Can Davos talk help move climate finance in the right direction?

The dark clouds gathering over Davos at the end of the World Economic Forum are not just of the snow-bearing variety (although it is due to be a very chilly minus 17C tonight). The heaviness comes from a growing sense of an unravelling international...

Respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities can advance the energy transition

In Norway this past spring, headlines showed protesters demanding the removal of wind turbines at the state’s Fosen wind park. The renewable energy project caused disruption to the reindeer grazing grounds of the Indigenous Sámi population and was...

It’s time to mainstream the Just Transition

If there is a reason for why our next energy transition needs to be ‘just’, think no further than the 1980s in the UK. The country’s transition out of the coal industry divided communities and left regions and their people stranded and...

One Year On – 5 Takeaways from South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP)

Whilst South Africa is one of Africa’s largest economies, it is also the most unequal country in the world, with extreme levels of unemployment and poverty. It is highly vulnerable to climate shocks, but also one of the world’s largest coal...

Just Transitions: Exploring the Need for International Rules Based on Local Realities

This week, IHRB is collaborating with the UK’s Wilton Park to hold a global dialogue on just transitions. At the centre of our discussions is the growing need for clearer rules of the road to guide how net-zero transitions around the world are...

A Just Transition for Communities: Can Wind and Solar Projects Turn Human Rights Lessons into Leadership?

Land acquisition without consent or compensation. Loss of cultural identity and traditions. Threats and violence against human rights defenders. These are just some of the human rights impacts Indigenous Peoples and other local communities face,...

Calling for People-Centred Net-Zero Scrutiny

This Earth Day is marked by the IPCC’s latest major reports, both on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability and on Mitigation. We have less than three years to halt the rise of global emissions and less than a decade to cut them in half. The oil and...

Telenor’s Exit from Myanmar - A Cautionary Tale for the Just Transition

On the day of publication, SOMO's joint complaint regarding Telenor's exit from Myanmar was officially accepted by the Norwegian National Contact Point. This article is part of a series focused on "responsible exits" and how the human rights...

COVID, Housing, and Climate - A Call for a Systems Shift

 The seemingly simple words “stay at home” have exposed the economic and racial inequality that divides most cities, countries, and regions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has elevated the centrality of the right to housing – fundamental to our ability to...

Linking Climate and Human Rights Throughout the Built Environment Lifecycle

Decisions about what we build, and how, define our future. And we are on a trajectory for explosive growth. Global building stocks are projected to double by 2060. By then, 70% of the world’s population will be city-based.

This comes at a time when...

Standing Rock Sioux - A Model for Protection of Planet and its People

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe met with representatives of Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) on October 30, 2014 and learned of their plans to build the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), a 1,172 pipeline from North Dakota to Illinois that would carry...

Dakota Access Pipeline and the High Cost of Violating Indigenous Rights

Growing concern in the United States over the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) – a 1,172-mile, 30-inch diameter pipeline that will connect the Bakken and Three Forks production areas in North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois – has resulted in a...