STELLAR [under construction]

The concept of “climate rights” has been introduced by the DACE project to capture a variety of rights and legal mechanisms, i.e., existing and nascent types/classes of rights at international, EU and national level with relevance to climate change, defined as follows:

“all substantive and procedural rights in connection with climate change related matters”.

As an operational definition, its main purpose is to inform our study of climate rights as vehicles for just and engaging society in which climate justice and protection against the consequences of climate change are high on the agenda for the governments, businesses and the society as a whole. This is a broad and overarching definition which could come across political, social and civil society domains and can be used for engagement of key target groups of the project like climate activists, environmental associations, other interested citizens and local communities, but also bar associations, students, journalists. “Climate rights” in the sense of the DACE project thus does not only include rights in a narrow legal sense, such as human or social rights, but encompasses legal mechanisms that enable individuals and organisations to protect their rights, to demand climate action or hold governments and businesses accountable. Even if we don’t claim coining a new concept of the legal doctrine, we could still test its practical application, and stir a debate about it with national and EU stakeholders. While testing the application of the concept, we aim to raise the awareness of target groups and general public of climate rights (in general terms or about specific rights related to or affected by climate change: e.g., right to life, health, home, dignity); to test the readiness of target groups to exercise such climate rights already now, or to explore the existing practice of exercising such rights; and to mobilise target groups’ support for introducing a stronger and more comprehensive system of climate rights that could be also defined as rights to climate protection^[1].

[1] Kahl. 2022. A human right to climate protection – Necessary protection or human rights proliferation?

Climate change is here. Beyond doing everything we can to cut emissions and slow the pace of global warming, we must adapt to climate consequences so we can protect ourselves and our communities. The fallout varies depending on where you live. It might mean fires or floods, droughts, hotter or colder days or sea-level rise.

Climate change adaptation is the process of adjusting to current or expected impacts or effects of climate change.^[1] For humans, adaptation aims to moderate or avoid harm, and exploit opportunities; for natural systems, humans may intervene to help the adjustment.^[1] Adaptation actions can be either incremental (actions where the central aim is to maintain the essence and integrity of a system) or transformative (actions that change the fundamental attributes of a system in response to climate change and its impacts).^[2] The need for adaptation varies from place to place, depending on the risk to human or ecological systems. Adaptation actions can be grouped into four categories: Infrastructural and technological; institutional; behavioural and cultural; and nature-based options.^{[3]: fig. 16.5}

Adaptation is especially important in developing countries since those countries are most vulnerable to climate change^[4] and are bearing the brunt of the effects of climate change.^[5][6] Human adaptive capacity is unevenly distributed across different regions and populations, and developing countries generally have less capacity to adapt.^[7] Adaptive capacity is closely linked to social and economic development.^[8]

Source: Wikipedia

Six environmental legal NGOs from Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Slovenia, and Spain joined forces under the umbrella organisation Justice and Environment to focus on climate issues and law. They selected climate change adaptation and climate rights. The objective is to raise awareness of EU citizens about climate change policies and law, e.g., on adaptation to climate change (but also leaving room for mitigation) and citizens’ climate rights. The project supports the climate goals of the European Green Deal and the EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change. The method to attain this goal is to undertake

a) a collection of public opinion via polling and surveys and interviews in order to uncover the public perception of the issue, and

b) a number of national events, aimed at environmentally conscious citizens, environmental NGOs and other stakeholders (e.g. students, journalists) to discuss climate change adaptation questions and climate rights issues, and

c) a final closing event where beneficiary organisations with the involvement of national stakeholders and the EU Commission share their experience and knowledge and formulate a standpoint and communicate it to EU decision-makers.

The results will be an influence on the EU and thereby on national climate change adaptation policy. The project actions will reach at least 18 thousand EU citizens in the project countries and 10 thousand more in other Member States. Direct participants (appr. 100 per participating Member State) will benefit from being engaged in climate policy shaping. Project outputs will be 6 polling results, 6 legal analyses, 17 national events (and related reports), 1 international event, 1 set of advocacy submission. Project actions and steps will be properly covered by communication actions both in the national media and in social media, and outputs will be available online, both on the websites of the participating NGOs and of the coordinating Association Justice and Environment.

During the course of the project, partners in Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia will hold a number of events and meetings where you can join us and get insight into our work relating to the enforcement of Charter rights.

To find out where and when exactly we are having our events, please follow the project partners’ websites where information is published on recent and upcoming meetings.

Also, follow the Facebook and X pages of Justice and Environment to get info on our project’s progress.

Links to the project partners’ related webpages: see the Contacts and Links section below

J&E’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/justiceandenvironment

J&E’s X page: https://twitter.com/justenvinet 

The outputs of our actions are below:

• Report of the International Journalist Workshop

Austria

• Report of the first national climate rights event
• Outputs of the national public poll on climate rights issues
• Report of the second national climate rights event
• Report of the third national climate rights event
• Report of the fourth national climate rights event

Bulgaria

• Report of the first national climate rights event
• Report of the second national climate rights event
• Outputs of the national public poll on climate rights issues
• National legal study on climate rights

Estonia

• Report of the first national climate rights event
• Report of the second national climate rights event
• Outputs of the national public poll on climate rights issues
• National legal study on climate rights

Hungary

• Report of the first national climate rights event
• Outputs of the national public poll on climate rights issues
• National legal study on climate rights
• Report of the second national climate rights event

Slovenia

• Report of the first national climate rights event
• Report of the second national climate rights event
• Outputs of the national public poll on climate rights issues

Spain

• Report of the first national climate rights event
• Report of the second national climate rights event
• Outputs of the national public poll on climate rights issues
• National legal study on climate rights