Human rights and climate change

There are authoritative global standards and emerging legal and regulatory requirements that set expectations of business as regards respecting human rights, managing environmental risks and issues, and contributing to solving the climate crisis.

While these expectations have developed somewhat independently over time, there is increasing convergence – reflected, for example, in emerging mandatory human rights and environmental reporting and due diligence requirements. This coupled with the UN General Assembly and UN Human Rights Council resolutions that the right to a healthy and sustainable environment is a universal human right create an impetus for business to manage environmental risks and respect human rights convergently. Importantly, across all areas, there is growing expectation that companies will take action that extends beyond the impacts of their own operations to risks and issues in company value chains.

There is value in getting clear on what’s expected of business across these areas, recognising that stakeholders increasingly expect to see companies adopt a coordinated and holistic approach to meeting expectations. Some business practitioners have observed that a coordinated response also presents opportunities to support more efficient and robust action, and to leverage progress in one area to support efforts to strengthen practice in another.

Mapping human rights risks at a high level is key to getting an overview of the company’s human rights risk landscape at a global level. Review your company’s human rights risk map and consider how climate change may affect its most salient - or severe - risks.

Does the company have operations in geographies that expect to experience drought, floods, fires or extreme heat - or that are likely to be affected by climate-related migration and displacement? Is it exiting or entering markets that may give rise to severe human rights risks? What human rights risks might arise in connection with other mitigation or adaptation activities?

If you company has not yet undertaken - or recently refreshed - a mapping of its key human rights risks, consider doing so, and ensure it encompasses human rights risks associated with climate change or the company’s climate action.

Companies are taking a wide range of actions in response to climate change. Reducing emissions, increasing energy efficiency and setting net zero targets. Exiting fossil fuels and pivoting towards markets that support cleaner energy. Building resilience among farmers, workers, communities and others. And more.

Each of these actions is directed to achieving positive environmental outcomes and positioning the business to navigate changes to its operating context. But they can also have negative impacts on people. For example, renewable energy sources rely on transition minerals that are associated with poor and hazardous working conditions, forced and child labour and other human rights impacts. If not approached responsibly, the transition out of fossil fuels poses significant risks for dependent workers, communities and economies.

Conducting early human rights due diligence on these decisions will help your company identify and understand the risks to people – and create an opportunity for the company to take action to prevent or mitigate the harm. This requires internal coordination to ensure the need for human rights due diligence is identified and acted on. And collaboration with other stakeholders to work through the complexities and get input and feedback on the company’s proposed approach.

The changing climate has already resulted in a notable - and concerning - uptick in extreme weather events, floods, fires, droughts and other natural disasters.

Ensure your company is positioned to adopt a rights-respecting response in the event of a disaster. For example, build senior management’s understanding of the value of managing human rights risks in a disaster or crisis situation, and ensure that the company’s response and decision-making will be informed by human rights expertise.

See Crisis Management for more insights from business practice.

Key stakeholders are increasingly expecting to see companies adopting a coherent and connected approach to thuman rights and climate.

For example, there is growing awareness among investors of the need to approach human rights and climate-related challenges holistically, drawing on systems thinking. As businesses themselves, investors are also subject to the same emerging regulatory requirements as the companies they invest in, which means that assessing the human rights and environmental impacts of lending and investment decisions is increasingly a matter of legal compliance.

Civil society is also now more focused on the connections between climate and human rights – and companies can expect stronger and better funded action from civil society organisations on just transitions and related movements. Alliances between investors, the media and civil society to focus on these issues are also becoming more common.

Finally, companies can expect to see the development of initiatives, such as benchmarks, that support customers, investors, civil society organisations and other stakeholders to assess companies’ commitments, practices and progress, while also providing a potential roadmap for companies.

The just transitions concept is relevant to all businesses, regardless of sector. It encompasses the transition into cleaner energy, the transition out of fossil fuels, and a range of transitions relating to adaptation and resilience-building. Every business, community and country will need to transition.

Ensuring these transitions are made in a just way – that is, with respect for people – is key. And it’s complex. But that’s not an excuse to move slower on carbon. Rather, just transitions are a prerequisite to bringing people along. Net zero is a prequalification step – a premise to a just transition approach.

Increasingly, business practitioners recognise that a joined-up approach internally offers a dynamic and robust foundation for transition. Ensure the company’s leadership, governance frameworks, coordination mechanisms and capability support efforts to better connect human rights and climate.

Build commitment to a better connected approach among the company’s leadership, for example, by strengthening senior management’s knowledge of the links between human rights and climate, and the hardening expectations of business. Promote opportunities for clear internal messaging and ‘tone’ from the top’. Support a joined-up culture by familiarising colleagues with the ‘people’ dimension of sustainability, as well as the ‘planet’ dimension. Find and use terms that resonate - such as ‘resilience’ or ‘doughnut model’.

Align the company’s governance and culture, for example, by ensuring that lines of accountability enable connected oversight and decision-making. Look for opportunities to revisit team structures - for example, bringing human rights and climate specialists under a single manager with responsibility for both areas.

Finally, nurture connections and know-how to build capability and confidence working across human rights and climate where appropriate. For example, bring human rights and climate colleagues together for two-way familiarisation discussions to understand key concepts, expectations and terminology.