A/HRC/10/61
page 22
64. It should be noted, however, that knowledge remains limited as to the causal linkages
between environmental factors and conflict and there is little empirical evidence to substantiate
the projected impacts of environmental factors on armed conflict.96
F. Human rights implications of response measures
65. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol
commit States parties to minimize adverse economic, social and environmental impacts resulting
from the implementation of measures taken to mitigate or adapt to climate change impacts
(“response measures”).97 With regard to measures to reduce the concentration of greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere (mitigation), agro-fuel production is one example of how mitigation
measures may have adverse secondary effects on human rights, especially the right to food.98
66. Whereas agro-fuel production could bring positive benefits for climate change and for
farmers in developing countries, agro-fuels have also contributed to increasing the price of food
commodities “because of the competition between food, feed and fuel for scarce arable land”.99
CESCR has urged States to implement strategies to combat global climate change that do not
negatively affect the right to adequate food and freedom from hunger, but rather promote
sustainable agriculture, as required by article 2 of the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change.100
67. Apart from the impact on the right to food, concerns have also been raised that demand for
biofuels could encroach on the rights of indigenous peoples to their traditional lands and
culture.101
96
See e.g. H. Buhaug, N.P. Gleditsch and O.M. Theisen, Implications of Climate Change
for Armed Conflict, 2008. As the IPCC AR4 WGII Report points out (citing Fairhead, 2004)
there are many other intervening and contributing causes of conflict and many
environmentally-influenced conflicts in Africa are related to abundance of natural resources
(e.g. oil and diamonds) rather than scarcity, suggesting “caution in the prediction of such
conflicts as a result of climate change” (p. 365).
97
UNFCCC, art. 4, para. 8, and Kyoto Protocol, arts. 2, para. 3, and 3, para. 14.
98
For a discussion of the human rights dimensions of mitigation and adaptation policies see
International Council on Human Rights Policy, Climate Change and Human Rights: A Rough
Guide, 2008, chapter II.
99
Statement of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, 22 May 2008, at the special session
of the Human Rights Council on the global food crisis.
100
101
E/C.12/2008/1, para. 13.
See e.g. M. Macchi and others, Indigenous and Traditional Peoples and Climate Change,
International Union for Conservation of Nature, 2008. CERD expressed concern about plans to
establish a large-scale biofuel plantation and the threat it constituted to the rights of indigenous
peoples to own their lands and enjoy their culture (CERD/C/IDN/CO/3, para. 17).
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