A/HRC/44/44 by the Panel’s special report, will have reverberating effects across economies that pose the risk of compromising the social and economic rights of workers. The global labour movement began conceptualizing what a just transition towards a sustainable economy ought to include in the 1990s to account for distributive outcomes and to promote a unified voice.68 ILO has since become a leading site for (tripartite) dialogue on the requirements of a just transition. Among other contributions, in 2019, the Secretary-General announced an initiative with ILO, the International Trade Union Confederation, the International Organization of Employers and others that supports national planning for a just transition. 69 The Independent Expert sees the leadership of global organizations and movements to secure decent work for all in the context of climate change as a laudable expression of human rights-based international solidarity that has the potential to yield meaningful benefits for humanity. IV. Key human rights-based international solidarity gaps in the context of climate change A. Transforming the fossil fuel economy 29. There is a growing consensus that fossil fuel exploitation must be radically transformed to avoid further dangerous climate change. 70 The burning of fossil fuels and biomass produces the vast majority of global emissions (70 per cent) (A/74/161, para. 12). The burning of coal alone is responsible for nearly a third of temperature rise since the Industrial Revolution. 71 Clearly, from the point of investment until use, fossil fuels are entrenched in our lives and the global economy. Overcoming our reliance on fossil fuels is therefore an imperative and a tremendous collective action problem. In the Independent Expert’s view, this situation poses a dual challenge to human rights-based international solidarity. States and corporations that persist in exploiting fossil fuels produce a major gap in international solidarity as their behaviour does not reflect the highest possible ambition, nor cooperation, and it compromises the human rights of peoples around the world. On the other hand, there may be unfair outcomes of restructuring the fossil fuel economy on the rights to an adequate standard of living in the poorest of the States that produce fossil fuels. 72 This dual problem threatens the willingness of differently situated fossil fuel producers to take collective action. At the same time, it perpetuates global asymmetries between those who profit the most from, and people who suffer the greatest from the consequences of, climate change. 30. Based on existing and proposed fossil fuel operations, the world is already on a path to not meeting the stated common goal of keeping the global temperature increase below 1.5C. 73 One consequence of this finding is that, if this critical target is to be met, an enormous amount of fossil fuels must be kept in the ground.74 There is thus a dwindling carbon budget for the planet as a whole. Human rights-based international solidarity thus demands that, bearing in mind the common but differentiated responsibilities principle, States and corporations (especially in the global North) that invest in, subsidize and exploit 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 See David J. Doorey, “A transnational law of just transitions for climate change and labour”, in Research Handbook on Transnational Labour Law, Adelle Blackett and Anne Trebilcock, eds. (Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 2015). See https://sdg.iisd.org/news/un-secretary-general-launches-climate-action-summit-jobs-initiative. See, e.g., Georgia Piggot and others, ��Addressing fossil fuel production under the UNFCCC: Paris and beyond”, Stockholm Environment Institute Working Paper 2017-09 (Seattle, 2017); A/HRC/41/39; A/74/161. See International Energy Agency, Global Energy and CO2 Status Report (Paris, 2019). See Sivian Kartha and others, “Whose carbon is burnable? Equity considerations in the allocation of a ‘right to extract’”, Climatic Change, vol. 150 (2018). See Dan Trong and others, “Committed emissions from existing energy infrastructure jeopardize 1.5C climate target”, Nature, vol. 572 (2019). See Christophe McGlade and Paul Ekins, “The geographical distribution of fossil fuels unused when limiting global warming to 2C”, Nature, vol. 517 (2015) (based on the temperature limit of 2C). 11