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Project title

Reimagining human rights to avert dangerous climate change: an ecofeminist perspective

Primary Funding Agency

Irish Research Council

Co-Funding Organisation(s)

n/a

Lead Organisation

University College Dublin (UCD)

Lead Applicant

n/a

Project Abstract

Framing climate change as a human rights problem has gained traction in recent years. While a human rights approach could prove both advantageous and strategically important, the prevalent account overlooks inherent conflicts between human rights and effective climate action (i.e. action compatible with holding the global temperature increase to a maximum of 1.5�C above the pre-industrial, to avert dangerous climate change). The existing human rights paradigm encourages individualism inconsistent with the unprecedented collective response needed to tackle climate change. It focuses on humans alive today to the detriment of future generations who will bear the brunt of the impacts of climate change. It also overlooks the adverse effect of climate change on other species likely to face extinction as a result of global warming. Human rights emerged as the predominant ideological standpoint by the 1970s, displacing more radical political alternatives. Yet with the world on track for dangerous levels of warming, this human rights paradigm is clearly failing to offer a transformative narrative to challenge the patriarchal capitalist structures causing climate change. The purpose of this ecofeminist critique is to provide a point of departure for reimagining human rights in a manner that is fully compatible with the 1.5�C target of the Paris Agreement. The thesis explores three emerging and anticipated areas of climate action: climate litigation; individual carbon rationing; and climate engineering. These case studies are used as the subject matter for three substantive papers that comprise the core of this PhD by papers.

Grant Approved

�48,000.00

Research Hub

n/a

Research Theme

Climate Solutions, Transition Management and Opportunities

Start Date

01/09/2019

Initial Projected Completion Date

31/08/2021