A/HRC/44/44 Idai and Hurricane Dorian. Raging wildfires devasted large parts of Australia, North America and Europe. In the Arctic, landscapes are being altered in ways that severely threaten indigenous cultures and health. These facts are all well known, and are examples of the negative human rights impacts of climate change that are occurring globally. Human rights-based international solidarity in the context of climate change arises partly due to the physical interdependence between humankind and nature, which has no political boundaries, and deeply interconnects disparate regions through ecological dynamics that tend to implicate all States and peoples. Protecting the global environment and addressing the local impacts of climate change through human rights-based international solidarity are, therefore, an objective necessity that can no longer be delayed. 7. Climate change results from globally interlocking economic systems that drive unsustainable modes of production and consumption, especially of fossil fuels and other extractive commodities. 3 The asymmetrical distribution of wealth through the global economy also reinforces the profoundly unfair reality that those who have contributed the least to the problem at issue tend to feel its greatest effects. 4 As temperatures rise, inequalities are compounded.5 Climate change exacerbates social vulnerabilities based on gender, disability, poverty, age, place of birth, indigeneity, etc. 6 In the Independent Expert’s view, the enjoyment of human rights-based international solidarity is critical to the successful transformation of these problematic economic structures, adaptation to a changing world and redress for any loss or damage resulting from climate change. 8. Expressions of international solidarity to meet these challenges are not new. For example, two long-standing concepts of the international law on climate change recognize a unity of interests, as well as respect for differing values, rights and needs in pursuing global environmental protection, and therefore express certain dimensions of international solidarity. First, the status of climate change as a “common concern of humankind” is universally accepted and implies the widest cooperation and positive action for the benefit of present and future generations. 7 Second, has been the recognition that States have “common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities”, which is key to international cooperation. At a minimum, this principle captures the shared responsibilities of States to address climate change and their differing capacities to act. For developing countries, the principle may also recognize the main responsibility of developed countries for historical and per capita emissions, the lesser capacity of developing countries to adapt, and their priorities of development and poverty eradication (FCCC/CP/1995/7/Add.1, para. 1). 9. The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities underpins each State’s pledge under the Paris Agreement – known in that treaty as a “nationally determined contribution”. 8 The Paris Agreement grants parties some discretion in determining their nationally determined contributions because it does not stipulate internationally negotiated targets or domestic measures. However, of relevance to human rights-based international solidarity, the treaty requires that developed countries provide finance to developing countries for mitigation and adaptation, that developing countries receive technological support and that developed countries take the lead in 3 4 5 6 7 8 Usha Natarajan, “Climate justice”, in Routledge Handbook of Law and Society, Mariana Valverde and others, eds. (forthcoming, on file with the Independent Expert). Ibid. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Global Warming of 1.5C: An IPCC Special Report on the Impacts of Global Warming of 1.5C Above Pre-Industrial Levels and Related Global Greenhouse Gas Emission Pathways, in the Context of Strengthening the Global Response to the Threat of Climate Change, Sustainable Development, and Efforts to Eradicate Poverty (2018). See the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, “Joint statement on ‘human rights and climate change’” (16 September 2019); and A/HRC/41/39 and Corr.1. General Assembly resolution 43/53. Paris Agreement, art. 4 (1)–(3). 3