QUNO recently provided three distinct submissions responding to a call for input by UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change and Professor of Global Environmental Law, Elisa Morgera, on the topic of the fossil fuel based economy and human rights. QUNO’s Sustainable and Just Economic Systems (SJES) and Human Impacts of Climate Change (HICC) programmes  both provided submissions while additionally supporting 23 other organizations in a joint submission addressing loss and damage and human rights. QUNO staff also spoke and contributed during an in-person group consultation with the Special Rapporteur. PDF versions of each submission are available below.

HICC’s submission addressed the questions laid out by the Special Rapporteur and focused on highlighting the connection between the extraction, production, and consumption of fossil fuels and threats to various human rights. The human rights referenced included the right to food, health, clean water, and sanitation by way of both localized and global effects. Additionally, it illustrated the ways in which the right to life is threatened by the role fossil fuels have historically played in exacerbating conflict. 

SJES’s submission examined the human rights implications of fossil fuel subsidies, focusing on how their phase-out affects economic and social equity. It explored the role of subsidy reform in enabling a just transition while underscoring the need for transparency, accountability, and policy coherence across different multilateral policy frameworks. Drawing from past experiences, the submission outlined regulatory approaches to ensure that subsidy reforms are structured to mitigate unintended harms and uphold human rights in the transition away from fossil fuels.

QUNO’s SJES programme was also invited to give an expert panel presentation to the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee’s 33rd session as part of its mandate under Human Rights Council decision 56/117 to prepare a comprehensive study on the implications of plastic pollution for the full enjoyment of human rights. Senior Technical Advisor Ronald Steenblik addressed members of the Advisory Committee, alongside interested government representatives and stakeholders, on the economic drivers of plastic pollution — with a particular focus on subsidies and financial incentives that perpetuate unsustainable production and trade.

Lastly, through a collaborative joint process, a group consisting of 24 organizations including QUNO wrote a distinct and separate submission that demonstrated the loss and damage from climate and human rights harms resulting from our economic dependence on fossil fuels. QUNO contributed findings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that base these claims in the best available science, giving the submission a strong grounding in data and internationally peer reviewed research. 

All three submissions are available to read and download below. They will inform the Special Rapporteur’s upcoming report on fossil fuels-based economy and climate change, set to be released at the 59th Session of the Human Rights Council in June 2025.