Climate engineering and human rights

Abstract

Climate change threatens to infringe the human rights of many. Taking an optimistic stance, climate engineering might reduce the extent to which such rights are infringed, but it might also bring about other rights infringements. This Forum, leading off the special issue on climate engineering governance, engages three scholars in a discussion of three core issues at the intersection of human rights and climate engineering. The Forum is divided into three sections, each authored by a different scholar and discussing a distinct aspect of this relationship. First, Toby Svoboda gives an overarching view of three competing approaches to human rights, grounded in philosophy; then, Holly Jean Buck looks at lessons from how the climate migration conversation brings a human rights approach to a climate policy issue; and finally, Pablo Suarez illustrates how a humanitarian approach to climate engineering works with a human rights framework. The conclusion of the Forum draws together points of overlap across the three sections and suggests a path forward for policy and research on this topic.Together, the sections show that climate engineering, should it materialize, will pose novel human rights challenges, and may well force reconsideration of how human rights are applied as a guide to action.

Right to Food and Geoengineering

“…Caney, 2010) may prompt arguments for and against geoengineering for reasons other than those discussed here (see e.g. Svoboda et al, 2019).…”

Like diamonds in the sky? Public perceptions, governance, and information framing of solar geoengineering activities in Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States

“…There is consideration of the extent to which solar geoengineering could be employed in the service of ecological security (Thiele 2019 , McDonald 2023 ) and human rights (Svoboda et al . 2019 ) or identifying inadequacies in (de facto) governance that may cause such objectives to fall short (Rabitz 2019 , Gupta and Möller 2019 ). Other research explores a potential, crucial role for the public and other stakeholders (Conca 2019 , Stephens et al .…”

Building Capabilities for Earth System Governance

“…For example, Grasso (2019) draws attention to the imperative of including the ideals of legitimacy and procedural justice as well as considerations of international and intergenerational distributive justice into governance as a means to increase public participation and thus minimize the risk of technocratic or elite domination, and ensuring an equitable allocation of burdens and benefits associated with deployment. Svoboda et al (2019) discuss the human rights challenges related to climate engineering, arguing that research and potential implementation must be guided by insights and frameworks of the human rights realm. Whyte (2018), in turn, points to the fact that existing discourses on the ethics and justice of climate engineering in general are not entirely salient to at least some Indigenous peoples, as they fail to deal with issues pertaining to colonial domination and other forms of oppression that are at the heart of their struggles, and which play a central role in exacerbating climate vulnerability.…”