Is climate action on extreme heat a human right? » Yale Climate Connections

Source: Is climate action on extreme heat a human right? » Yale Climate Connections

Is climate action on extreme heat a human right?

It was a provocative opening question that I posed to the science education graduate students in my climate justice course at San José State University. Put another way: Is a government’s failure to take action on the climate crisis a violation of human rights?

The question of human rights, climate justice, and vulnerable groups recently emerged in the news in two different cases an ocean apart, with drastically different outcomes. However, they were connected by an ever-pressing issue: extreme heat and human health.

In one case, a group of women known as the Swiss Senior Women for Climate Protection argued before the European Court of Human Rights that by failing to meet climate sustainability goals and create accountability measures, the Swiss government had violated their human rights. To make their case, the women argued that older adults, like them, were particularly vulnerable to extreme heat, a present and future climate justice issue. Rightfully so: Older adults are more likely than younger people to have chronic health conditions that put them at risk of illness or death in heat waves.

The case provoked a riveting discussion in my class: What is a human right? What are the benefits if climate change action is considered a human right? How could a ruling like this be misused by bad actors? The answer the class settled on, after much discussion, was the same as the one reached by the court in the landmark climate ruling. Yes: climate action should be considered a human right.

Just days later, as Miami-Dade County in Florida was about to pass basic safety measures for outdoor laborers working in increasingly hot and dangerous summer temperatures, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill prohibiting local governments from creating heat protection rules. The reason given for failing to ensure workers’ most basic needs are met, including access to water, shade, and breaks was that such rules would “create a lot of problems.”

Problems for whom?

As a result, Miami-Dade County officials halted their effort to protect heat-vulnerable groups. If local protections would be overridden by the state, what was the point?