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Robinson draws link between climate change and human rights abuse

Climate change is having an intensifying impact on human rights in developing countries,former President of the Republic of Ireland Mary Robinson said in a lecture on Tuesday.

Noting the rapid deterioration of natural environments in Africa and numerous multinational conferences on combating climate change in the past two decades, Robinson said the audience, especially University students, should take immediate and personal responsibility for protecting the environment.

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Robinson served as the first female President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997 and is currently the Chair of the International Institute for Environment and Development.

Robinson said the year 2015 was critical to mitigating climate change because the United Nations will replace the current “millennium development goals” with a new set of “sustainable development goals,” which will be a blueprint that will guide every country.

“There are extraordinary years of human history, and 2014 and 2015 are two years with the same magnitude in changing our lives as 1914 and 1945,” she said. “Currently the world is not on course to safety but two degrees Celsius strayed. We need to change course. There’s no plan B for the world.”

Robinson explained that, with the current trajectory of climate change, economically developing countries will continue to shoulder heavier burdens. For example, she said that although Africa only contributes to 3 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, its natural environment suffered the most severe damage. She said that this captures the pinnacle of climate injustice — the countries least responsible for climate change are also the ones enduring the worst of the consequences.

“When I worked with my NGO in Liberia and Ethiopia, I always hear the natives saying ‘things are so much worse,’ ” Robinson said. “They were not referring to conflict, but changes in climate. The farmers once could predict the rainy season in weeks, but now they can’t do that and they don’t know when to plant, when to sow.”

These capricious droughts and floods are at the heart of food shortages, infrastructure deficiency and widespread homelessness, she said. However, developed countries that are vocal about human rights abuses such as the abolition of torture often overlook the growing human rights abuses caused by climate change.

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“The link between human rights and climate change is gaining recognition,” Robinson said. “To achieve climate justice, we must first acknowledge human engendered climate injustice. Second, we must mitigate the climate by helping the poorer countries. We need to endow a voice for the marginalized and vulnerable people.”

Robinson noted many recent efforts to mitigate climate change and protect human rights, explaining that an international climate conference in Ireland a few years ago brought together more than grassroots organizations from across the world.

In addition, she said that the Cancun Agreements set a target for greenhouse gas reduction and called for all governments to respect human rights in environmental policies.

In the latest Climate Summit that took place in New York, N.Y., she said that the European Union took climate leadership by setting 40 percent cut in emission rate target by 2030. Several shoreline countries also set zero-emission targets by 2030 and all participating nations agreed to draft a plan for greenhouse gas reduction by May of next year.

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“There were many commitments made during the summit,” she said. “Efforts are made to build the four pillars of mitigating climate change, which are finance, technology, leadership and legality.”

Robinson concluded her lecture by recounting the forced migration of 1,500 indigenous islanders to the proximate Papua New Guinea due to rising sea levels. During the ordeal, the tribe’s leader said to Robinson with sorrow, “We are moving from the land of the bones of our ancestors,” she said.

“In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called upon to reach a higher consciousness, a higher moral ground,” Robinson said. “That moment has come.”

The lecture took place in Dodds Auditorium at 4:30 p.m. on Monday and was sponsored by the Wilson School.