Human Rights and the Clean Development Mechanism

The 2010 UN climate conference in Cancún emphasised that human rights should generally be respected in the context of climate change related activities. The article "Human Rights and the Clean Development Mechanism" by Wolfgang Obergassel and Jeanette Schade discusses the relevant legal human rights norms and case studies from the Kyoto Protocol's CDM. The authors recommend that the UN climate regime shall develop mandatory human rights safeguard mechanisms. Alternatively, individual group of countries, such as the European Union could introduce their own requirements for CDM projects. The article is published in Cambridge Review of International Affairs (vol. 27/4, 2014) and can be downloaded with costs via Taylor & Francis Online.