opinion

Opinion of the National Human Rights Commission on the climate crisis and human rights - opinion

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Filing Year For Action

In 2020, forty one South Koreans, including farmers, fishermen, coastal residents, and youth filed a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) alleging that their human rights, including the right to life and the right to health, were violated by the climate crisis. The NHRC dismissed the petition, but later commissioned an investigation on the impact of climate change on human rights in July 2021 on its own. In January 2023, the NHRC, for the first time, issued its opinion on the climate crisis and human rights addressed to the President and the Government.

The NHRC opined that the state should recognize the protection and promotion of the human rights of all people in the context of the climate crisis as a fundamental obligation of the state and improve relevant laws and regulations to ensure that the climate crisis is approached from a human rights perspective. Specifically, the NHRC recognized that the individual fundamental rights violated by the climate crisis are virtually all human rights, including the right to life, the right to food, the right to sanitation, the right to health, the right to housing, the right to self-determination, and the right to education.

The NHRC also pointed out that the Framework Act On Carbon Neutrality And Green Growth For Coping With Climate Crisis (“Carbon Neutrality Act”) does not provide specific support measures for climate-vulnerable groups, and it urged the government to take comprehensive measures to protect climate-vulnerable groups and strengthen their adaptive capacity. According to Article 8 of the Carbon Neutrality Act, the nationally determined contribution (NDC) is to reduce GHG emissions by at least 35% of 2018 emissions by 2030. Article 3 of the Enforcement Decree of the same Act raises the NDC to 40% of 2018 emissions. However, the NHRC noted that even the enhanced NDC falls short of the reduction target set out in the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report in 2022 (43% of 2019 emissions by 2030). In addition, the Carbon Neutrality Act does not
specify GHG reduction targets beyond 2030, which could lead to intergenerational inequities in GHG reductions. The NHRC required the government to set additional GHG reduction targets. 

Although the opinion of the NHRC does not bind the Government, this decision is the first opinion issued by a governmental body stating that the state bears an obligation to mitigate climate change, and that the current response is insufficient to protect the human rights of its people.