We Need a Healthy Planet !
1972: Stockholm Declaration: The UN Conference on the Human Environment recognized that "Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being".
This marked the beginning of formal international discussion on environmental issues and human rights.
July 2022: The UN General Assembly officially recognized the "right to a healthy envirenment" as a universal human right to live in a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment - meaning clean air, safe water and climate, healthy food, non-toxic environments, and healthy ecosystems.
This marked the beginning of formal international discussion on environmental issues and human rights.
July 2022: The UN General Assembly officially recognized the "right to a healthy envirenment" as a universal human right to live in a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment - meaning clean air, safe water and climate, healthy food, non-toxic environments, and healthy ecosystems.
30 September 2025 - 'Development cannot be achieved on dying planet', UN committee issues new guidance
Source: https://www.amnesty.org/
30 September 2025: The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) issued new guidance on how States can ensure development while safeguarding the planet for future generations, in General Comment No. 27:
"A clean, healthy and sustainable environment is an essential precondition for the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights'. It warned that escalating environmental crises are already eroding these rights and pushing the planet toward “irreversible biophysical tipping points that threaten fundamental ecological systems and process that sustain life.”
“These planetary environmental threats are driven by unsustainable levels of production and consumption, particularly by developed States that have historically contributed most to environmental degradation and climate change, and shaped by enduring relations of domination over both nature and people, deeply rooted in colonial-era resource extraction,” the Committee added.
It highlighted the injustice of the current situation, noting that Indigenous Peoples, peasants and other individuals, groups, and countries, including victims of colonialism, the slave trade and apartheid, have historically contributed least to the environmental crises, but are the most impacted.
The Committee also underscored the interlinkages between the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. “Environmental degradation exacerbates one of the greatest global challenges, eradicating poverty and ending hunger and malnutrition, and fuels migration and refugee crisis,” the Committee said, adding that, “These interconnected challenges call for enhanced guidance on implementing economic, social and cultural rights, placing the human dignity of present and future generations, along with environmental justice, at the centre.”
It called upon developed States to take the lead in mitigation efforts and provide financial and technological assistance to developing States to enable their effective climate action.
The Committee further underlined international obligations, stressing that States parties have an extraterritorial obligation to prevent business enterprises under their jurisdiction from causing environmental harm that affects human rights in other countries.
“Nature is indispensable to human existence and well-being,” the Committee said, stressing that, “At the current rate of resource exploitation, pollution and environmental destruction, without regard for the earth’s environmental limits, it is impossible to achieve the equal realization of Covenant rights for all.”
Source: OHCHR
"A clean, healthy and sustainable environment is an essential precondition for the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights'. It warned that escalating environmental crises are already eroding these rights and pushing the planet toward “irreversible biophysical tipping points that threaten fundamental ecological systems and process that sustain life.”
“These planetary environmental threats are driven by unsustainable levels of production and consumption, particularly by developed States that have historically contributed most to environmental degradation and climate change, and shaped by enduring relations of domination over both nature and people, deeply rooted in colonial-era resource extraction,” the Committee added.
It highlighted the injustice of the current situation, noting that Indigenous Peoples, peasants and other individuals, groups, and countries, including victims of colonialism, the slave trade and apartheid, have historically contributed least to the environmental crises, but are the most impacted.
The Committee also underscored the interlinkages between the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. “Environmental degradation exacerbates one of the greatest global challenges, eradicating poverty and ending hunger and malnutrition, and fuels migration and refugee crisis,” the Committee said, adding that, “These interconnected challenges call for enhanced guidance on implementing economic, social and cultural rights, placing the human dignity of present and future generations, along with environmental justice, at the centre.”
It called upon developed States to take the lead in mitigation efforts and provide financial and technological assistance to developing States to enable their effective climate action.
The Committee further underlined international obligations, stressing that States parties have an extraterritorial obligation to prevent business enterprises under their jurisdiction from causing environmental harm that affects human rights in other countries.
“Nature is indispensable to human existence and well-being,” the Committee said, stressing that, “At the current rate of resource exploitation, pollution and environmental destruction, without regard for the earth’s environmental limits, it is impossible to achieve the equal realization of Covenant rights for all.”
Source: OHCHR
What is the human right to a healthy environment
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In 2023, the UN Human Rights Council adopted Resolution 52/23 on "The human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment" and Resolution 53/6 on "Climate change and human rights", which outlined numerous State obligations regarding environmental issues. Key obligations include:
- Policy and Legal Frameworks: States should adopt national and local policies and legal frameworks to ensure the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, including for biodiversity and ecosystems.
- Capacity Building: States are urged to build capacity to protect the environment in line with their human rights obligations.
- Access to Information, Participation, and Justice: States must ensure effective public access to environmental information, participation in decision-making, and access to justice and remedies for environment-related human rights violations.
- Implementation of Agreements: The full implementation of relevant multilateral environmental agreements is necessary.
- Protection of Vulnerable Populations: Climate and environmental policies must protect those most affected by environmental crises, such as children, Indigenous Peoples, older persons, persons with disabilities, and migrants.
- International Cooperation: States are encouraged to cooperate and share good practices on implementing the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.
- Addressing Loss and Damage: Resolution 53/6 recognized the importance of averting, minimizing, and addressing loss and damage from climate change, and requested an analytical study on the topic
The facts on climate and energy -Myth Busters - hereThe choices we make every day determine the changes in the climate we will experience in the future.
ACT RESPONSIBLE! |
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We all can do something:
3. Consider a green way of transportation:
7. Clean up your environment
8. Speak up! :)
- Save energy at home:
- use less energy,
- improving the home’s energy efficiency: better insulation, replacing your oil or gas furnace
3. Consider a green way of transportation:
- Walk, bike or take public transport
- Switch to an electric vehicle
- Fewer flights, take a train
- more online meetings
- Electronics, clothes, plastics and other items we buy cause carbon emissions at each point in production, from the extraction of raw materials to manufacturing and transporting goods to market. Buy fewer things, whenever possible, and repair what you can.
- Throw away less food
7. Clean up your environment
8. Speak up! :)
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Actions:
United Nations: ACT NOW ! 
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EU Action:
2050 - A Healthy Planet for All. Zero pollution
EU Action Plan: "Towards a Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil"
EU Targets by 2030:
EU Targets by 2030:
- improving air quality to reduce the number of premature deaths caused by air pollution by 55%;
- improving water quality by reducing waste, plastic litter at sea (by 50%) and microplastics released into the environment (by 30%);
- improving soil quality by reducing nutrient losses and chemical pesticides’ use by 50%;
- reducing by 25% the EU ecosystems where air pollution threatens biodiversity;
- reducing the share of people chronically disturbed by transport noise by 30%, and significantly reducing waste generation and by 50% residual municipal waste.
