ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the tensions and possibilities within environmental human rights from a political theory perspective. It also explores the limits of the sustainable development framework with regard to the relationship between humanity and the natural world. The book provides the rights of future people through considering whose responsibility it is to take pre-emptive action to ensure environmental human rights. It focuses on the problems of aggregation, considering risk and the uncertainty surrounding precautionary measures. The book examines the historical affinity and tension between the international law of human rights and the rights of states to natural resources. It argues that the chief purpose of human rights is to provide a universal standard for regulating the behaviour of states, to limit their sovereignty for the sake of promoting welfare and protecting the equal moral status of individuals.
