in 1998 and approved on behalf of the Union
in March 2018) addresses procedural law related to the environment
and aims to support “environmental democracy”. According to this
convention, “to be able to assert this right and observe this duty,
citizens must have access to information, be entitled to participate
in decision-making and have access to justice in environmental matters”,
with the parties “acknowledging in this regard that citizens may
need assistance in order to exercise their rights”. This text will
serve as a basis for my recommendations on the duty to inform citizens
and provide for their participation.
36. The contribution of the Council of Europe’s Advisory Council
on Youth (CCJ) have helped me to expand on broader issues of participation
in the debate and, in particular, in the strategies devised as a
consequence to accompany and mitigate the effects of what has become
a real climate crisis. The elements below are largely inspired by
comments received from representatives of the CCJ.
3.7. Youth
action for climate justice
37. Young people’s interest and
engagement in climate change matters have initiated a global youth movement,
as the world’s young people have refused to be passive victims of
the climate crisis. Young groups and individuals have demanded,
publicly and vocally, immediate action and climate justice on the
part of decision-makers everywhere. The negative effects of climate
change, brought about by decades of over-exploitation of natural
resources, will have the most lasting consequences on the generations
born during this particular period, where the effects of the “Anthropocene”
are only now beginning to be understood, and therefore measures
for the preservation (or ideally renewal) of the environment are
still isolated and inadequate in relation to the urgent need for
action.
38. According to the CCJ’s comments, it is imperative to involve
young people when tackling the climate crisis and adopting sustainable
measures to reverse it in order to decrease the barriers affecting
their autonomy, personal and professional development and their
full participation in society. Young people have never known a world
without global warming and are now experiencing the dire consequences
of climate change first-hand. It is therefore imperative, not only
to involve young people when shaping environmental strategies, but
also to minimise the burden left to their generation to adapt and
foster changes in mentalities, attitudes and behaviour. It is therefore
fundamental to adopt an intergenerational approach and ensure that young
people are allowed to take their fair part in adaptation strategies
and in leading change.
39. In order to combat, or at least adapt to, climate change,
youth participation should be increased and ethnic minority and
indigenous young people included in climate-related efforts, as
well as being provided with opportunities to share their expertise
and act on their concerns.
4. Conclusions
and recommendations
40. As already stated, the sources
of discrimination and inequalities in access to the right to a safe,
healthy and clean environment are many and widespread, with victims
often exposed to accumulated layers of combined injustices linked
to poverty, social exclusion or marginalisation, lack of structures
and forums for seeking climate justice, lack of recognition of the
scope and impact of climate change and the absence of provision
of environmental rights and other factors. The aim of this report
has been to show how these manifestations of inequality are interlinked
with environmental conditions, and that just as gender inequality leads
to gender-based violence, unequal access to environmental rights
leads to a vicious cycle of oppression and need.
41. The Assembly is advocating a new and legally binding instrument
to protect the right to a safe, healthy and clean environment. So
far, the form of this text has not been agreed upon – should it
be a new protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights (ETS
No. 5)? A revised existing convention or a new, stand-alone treaty?
A framework agreement or charter? At all events, there is consensus
around the need to translate environmental rights into a corpus
that can be adhered to and implemented by Council of Europe member states.
42. With this in mind, the series of recommendations which I am
proposing here must be included in whatever type of instrument is
finally chosen, and should be adaptable to different formats and
degrees of obligations on signatories. For instance, the duty of
solidarity between nations and between diverse communities in climate
and environment action should be expressed at the outset in any
new text aiming to guarantee the right to a safe, healthy and clean
environment. Special attention should be given to both the need to
measure, mitigate and prevent countries from engaging in industrial
and agricultural activities which have a negative impact within
and beyond national borders.
43. Another requirement is for specific provisions to be made
to guarantee universal and equal access to the right to a safe,
healthy and clean environment for all groups in society, identifying
those most vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change
and subject to discrimination: women, young people, minorities, indigenous
people and the socially underprivileged. There is also a need to
ensure that living conditions guarantee a clean and healthy environment
for all, in particular by regulating spatial planning and housing programmes
to provide sufficient space both inside and outside of built areas,
with accessible green areas. The specific situation of Roma should
also be taken into account and measures to dispel discrimination
and “climate racism” set out in legislation.
