What's in a Right? Concretizing States' Climate Change Mitigation Obligations under Human Rights Law.

This article examines the obligations of states under international human rights law to mitigate climate change in order to meet the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C temperature goal, focusing on the challenge of concretizing emissions reduction pathways for individual countries. It finds that current human rights law does not specify individualized emissions reduction targets or calculation methods, and explores three pathways to clarify these obligations: law-making (including the development of a right to a healthy environment), litigation (notably systemic mitigation cases such as the Dutch Urgenda case), and the role of human rights monitoring bodies (such as UN treaty bodies and special procedures). The article highlights the complementary potential of these pathways while noting challenges including limited international precedent, scientific uncertainties, and the role of negative emissions technologies. It concludes that parallel progress across these avenues is necessary to effectively define and enforce states' human rights-based mitigation obligations aligned with the 1.5°C goal.