The UN’s outgoing leading environment and human rights expert, David Boyd has said that the race to save the planet is being impeded by a global economy that is contingent on the exploitation of people and nature.
David Boyd, who served as UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment from 2018 to April 2024, was quoted as saying that states failing to take meaningful climate action and regulating polluting industries could soon face a slew of lawsuits.
Boyd said: “I started out six years ago talking about the right to a healthy environment having the capacity to bring about systemic and transformative changes. But this powerful human right is up against an even more powerful force in the global economy, a system that is absolutely based on the exploitation of people and nature. And unless we change that fundamental system, then we’re just re-shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.”
The right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment was finally recognised as a fundamental human right by the United Nations in 2021-22. Some countries, notably the US, the world’s worst historic polluter, argue that UN resolutions are legally influential but not binding. The right to a healthy environment is also enshrined into law by 161 countries with the UK, US and Russia among notable exceptions.
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Boyd, who is a Canadian environmental law professor, said that human rights come with legally enforceable obligations on the side of states.
“So I believe that this absolutely should be a game-changer – and that’s why states have resisted it for so long,”he said. “By bringing human rights into the equation, we now have institutions, processes and courts that can say to governments this isn’t an option for you to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions and phase out fossil fuels,”.
Boyd met thousands of people directly affected by rising sea levels, extreme heat, plastic waste, toxic air, and dwindling food and water supplies, while undertaking fact-finding missions to Fiji, Norway, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Portugal, Slovenia, Chile, Botswana and Maldives.
“I’ve met so many people along the way in really difficult situations that I wake up in the night and see their faces,” he said.
Boyd’s final mission was to the Maldives in April, the lowest lying country on the planet, where he witnessed numerous atolls submerged under water. He said: “These islands are just like jewels scattered across the Indian Ocean, and yet for anyone who understands the science of climate change, it’s just a heartbreaking place to visit because of sea level rise, storm surges, coastal erosion, acidification, rising ocean temperatures, and heatwaves.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
