We are facing a climate emergency with crucial implications for human rights. While climate change will affect humanity as a whole, poor and marginalized communities are and will be among the first and hardest hit. From floods in Argentina to droughts and hurricanes in Central America and the Caribbean, to wildfires in Brazil and Bolivia, we are already seeing an increase in suffering, poisonous air quality, food insecurity, and climate refugees.

International reports and commitments, catastrophic events, and social mobilization have raised demands for fast action to avoid tipping points at which the Earth will become irreversibly inhospitable to human life. Diverse measures to ensure mitigation, reverse climate change’s impact, and work on adaptation measures have been proposed, but are embraced and implemented unevenly.

The human rights framework can buttress the responses necessary to address the emergency, providing tools to guarantee human dignity and the right to a healthy environment. The entry into force of the Escazu Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean underscores the power of rights as instruments to tackle the emergency.