Human rights must be put at the heart of global climate change fight, says Oxfam

Oxfam: Rich countries must start basing their climate change policies on existing human rights principles and stop using economic excuses to wriggle out of their responsibilities, says international agency Oxfam in a new report today. Oxfam is submitting its report "Climate Wrongs and Human Rights" to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which is now reviewing the relationship between international human rights and climate change.

Oxfam says that rich countries’ excessive carbon emissions are violating the rights of millions of the world’s poorest people to life, security, food, health and shelter. “Climate change was first seen as a scientific problem, then an economic one. Now it is becoming a matter of international justice,” said report author Kate Raworth.

"Human rights principles give an alternative to the view that everything – from carbon to malnutrition – can be priced, compared and traded,” Raworth said. “These principles must be put at the heart of a global deal to tackle global climate change.” Oxfam says that the current trade-off being made between the economic and human costs of tackling the problem is deeply unethical and risks the world failing to cut emissions to stay below the 2°C warming threshold...