• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022 January 31, 2023
Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB January 31, 2023
Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty January 31, 2023
Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds January 31, 2023
Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing January 23, 2023
Next
Prev

Poorest Will Face ‘Climate Apartheid’ if Crisis Deepens, Rule of Law Crumbles

June 27, 2019
Reading time: 3 minutes

FMSC/Flickr

FMSC/Flickr

19
SHARES
 

Near-universal failure to acknowledge the magnitude of the climate crisis risks setting the stage for an era of “climate apartheid,” in which private wealth becomes the only guarantor of (relative) well-being and positive social forces like democracy and the rule of law crumble, warns a recent United Nations report.

The release from Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, was sharply critical of all parties putatively involved in responding to the climate crisis, The Guardian reports.

  • Be among the first to read The Energy Mix Weekender
  • A brand new weekly digest containing exclusive and essential climate stories from around the world.
  • The Weekender:The climate news you need.
New!
Subscribe

While Alston singles out denialist demagogues like Donald Trump and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro for special condemnation, he roundly castigates national governments en masse, observing that “states have marched past every scientific warning and threshold, and what was once considered catastrophic warming now seems like a best-case scenario.” He added that “even today, too many countries are taking shortsighted steps in the wrong direction.”

Economists urging a shift in priorities, like William Nordaus and Joseph Stiglitz, have also been given the brush-off, Alston said, even though “we know that if we wait another decade before taking really major, revolutionary measures to transform our economies, the situation is going to be absolutely dire.”

Pointing to the “unavoidable harms that climate change will bring,” Alston writes that “a robust social safety net will be the best response,” adding that the climate crisis “should be a catalyst for states to fulfill long ignored and overlooked economic and social rights, including to social security and access to food, health care, shelter, and decent work.”

What must be rigorously resisted, he urges, is “an overreliance on for-profit efforts” to battle climate change. A failure to defend the social contract would “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 writes. In that scenario, the greatest burden will fall on the poorest, who are also the least responsible for the crisis.

Faced with the growing odds of “massive human rights violations, with the wealthy catered to and the poorest left behind,” Alton says human rights workers must change their modus operandi in the face of the climate crisis.

Declaring his own past efforts part of the problem, Alston faults the NGO community and the UN for failing to recognize that “as a full-blown crisis that threatens the human rights of vast numbers of people bears down, the usual piecemeal, issue-by-issue human rights methodology is woefully insufficient.” While climate change now “threatens to undo the last 50 years of progress in development, global health, and poverty reduction,” it is also imperiling the rule of law and democratic institutions.

“Maintaining a balanced approach to civil and political rights will be extremely complex” in a world where deepening inequality and deprivation prove fertile ground for xenophobia and racism, he says.

Elsewhere in the report, he writes that “even the unrealistic best case scenario of 1.5°C of warming by 2100 will see extreme temperatures in many regions and leave disadvantaged populations with food insecurity, lost incomes, and worse health. Many will have to choose between starvation and migration.”

Ashfaq Khalfan, director of the law and policy program at Amnesty International, responded that “a state that fails to take any feasible steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is violating its human rights obligations,” adding that governments and fossils would both be hearing from his organization. “We need everybody to live up to their responsibilities to act on climate change and protect human rights,” he said.



in COP Conferences, Environmental Justice, Food Security & Agriculture, Health & Safety, International Agencies & Studies, International Security & War

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

CONFENIAE
Ending Emissions

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
61
Ken Teegardin www.SeniorLiving.Org/flickr
Clean Electricity Grid

Virtual Power Plants Hit an ‘Inflection Point’

January 31, 2023
125
/snappy goat
Climate Denial & Greenwashing

Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds

January 31, 2023
94

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Mike Mozart/Flickr

BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022

January 31, 2023
324
EcoAnalytics

Albertans Want a Just Transition, Despite Premier’s Grumbling

January 23, 2023
324
United Nations

Salvage of $20B ‘Floating Time Bomb’ Delayed by Rising Cost of Oil Tankers

January 27, 2023
122
Ken Teegardin www.SeniorLiving.Org/flickr

Virtual Power Plants Hit an ‘Inflection Point’

January 31, 2023
125
/Pikrepo

Four Decades of Research Show Gas Stoves as ‘Overlooked’ Risk to Indoor Air, Child Health

December 7, 2020
1k
jasonwoodhead23/flickr

Canada, U.K., U.S. Must Cut Oil and Gas 76% by 2030 to Keep 1.5° Alive, New Analysis Finds

March 23, 2022
505

Recent Posts

Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures

Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB

January 31, 2023
196
CONFENIAE

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
61
/snappy goat

Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds

January 31, 2023
94
Victorgrigas/wikimedia commons

World Bank Climate Reforms Too ‘Timid and Slow,’ Critics Warn

January 31, 2023
42
Doc Searls/Twitter

Guilbeault Could Intervene on Ontario Greenbelt Development

January 31, 2023
132
RL0919/wikimedia commons

Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing

January 23, 2023
2.4k
Next Post
Solar Trade Association/Flickr

New Government in Denmark Aims for 70% Carbon Reduction by 2030

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}