Today's Editorial

Restoring earth’s right to ‘good health’

Relevance: GS Paper III

Why in News?

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres emphasised the urgent need to restore harmony with nature on International Mother Earth Day 2024, stating that humanity is acting like a delinquent child, causing chaos and harming both nature and humanity.

Global Climate Report:

• The latest State of the Global Climate Report by the World Meteorological Organization reveals that most climate change indicators reached record levels in 2023.
• It confirmed 2023 to be the hottest year since we started recording global temperatures. Records were also broken for ocean heat, sea level rise, Antarctic Sea ice loss and glacier retreat.

Recognising the link between climate change and human rights:

• European Court of Human Rights decision:
  • The European Court of Human Rights found the Government of Switzerland guilty of violating the rights of a group of women senior citizens of a Swiss civil society group called KlimaSeniorinnen, noting that the government’s actions to curb emissions were inadequate and had failed to protect women against the impacts of climate change.
    • This is a first-of-its-kind decision anywhere in the world, and it highlights how the climate crisis is increasingly becoming a human rights crisis.
• Supreme Court of India ruling:
  • A month ago, when the Supreme Court of India ruled that people have a right ‘to be free from the adverse impacts of climate change’, citing Articles 14 (equality before law and the equal protection of laws) and 21 (right to life and personal liberty) of the Indian Constitution as the sources.

India's climate action:

• Since 2009, April 22 has been commemorated as International Mother Earth Day. The idea of ‘Mother’ Earth has been embedded in India’s culture and traditions for centuries, regarding nature as a ‘living’ entity rather than just a resource.
• In 2022, the Madras High Court in Tamil Nadu, while hearing a case on changing the classification of forest land, declared ‘Mother Nature’ a ‘living being’, granting it the status of a legal person with all corresponding rights, duties and liabilities, in order to preserve and conserve it.
• India has made significant progress in decoupling emissions from economic growth, achieving two of its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets -
• Reducing the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33% to 35% from the 2005 level.
• Achieving 40% cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel sources, well ahead of the target year of 2030.
• However, the country remains highly vulnerable to climate change, with over 80% of its population living in districts at risk of climate-induced disasters.
• Rising temperatures and natural disasters are causing crises that affect livelihoods and food security and exacerbate existing socio-economic inequalities, highlighting the need for urgent action.
• The Supreme Court’s observation sets an important precedent here. 

Significance of leveraging rights-based approach to accelerate climate action:

• Setting accountability:
• Bringing the impacts of climate change within the purview of constitutional fundamental rights paves the way for legal accountability for climate action.
• The ruling examines the impacts of climate change from a rights perspective, focusing on how they affect humanity’s right to health, life, liberty, and more.
• Accelerating climate action:
• The observation has the potential to accelerate climate action both on the demand and supply sides —
• On the demand side, by invoking a more rights-based approach to climate action.
• On the supply side, this involves encouraging integrated approaches and actions between the government, private sector, and civil society.
• Framework law on climate change:
• • It could lead to the adoption of regulations on climate change that advance the policy-driven approach to climate action in India, which is couched in the National and State Action Plans on Climate Change.
    • An overarching regulation would enhance state capacities by driving the allocation of funds, functions, and functionaries and help strengthen climate governance by building effective institutional frameworks.
  • A London School of Economics and Political Science report reveals that climate change framework laws in 60 countries have influenced national policies beyond meeting targets under global environmental conventions, including those from the Global North, such as Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Finland, and South Korea, and the Global South, such as South Africa and the Philippines.
    • These laws have resulted in increased public sector staffing and capacity to deliver climate action, including a significant expansion in public sector resourcing.
• Knowledge sharing:
• It has the potential to promote the exchange of knowledge and ideas. Out of all the States and Union Territories in the country, 18 are classified as moderately to highly vulnerable to climate change.
• A forum that enables sharing of best practices for implementing policies can build coherence in policies and actions between States and Union Territories.
• Rights-based dialogue:
• It will empower citizen groups and civil society organisations to foster a rights-based dialogue on environment, biodiversity, and climate action.
• Within the ambit of environmental policy, it can build consensus on overcoming potential tensions between climate mitigation and action.
• For instance, this is reflected in the Supreme Court’s observation, which came in the backdrop of balancing the conservation of the habitat of the Great Indian Bustard, a critically endangered bird species, with developing solar energy parks to meet the country’s renewable energy targets.

Conclusion:

The judicial actions underscore the critical importance of addressing climate change from a human rights perspective. There is a need to use these judgments and observations to restore Mother Earth’s right to good health and, by doing so, protect people's right to a future free from the impacts of climate change.