Adaptation and Anticipatory Action: Integrating Human Rights Duties into the Climate Change Regime

Abstract

This article analyses international obligations related to adaptation in the UN climate change regime. It argues that the interpretation and application of these obligations can compel and shape anticipatory, proactive state measures on, and support for, adaptation. To accomplish this, the article begins from the premise that the regime’s climate treaties are a dynamic part of a system of international law that should strive for coherence. Accordingly, it takes an evolutive approach to interpreting obligations. The article applies the tools of treaty interpretation, and systemic integration in particular, to incorporate positive duties from human rights law into an understanding of adaptation obligations. It also applies the regime’s operative principles alongside integration. Taken together, they help to shape adaptation obligations, strengthening arguments for action in advance of foreseeable harm and for support based on differentiation. Such an approach can lead to adaptation that better avoids risks to people and their rights, to prioritize those most vulnerable and to ensure access to essential resources.