ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the threat that land-based climate mitigation actions could pose to human rights and the potential for human rights legal frameworks to guard against these risks. It argues that strengthening land rights, and the rights of those who protect land and the environment, directly contributes to combating climate change, making a rights-based approach to land use a crucial element of implementing the Paris Agreement. The chapter also argues that the ability of the international community to achieve climate and development objectives relies on the protection of human rights that both depend on, and relate to, the environment. Increased competition for natural resources has contributed to an increase in environmental resource-related conflicts. The risk that climate mitigation activities will significantly increase demand for land in the future raises fundamental concerns over the ability of existing institutions to govern multiple and competing demands for land.
