A/HRC/44/44 reducing emissions.9 The Paris Agreement also commits States to pursue common efforts to limit the rise in the global temperature to 1.5C to significantly reduce the risks posed to vulnerable States and peoples.10 10. However, there is a deep chasm between State behaviour thus far (including their pledges) and what is needed to prevent further climate change and to avoid the grave dangers that this portends. For one, as is well known, the second highest emitting State has submitted its formal notification of withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. Other States have laudably maintained their commitment to the accord, but their pledges are inadequate. Even if all States meet their conditional nationally determined contributions, we would still be on track to experience a catastrophic 3C increase in the world’s temperature. 11 Companies continue to operate in a largely underregulated manner while profiting from greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, insofar as companies and international organizations contribute to the problem through emissions, project finance and other practices that give rise to similar and complementary responsibilities to the duties of States, they also have a duty to respect the human right to international solidarity in this context (A/HRC/35/35, p. 18). 11. Given the insufficiency of State and corporate action, indigenous peoples, civil societies, subnational jurisdictions and others have been pursuing “climate justice”, which emphasizes a human rights approach to the impacts of climate change on socially vulnerable peoples; the prevention of harm from mitigation activities; redress for loss and damage; and meaningful civic participation.12 Similarly, acknowledging that high-emitting economic sectors will need to reform their operations in the coming years, some labour unions, Governments and employers are struggling to ensure that the international rights of workers dependent on those sectors are not compromised. They are doing so through planning for a so-called just transition that guarantees the right to decent work. Importantly, the Paris Agreement acknowledges a just transition, human rights and climate justice. 13 Drawing on these discourses, people who lack direct regulatory power are demanding that Governments and corporations do better. They are also realizing human rights-based international solidarity in their own right through their pursuit of justice for individuals and groups who are owed protection from the precarities of climate change. III. Positive expressions of human rights-based international solidarity in the context of climate change A. Civil society and non-State practices 12. Civil society and non-State actors have consistently been at the forefront of addressing climate change through positive expressions of human rights-based international solidarity and of requesting those with direct authority do so as well. 14 Acknowledging the breadth of such positive expressions, the Independent Expert wishes to highlight some relevant practices of indigenous peoples, youth and environmental defenders. Their efforts described in this report reflect international solidarity because they aim to push forward needed political, social and economic transformations through human rights strategies that are proactive and collaborative, are often supported by allied States and international organizations, and are complementary to conventional endeavours in the same direction. Insofar as these groups suffer disproportionately from climate change, yet are excluded from direct policymaking, their efforts to be heard also realize a subtle quality of international solidarity: when marginalized peoples share their lived experience, it may 9 10 11 12 13 14 4 Ibid., arts. 4 (4) and 9–10. Ibid., art. 2 (1) (a). United Nations Environment Programme, Emissions Gap, p. xix. E.g., www.mrfcj.org/principles-of-climate-justice. Paris Agreement, tenth, eleventh and thirteenth preambular paragraphs. See Sébastien Duyck, Sébastien Jodoin and Alyssa Johl, eds., Routledge Handbook of Human Rights and Climate Governance (New York, Routledge, 2018).