Climate Rights International: Putting People and Rights at the Center of Climate Change Discussions
We are facing massive and, in some ways, unprecedented challenges to our efforts on climate change and human rights. Yet there is still so much we can and must do.
So how about some encouraging news? Climate Rights International founder and executive director Brad Adams will explain how CRI’s work on deforestation, water theft, and violence in the avocado industry in Mexico has led to systematic reforms. At both the state and federal levels, the authorities are now committed to a legally binding certification program to end deforestation in the multi-billion-dollar avocado industry. Brad will also discuss how a human rights approach can successfully challenge some of the world’s most powerful governments and companies. China is the world leader in renewables, but it is also the world’s biggest emitter. When activists in Uganda told us that no one thought it was possible to challenge the China National Offshore Oil Company’s Kingfisher project (part of the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline project), we said that not only is it possible, it is essential. After the publication of our report, the Ugandan government announced it was abandoning plans to obtain foreign financing for a $4 billion oil refinery and various military officers were replaced.
Rights-based climate advocacy can lead to climate mitigation. It can also lead to crackdowns. For this reason, environmental and human rights defenders are at the center of our work in Indonesia, Brazil, the Philippines, Mexico and Uganda – indeed, everywhere we work. Sadly, this now includes the U.S. and Western democracies, which are resorting to repression instead of taking action on climate. Our report, “On Thin Ice,” documents disproportionate charges and sentences against peaceful climate protesters in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Netherlands and other democracies. Civil liberties are under attack by powerful right-wing and corporate forces, and governments are doing their bidding. The civil rights, anti-apartheid, suffragette, and other movements have taught us that without the rights to protest and freedom of expression there will be no social progress.
We’ll also discuss the impact of extreme heat on people around the world. Cara Schulte, a third-year PhD candidate at the UC Berkeley and author of the CRI report, “I Can’t Cool.” Cara will share findings from her ongoing research for an upcoming report on the health and human rights impacts of occupational heat exposure in Dhaka, Bangladesh
As rising temperatures increasingly threaten the lives and livelihoods of the city’s most vulnerable workers — including those in the textile, construction, and transportation sectors — her presentation will highlight the urgent need for rights-based climate adaptation interventions that protect those most at risk. Cara will also speak more broadly about what is necessary to adapt to extreme heat in low- and middle-income countries.
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