The incorporation of the human rights approach in the fight against climate change: remarks in the light of UN practice

The last decades have witnessed a consolidating consensus in the international community towards considering the climate change as one of the most pressing concerns for human rights. Numerous human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels for power generation or for transportation, result in the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) which interfere with our climate. This paper aspires to review the evolution of the UN practice as far as the interconnections between human rights and climate change international legal regimes, in order to explore if and to what extent human rights protection has been taken into account in the process of 'configuring' the contemporary international legal system on climate change and, conversely, to assess the extent to which climate change has 'broken-in' the international mechanisms of protection of human rights.