Clarifying longitudinal relations between individuals' support for human rights and climate change beliefs

Overcoming Resistance to Climate Action in the Global North: The Potential of Using Human Rights as a New Paradigm for Climate Communication

“…However, even though such connection is now well-established in the legal field and the United Nations have recommended a human rights-based approach to climate action, the use of human rights language and narratives remains understudied in the field of climate communication. One example is the lack of empirical research delving into the relationship between human rights support and climate change beliefs/concern, even though it is essential to understand whether a rights-based response would indeed receive widespread public support (Athy et al, 2022).…”

“…On the other hand, there are already empirical studies in the field of social psychology that have established correlations between support for human rights and climate change beliefs, such as a prominent study based on evidence from New Zealand. More concretely, the evidence underlined a bidirectional relationship between support for certain rights on one side, such as the rights to food, clothing, housing, and medicine, and climate change beliefs/concern on the other (Athy et al, 2022). Therefore, it seems that the use of human rights in climate communication is, at least, worth exploring.…”