A Universal Human Right to Shape Responses to a Global Problem? The Role of Self‐Determination in Guiding the International Legal Response to Climate Change

Abstract

International climate change law is at a critical juncture. Two decades of international treaty negotiations have delivered rising greenhouse gas emissions and minimal adaptation funding. The pattern of negotiations suggests that key States will often only make significant commitments that are aligned with their material interests and reciprocated by their competitors. This ‘logic of reciprocity’ in international climate negotiations has limited ambition such that vulnerable States are facing existential threats from sea level rise, storm surge and salt‐water inundation. We consider whether the international legal system offers any alternative logics that might found a duty on emitters to reduce their emissions in a timelier fashion and respond to climate‐change‐induced forced migration. We therefore focus on the foundational principle of the self‐determination of peoples, a collective human right which has supported movements towards decolonization and the emancipation of oppressed peoples. We argue that self‐determination might offer an alternative logic of duty on high‐emitting States to the plight of populations who find their territory (and potentially their nationhood) under threat from anthropogenic climate change.

Racial capitalism, climate justice, and climate displacement

“…(People's Agreement 2010, n.p. ) One approach to climate displacement that has emerged from Southern states and communities is the collective right of displaced peoples to self-determination (Pascoe 2015, Willcox 2016, Maguire and McGee 2017. Self-determination is the right of subordinated peoples to control their own destiny rather than having it imposed on them by foreign powers (Williams 1991).…”

Climate Change, Race, and Migration

“…For example, the Peoples Agreement that emerged from the 2010 World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia, unequivocally calls upon Northern states to "assume responsibility for the hundreds of millions of people that will be forced to migrate due to the climate change caused by these countries, and eliminate their restrictive immigration policies, offering migrants a decent life with full human rights guarantees in their countries" (Peoples Agreement 2010, n.p. ).One approach to climate displacement that has emerged from Southern states and peoples is the collective right of displaced persons to self-determination and legal continuity as self-governing communities(Willcox 2016;Pascoe 2015;Maguire and McGee 2017). The right of peoples to selfdetermination is recognized in common Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) 9 and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), 10 the 1950 United Nations General Assembly Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, 11 and the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) 12…”