44. All policies and strategies must be gender-specific, taking
into account, in particular the position of women as first victims
of the deterioration of the environment, both in rural and in urban
areas, as guardians of cultural diversity threatened by the loss
of biodiversity which goes hand in hand with cultural impoverishment, and
as such, as major informed contributors to seeking solutions to
the climate crisis. In the same way as for indigenous peoples, women’s
long-standing experience and often close proximity with environmental challenges
– in agriculture in rural areas, in providing and caring for families
in difficult situations – should be used to identify issues and
good practices for the future.
45. With a view to the establishment of a new instrument to protect
the right to a safe, healthy and clean environment, two important
factors need to be taken into account in order to foster equality
of access to this right. One is that other legislative experience,
including from outside Europe, should be studied, for instance that
relating to indigenous peoples and their traditions and territories.
An interesting case is that of Colombia, which attributed legal
personality to the Colombian Amazon region when addressing a claim
against the national authorities by 25 young people from cities
in the Amazon who would allegedly be worst affected by climate change
through deforestation. They argued that their right to “enjoy a
healthy environment”, as well as rights to life and health had been
violated.
46. It is not the purpose of this report to set out the legal
foundation for this type of legislation, or even to promote a particular
model. However, to address the causes of climate change and strive
to minimise inequalities in the application of environmental rights,
more reflection is needed on the relationship between the environment
and humankind itself. Preservation of the constitutive elements
of our global environment must be given much higher priority than
at present, with more universally applicable sanctions for damage
and degradation. And with this change must come clearer understanding
that protecting the environmental rights of all communities is beneficial,
and even a precondition, for enjoyment of these rights by all, now
and in the near future.
47. Cultural diversity must be recognised as a means of ensuring
the biodiversity which is at the heart of environmental stability.
Therefore, preserving minority cultures is a key, not only to ensuring
that those who live by these cultures are allowed to exercise their
right to do so, but also to preserving the environment as we know it,
as it is essential for human life to flourish. Future legal frameworks
should accordingly contain provisions on the need to protect and
foster diverse and minority cultures.
48. Inequalities in participation and decision making must be
addressed in order for all the under-represented groups described
above to have a voice in decisions and policies concerning their
environment and the related rights. The right to a healthy environment
can only be enjoyed by the largest possible number of the world’s
inhabitants and climate damage mitigation can only be effective
if knowledge about our planet, and responsibility for managing its
resources, are shared by the whole of society.
49. Climate change will keep on increasing inequalities if nothing
is done to stop it. Efforts to combat inequalities, poverty and
climate change must therefore be combined so that everyone can enjoy
the right to a safe, healthy and clean environment. We must begin
by continuing to implement and step up certain good practices relating
to environmental protection and to sustainable development policies:
- implement and strengthen the
mechanism for financial assistance from “rich” to “poor” countries provided
for in the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity, including additional
obligations on “rich” countries under the 1992 Framework Convention –
in particular, the obligation to provide financial assistance to
developing countries and to transfer technology;
- strengthen and streamline the clean development mechanism
of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol with a view to reducing greenhouse gas
emissions;
- strengthen and implement the commitment by “rich” countries
to help “poor” countries inherent in the 2015 Paris agreements –
in particular, implement Article 9 of the Paris Agreement at all
levels;
- respect and reinforce the principle of common but differentiated
responsibilities.
50. A series of measures must also be taken so that developed
countries make effective efforts to combat inequalities while protecting
the environment and ensuring “green” development in developing countries.
It is necessary to include redistributive effects and the concept
of equity in policies to combat climate change, adaptation policies
and those promoting the right to a safe, healthy and clean environment.
In particular, the costs of mitigating the effects of climate change
must be spread by sharing out environmental benefits and sharing
action plans and funding.
51. Mitigation policies must be streamlined to take account of
inequalities and reduce them in the long term, by implementing the
principle of “common but differentiated responsibility”, identifying
precise indicators for measuring the implementation of the principle
and achieving carbon neutrality at universal level while respecting
the specific characteristics of all countries. The need to remove
inequalities must be mainstreamed into any greenhouse gas reduction
and climate adaptation measures. This will require proper management
of the taxes used to fund efforts to combat climate change,
streamlining of the
“polluter pays” principle and promotion of projects that protect
and involve the most vulnerable groups.
52. Lastly, as with all measures needed to reduce inequalities
in access to environmental rights, it is necessary to promote financial
and technological assistance, co-operation between states and information, participation
and training for the most vulnerable. The essential work of national
and international non-governmental organisations in this area must
also be recognised, and their awareness-raising and advocacy encouraged.