The climate crisis is threatening humanity's right to life, warned the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Monday, as an intense heatwave continues in southern Europe.
"Rising temperatures, sea level rise, floods, droughts and forest fires threaten our rights to life, health, a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and much more," Türk said during a discussion on climate change before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
"The climate crisis is a human rights crisis," he summarised, adding that "the heatwave we are currently experiencing must lead us to take the adaptation measures that are absolutely necessary to ensure that these rights are not affected."
According to scientists, repeated heatwaves are an unequivocal sign of global warming, and these heatwaves are set to become more frequent, longer and more intense.
According to the IPCC, the UN-mandated group of experts on climate change, the frequency and intensity of extreme heat and the duration of heatwaves have increased since 1950 and will continue to increase with global warming.
The human rights chief is calling for countries to implement a transition away from fossil fuels, the main cause of global warming, which was hard-won at COP28 in Dubai (2023).
"This change requires an end to the production and use of fossil fuels and other environmentally destructive activities in all sectors – from energy to agriculture, finance, construction and beyond," said Türk.
Greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from the use of fossil fuels, reached a new record in 2024, averaging 53 billion tonnes of CO2 per year over the last decade.
"The responsibility of fossil fuel companies is totally inadequate" as they "perpetuate misinformation and disinformation and promote false solutions and greenwashing," he said. "Polluters must pay."
