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Climate Change, Public Health & Human Rights
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Climate Change, Public Health & Human Rights

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Climate Change".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 June 2023) | Viewed by 17424

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Benjamin Mason Meier

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Public Policy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Interests: global health governance; health and human rights; global health law; global health policy; world health organization
Dr. Flavia Bustreo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, World Health Organization, Geneva 1201, Switzerland‎
Interests: global health; climate change; adolescent health; human rights; global governance
Prof. Dr. Lawrence O. Gostin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Georgetown University Law Center, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20001, USA
Interests: global health; human rights; global health law; public health law; global governance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change poses a cataclysmic threat to public health and human rights. Global health is inextricably linked to planetary health, with a changing climate influencing the conditions necessary for health and safety while undermining a range of human rights. International negotiations to mitigate emissions—from the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its 1997 Kyoto Protocol to the 2015 Paris Agreement—have faced limitations in addressing the health hazards caused by the unfolding climate crisis. These inequitable health threats pose sweeping implications for health-related human rights, especially in low- and middle-income countries, with environmental degradation challenging the most fundamental conditions for human life and the individual dignity and rights of vulnerable populations and future generations. Human rights can provide a legal path to ensure international mitigation efforts and health system adaptation to address both the direct and indirect public health impacts of climate change – including extreme weather events, rising sea levels, pervasive air pollution, infectious disease prevalence, food and nutrition security, water and sanitation systems, and mental health promotion. This special issue addresses the dynamic balance between global health and climate justice, with a focus on the public health threats of anthropogenic climate change and the human rights advancements necessary to frame national and global policies for mitigation and adaptation. We welcome manuscripts from a wide range of climate policymakers and interdisciplinary scholars, and expect to publish research papers, policy reviews, brief reports, and commentaries in this special issue.

Prof. Dr. Benjamin Mason Meier
Dr. Flavia Bustreo
Prof. Lawrence O. Gostin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • climate change
  • climate crisis
  • human rights
  • global health governance
  • health and human rights
  • right to health
  • right to a healthy environment
  • global health
  • environmental health
  • planetary health

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Editorial

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14 pages, 358 KiB  
Editorial
Climate Change, Public Health and Human Rights
by Benjamin Mason Meier, Flavia Bustreo and Lawrence O. Gostin
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(21), 13744; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192113744 - 22 Oct 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3982
Abstract
Climate change poses a cataclysmic threat to public health and human rights [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change, Public Health & Human Rights)

Research

Jump to: Editorial, Other

20 pages, 1109 KiB  
Article
Motivating Personal Climate Action through a Safety and Health Risk Management Framework
by Charmaine Mullins-Jaime and Jan K. Wachter
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(1), 7; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010007 - 20 Dec 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2295
Abstract
Background: There is overwhelming evidence the impacts of climate change present a probable threat to personal health and safety. However, traditional risk management approaches have not been applied to ameliorate the crises. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact on [...] Read more.
Background: There is overwhelming evidence the impacts of climate change present a probable threat to personal health and safety. However, traditional risk management approaches have not been applied to ameliorate the crises. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact on personal motivation for action of a communication intervention that framed climate change as a safety issue that can be mitigated through a safety and health risk management framework. Participants’ perception of climate change in terms of its anthropogenicity, context and importance, perception as a personal threat, belief in the efficacy of human action, motivating drivers for action, knowledge of climate change impacts, perceived personal barriers to climate action, and short- and long-term preferences for mitigating actions were evaluated. In addition, this study assessed the role of personal worldview on motivation for climate action. Methods: Through an online survey instrument embedded with a communication/education intervention, data were collected from N = 273 participants. Pre and post-intervention responses were assessed using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and descriptive statistics. A path analysis assessed the influence of anthropogenicity, personal impact, and human efficacy beliefs on participant motivation for action. Multi-regression analyses and descriptive statics were used to evaluate the role of worldview on participant motivation for climate action. Results: Personal motivation for action significantly increased post-intervention. Anthropogenicity, personal impact, and human efficacy beliefs were predictive of personal motivation. Those who prioritized climate change as a safety issue and those driven by a desire to protect current and future generations had higher levels of personal motivation, post-intervention. Knowledge of climate change increased, psychosocial factors as barriers to climate action decreased, and preferences for personal mitigating actions shifted towards more impactful choices post-intervention. Holding Egalitarian worldviews significantly predicted climate action motivation. Conclusion: Presenting climate change and climate action strategies via a traditional health and safety risk management context was effective in increasing personal motivation for climate action. This study contributes to the literature on climate change communication and climate action motivation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change, Public Health & Human Rights)
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13 pages, 388 KiB  
Article
Protecting Human Health from Climate Change: Legal Obligations and Avenues of Redress under International Law
by Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh and Curtis Doebbler
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(9), 5386; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095386 - 28 Apr 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2241
Abstract
In this contribution, we explore how human health can be protected from climate change and its adverse effects by reliance on States’ obligations under international law. We achieved this by reviewing the principal legal instruments that establish the right to health, as well [...] Read more.
In this contribution, we explore how human health can be protected from climate change and its adverse effects by reliance on States’ obligations under international law. We achieved this by reviewing the principal legal instruments that establish the right to health, as well as those that recognize that climate change has an adverse impact on health (Part II). We then examine the means of redress that may be available to those whose human right to health has been interfered with or violated because of climate change (Part III). Finally, we draw some conclusions as to the current effectiveness and future direction of these developments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change, Public Health & Human Rights)

Other

Jump to: Editorial, Research

12 pages, 373 KiB  
Commentary
Integrating Youth Perspectives: Adopting a Human Rights and Public Health Approach to Climate Action
by Giulia Gasparri, Yassen Tcholakov, Sophie Gepp, Asia Guerreschi, Damilola Ayowole, Élitz-Doris Okwudili, Euphemia Uwandu, Rodrigo Sanchez Iturregui, Saad Amer, Simon Beaudoin and Mayumi Sato
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(8), 4840; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19084840 - 15 Apr 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4866
Abstract
Climate change is a multidimensional issue that affects all aspects of society, including public health and human rights. Climate change is already severely impacting people’s health and threatening people’s guaranteed fundamental rights, including those to life, health, self-determination, and education, among others. Across [...] Read more.
Climate change is a multidimensional issue that affects all aspects of society, including public health and human rights. Climate change is already severely impacting people’s health and threatening people’s guaranteed fundamental rights, including those to life, health, self-determination, and education, among others. Across geographical regions, population groups and communities who are already marginalized due to age, gender, ethnicity, income, and other socioeconomic factors, are those who are disproportionately affected by climate impacts despite having contributed the least to global emissions. Although scholars have been calling for a human rights-based approach and a health perspective to climate action, the literature looking at this multidisciplinary intersection is still nascent, and governments have yet to implement such intersectoral policies. This commentary begins to reflect on the relationship between climate change, human rights, and public health from the perspective of young people engaged in climate action and discourse at the national and international levels. It presents a way forward on what we, as youth climate advocates and researchers, believe is a priority to bring intersectoral integration of human rights and public health approaches to climate change to fruition. First, scholars and practitioners should examine and support youth-led climate interventions that tackle human rights and public health violations incurred by the climate crisis. Second, participatory approaches to climate change must be designed by working synergistically with climate-vulnerable groups, including children and young people, practitioners and scholars in public health and human rights sectors to holistically address the social, health, and environmental impacts of the climate crisis and root causes of injustice. Finally, we recommend more holistic data collection to better inform evidence-based climate policies that operationalize human rights and public health co-benefits. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change, Public Health & Human Rights)
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