Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Authors' Biographies -- Acronyms -- Acknowledgements -- Foreword -- Introduction: human rights and climate change -- Why the silence on human rights? -- Rights, needs, development and the state -- Rights language in the climate change debate to date -- Human rights and climate change adaptation -- The human rights dimensions of mitigation policies -- Human rights and climate change at the confluence of law, science, ethics and policy -- References -- Part I Rights perspectives on global warming -- 1 Competing claims: human rights and climate harms -- Four justice claims about climate change -- Equity and 'common but differentiated responsibilities' -- State responsibility and private liability -- Governments and public actors -- Transnational private actors -- Conclusion -- References -- 2 Climate change, human rights and moral thresholds -- The nature of human rights -- Climate change and human rights -- The human right to life -- The human right to health -- The human right to subsistence -- Other possible human rights -- Supplementary considerations -- The implications of a human rights approach -- Concluding remarks -- 3 Equitable utilization of the atmosphere: a rights-based approach to climate change? -- A The right of permanent sovereignty over natural resources -- B Interstate cases on transfrontier pollution -- C Sovereignty as a basis for inter-state climate change litigation: from Trail Smelter to Massachusetts v. EPA -- D Balancing sovereign rights: equity, human rights and climate change -- E The role of human rights in equitable allocation -- Conclusions -- 4 Climate change, human rights and corporate accountability -- The argument -- MNCs and human rights -- Climate change and human rights -- The law and its limits -- Private climate regulation and its limits.

Conclusion: strategic dilemmas -- References -- 5 Rethinking human rights: the impact of climate change on the dominant discourse -- The context: market failures and sovereign rationality and human suffering -- The problems and possibilities of a rights-based approach -- A 'meta-right' -- Existing rights -- Conclusion -- Part II Priorities, risks and inequities in global responses -- 6 The Kyoto Protocol and vulnerability: human rights and equity dimensions -- Human rights, vulnerability and climate change -- The climate change regime and equity -- Differential treatment and emission reduction commitments under the Kyoto Protocol -- Equity in the context of flexibility mechanisms -- Equity and the clean development mechanism -- Toward a central role for vulnerability -- Toward a new understanding of differential treatment for future emission reduction commitments -- The case of India -- Revisiting differential treatment -- Recognising air as a common heritage -- Toward new forms of entitlements on air -- Conclusion -- 7 Forests, climate change and human rights: managing risks and trade-offs -- The relevance of climate change to forests and forests to climate change -- Forest governance and human rights -- Forest governance -- Forests and human rights -- The human rights implications of climate change related to forests -- Direct impacts -- Impacts of forest policy responses to climate change -- Mitigation of forest-based emissions -- Promotion of agrofuels -- Adaptation -- The challenge of respecting procedural rights -- At the national level -- At the global level -- Reflections on challenges to justice and equity -- Duty bearers and rights holders -- Equity versus efficiency -- Policy implications -- Conclusion -- References -- 8 Climate change and the right to the highest attainable standard of health.

The right to the highest attainable standard of health -- Impact of climate change on health -- The right-to-health analytical framework -- Climate change and the right to health -- Progressive realization and obligations of immediate effect -- Particular vulnerability of those who are already disadvantaged -- Participation -- International assistance and cooperation -- Accountability -- Conclusion -- 9 Human rights and vulnerability to climate change -- Human rights violations as drivers of vulnerability to climate change -- Food security in Timor-Leste -- Irrigation and farmers on the north China plain -- South Pacific atolls -- Conclusions -- References -- 10 Climate change, evolution of disasters and inequality -- The nature of climate change and some consequences -- Regional variations and impact disparities -- Hurricane Katrina and Cyclone Nargis: some consideration of inequalities and human rights -- Death in New Orleans -- Hurricane Katrina, the people of New Orleans and human rights -- Cyclone Nargis and the people of Myanmar -- Predicting natural extremes -- anticipating disasters for people: Katrina and Nargis in a global context -- Rights protection during a disaster and specific, constructed vulnerabilities -- The influence of economic and social pre-conditions -- ex ante and ex post -- Human rights and the evolution of disasters -- Conclusion -- 11 Conceiving justice: articulating common causes in distinct regimes -- Emissions trading and the clean development mechanism -- Participation and information -- Human rights as thresholds -- Defragmentation of international law? -- References -- Appendix: climate change impacts on human rights -- Human rights impacts of climate change by region -- Africa -- IPCC AR4 -- Stern Review -- Asia -- IPCC AR4 -- Stern Review -- Latin America -- IPCC AR4 -- Stern Review -- Middle East and North Africa.

Stern Review -- Small islands -- IPCC AR4 -- Human rights impacts of climate change by affected right -- Right to water -- IPCC AR4 -- Stern Review -- Right to food -- IPCC AR4 -- Stern Review -- Right to health -- IPCC AR4 -- Stern Review -- Index.