Climate Change and Global Health: Exploring Regime Interaction and the Role of the Right to Health Argument in International Climate Litigation

Abstract

Climate change is considered potentially the greatest threat to global health in the 21st century due to its direct and indirect adverse impacts on human health and its environmental determinants. Synergies between international regimes regulating climate change and human rights protection can provide the appropriate legal tools to hold States responsible for their contribution to climate change, notably in terms of failure to adopt effective and appropriate measures of mitigation and adaptation capable of preventing climate-induced health risks. In this respect, recent trends in international practice suggest that the right to health argument has the potential to play a pivotal role in climate litigation before international courts and human rights bodies, which are increasingly called to adjudge complaints filed by youth petitioners fighting for global climate change action.