ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationship between carbon emissions and climate change. It also examines the extent that divestment from carbon-intensive businesses could be considered a human rights strategy. The chapter looks at some of the strategies that have been utilized both internationally and in the domestic context to deal with the challenge of carbon emissions. It highlights the risk that climate change poses to humanity and the extent that carbon-intensive business activities are driving the phenomenon. The chapter provides a few examples of investments decisions made by institutional investors to show what role, if any; social and human rights considerations played in making them reach their decisions. A major tool for mitigating climate change is therefore sustained global action to reduce carbon emissions. Equally important in discussing the carbon emissions/human rights nexus is the opposite argument that is made especially in the specific context of emissions from fossil fuels.
