‘Climate apartheid’: UN expert says human rights may not
survive
Right to life is likely to be undermined alongside the rule of law, special rapporteur says
Damian Carrington Environment editor
@dpcarrington
Tue 25 Jun 2019 09.00 BST Last modified on Tue 25 Jun 2019
11.33 BST
The world is increasingly at risk of “climate apartheid”,
where the rich pay to escape heat and hunger caused by the escalating climate
crisis while the rest of the world suffers, a report from a UN human rights
expert has said.
Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and
human rights, said the impacts of global heating are likely to undermine not
only basic rights to life, water, food, and housing for hundreds of millions of
people, but also democracy and the rule of law.
Alston is critical of the “patently inadequate” steps taken
by the UN itself, countries, NGOs and businesses, saying they are “entirely
disproportionate to the urgency and magnitude of the threat”. His report to the
UN human rights council (HRC) concludes: “Human rights might not survive the
coming upheaval.”
The report also condemns Donald Trump for “actively
silencing” climate science, and criticises the Brazilian president, Jair
Bolsonaro, for promising to open up the Amazon rainforest to mining. But Alston
said there were also some positive developments, including legal cases against
states and fossil fuel companies, the activism of Greta Thunberg and the
worldwide school strikes, and Extinction Rebellion.
In May, Alston’s report on poverty in the UK compared
Conservative party welfare policies to the creation of 19th-century workhouses.
Ministers said his report gave a completely inaccurate picture, but Alston
accused them of “total denial of a set of uncontested facts”.
Alston’s report on climate change and poverty will be
formally presented to the HRC in Geneva on Friday. It said the greatest impact
of the climate crisis would be on those living in poverty, with many losing
access to adequate food and water.
“Climate change threatens to undo the last 50 years of
progress in development, global health, and poverty reduction,” Alston said.
Developing countries will bear an estimated 75% of the costs of the climate
crisis, the report said, despite the poorest half of the world’s population
causing just 10% of carbon dioxide emissions.
“Yet democracy and the rule of law, as well as a wide range
of civil and political rights are every bit at risk,” Alston’s report said.
“The risk of community discontent, of growing inequality, and of even greater
levels of deprivation among some groups, will likely stimulate nationalist,
xenophobic, racist and other responses. Maintaining a balanced approach to
civil and political rights will be extremely complex.”
The impacts of the climate crisis could increase divisions,
Alston said. “We risk a ‘climate apartheid’ scenario where the wealthy pay to
escape overheating, hunger, and conflict while the rest of the world is left to
suffer,” he said.
“When Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on New York in 2012,
stranding low-income and vulnerable New Yorkers without access to power and
healthcare, the Goldman Sachs headquarters was protected by tens of thousands
of its own sandbags and power from its generator.”
Alston strongly criticises all those working to uphold human
rights, including his own previous work, for not making the climate crisis a
central issue. He said the most recent HRC resolution on the climate crisis did
not recognise “that the enjoyment of all human rights by vast numbers of people
is gravely threatened” or “the need for the deep social and economic
transformation, which almost all observers agree is urgent if climate
catastrophe is to be averted”.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário