Objective  

The Capacities for Rights-based Climate Action Day aims to raise awareness about the link between climate change and human rights, share good practices for rights-based and inclusive climate action, and build capacities to address challenges in this context. The day will facilitate the exchange of information about capacity-building resources for integrating human rights into climate action, as well as mobilizing resources and capacity-building for rights-based climate action, including finance, for mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, and a just transition. The day will also seek to emphasize the importance of adopting rights-based participatory approaches, particularly in empowering groups as agents of change such as Indigenous Peoples, children, youth, individuals with disabilities, and gender rights advocates, to strengthen their capacity to participate in the climate change process constructively.  

Topics  

• Importance of a human rights-based approach for ambition and justice; 

• Gender and multi-stakeholders' collaboration and participation for climate action; 

• Toolkits and other ways to improve capacities for climate justice and rights-based climate action; 

• Sharing of good practices on specific topics such as gender-responsive climate action and the interlinkages between biodiversity and climate, and from specific regions such as Latin America and the Caribbean; 

• Empowerment of marginalized groups such as youth and children, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and refugees; 

• Enhancing capacities of environment and climate defenders. 

Effectively integrating human rights into climate action is essential, because all Parties to the Paris Agreement have international human rights obligations and have commited in the Paris Agreement to respect, promote and consider those in the context of climate action. Additionally, human rights-based climate action is more effective, as confirmed by the IPCC’s Summary for Policymakers of the Synthesis Report of the 6th assessment cycle which states: “adaptation and mitigation actions that prioritize equity, social justice, climate justice, rights-based approaches, and inclusivity, lead to more sustainable outcomes, reduce trade-offs, support transformative change and advance climate resilient development.” Building capacities for rights-based climate action therefore contributes to realizing inclusive, sustainable and effective solutions for mitigation, adaptation and addressing loss and damage, while ensuring interlinkages with other critical objectives such as protecting and enhancing biodiversity, health and poverty eradication.