Resituating Human Rights within Planetary Boundaries: A Promising Narrative for Peace and Climate Justice in the Post-Ukraine World

Abstract

AbstractAmbitious climate action is crucial to achieve social justice and peaceful development in the next decades. However, the current geopolitical and geoeconomic context runs counter to meaningful climate action. In fact, in 2023, global emissions were higher than ever, and future reduction prospects look grim, as Green New Deal policies are facing significant political, economic, and geostrategic challenges on both sides of the Atlantic. Against this backdrop, it is more important than ever to think out of the box in order to build alliances among social movements for an immediate reduction of emissions. Thus, this paper aims to critically explore the role that human rights can play to achieve climate justice in this context, not only as only as legal instruments, but also as a promising narrative of change that includes planetary boundaries and the central imperative of global and national redistribution. Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Statement by António Guterres at Security Council Debate on Climate and Security, 23 September 2021. Available at: https://unfccc.int/news/statement-by-antonio-guterres-at-security-council-debate-on-climate-and-security2 See: https://www.vanuatuicj.com/resolution.Additional informationNotes on contributorsAna García-JuanateyDr. Ana García Juanatey holds a PhD in International Law by the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (2016, UPF). She is currently working at the CEI International Affairs, center affiliated to the Universitat de Barcelona (UB), as a full-time professor and as the executive coordinator of the Master in Sustainable Development. She has published her research work in several international journals, such as South European Society and Politics, Administration and Society, the Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy and the European Journal of Higher Education, among others. E-mail: ana.garcia@ceibcn.comBettina SteibleBettina Steible is assistant professor (profesora lectora) of public law at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. She holds a PhD in law from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, for which she received 2018 Jaime Brunet Prize for the best doctoral thesis on the promotion of human rights. Her research interests focus on European Constitutional Law and European human rights law. E-mail: bsteible@uoc.edu