This paper was prepared by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) for the High Level Task Force (HLTF) on the Implementation of the Right to Development,1 established by the Open-ended Working Group on the Right to Development created by the (former) Commission on Human Rights.
This paper explores the interface between the right to development and climate change, with a focus on international cooperation, financial arrangements and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The paper analyzes the international community’s legal response to the climate change threat, with particular emphasis on the institutional and normative elements that channel international cooperation. The paper also describes various financial arrangements mobilizing support for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
The main focus of the paper is on the CDM. This is because the CDM provides a clear example of an international partnership between the global South and the industrialized North to achieve the twin objectives of promoting sustainable development and mitigating climate change. A focus on the CDM also raises issues of technology transfer, environmental integrity, and the meaning and operationalization of a rights-based approach to development, all of which are central to effective and equitable climate change mitigation and to the implementation of the right to development. The CDM section further examines the CDM under right to development criteria; this examination enables the elaboration of recommendations on how to strengthen the contribution of the climate change regime to the implementation of the right to development.