A relational analysis of enterprise obligations and carbon majors for climate justice

Sara L. Seck

doi:10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1139

Egileak

Sara L. Seck Schulich School of Law, Marine & Environmental Law Institute, Dalhousie University

##plugins.pubIds.doi.readerDisplayName##:

https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1139

Gako-hitzak:

Climate justice, relational theory, business and human rights, carbon majors, international human rights law

Laburpena

A coherent theory of climate justice must answer the question of “who owes what to whom, and why?” This paper considers the human rights responsibilities of business enterprises for climate injustice. I first introduce a relational approach to legal analysis, drawing upon the work of diverse theorists who confront the dominant yet unacknowledged prevalence of the bounded autonomous individual of liberal thought in diverse areas of law and policy, and offer a method for reinterpretation and transformation of law in the Anthropocene. I then examine the 2018 Principles on Climate Obligations of Enterprises, drafted by a sub-group of the legal experts responsible for the 2015 Oslo Principles. Ultimately, I argue that a coherent theory of justice in the Anthropocene is dependent upon relational insights which enable us to tell old stories in new ways, and so reveal the interconnectedness and interdependence of all beings, while accounting for power and difference.

##plugins.generic.usageStats.downloads##

##plugins.generic.usageStats.noStats##

Metrics

Views 996
Downloads:
PDF (English) 566

Erreferentziak

Adelman, S., 2016. Climate justice, loss and damage and compensation for small island developing states. Journal of Human Rights and the Environment [online], 7(1), 32-53. Available from: https://doi.org/10.4337/jhre.2016.01.02 [Accessed 29 June 2020].

Alliance for Corporate Transparency, 2020. 2019 Research Report: An analysis of the sustainability reports of 1000 companies pursuant to the EU Non-Financial Reporting Directive [online]. 18 February. Available from: https://www.responsible-investor.com/reports/alliance-for-corporate-transparency-or-an-analysis-of-the-sustainability-reports-of-1000-companies-pursuant-to-the-eu-non-financial-reporting-directive [Accessed 1 June 2020].

Altamirano-Jiménez, I., 2017. The State Is Not a Saviour: Indigenous Law, Gender and the Neoliberal State in Oaxaca. In: J. Green, ed., Making Space for Indigenous Feminism. 2nd ed. Halifax: Fernwood, 215.

Amnesty International, 2014. Injustice Incorporated: Corporate Abuses and the Human Rights to Remedy [online]. London: Amnesty International. Available from: https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/8000/pol300012014en.pdf [Accessed 13 December 2019].

Ang, Y.S., 2018. Exploring Spatial Justice and the Ethic of Care in Corporations and Group Governance. In: B. Sjåjfell and I. Lynch Fannon, eds., Creating Corporate Sustainability. Cambridge University Press, 215-236.

Atapattu, S., 2016. Human Rights Approaches to Climate Change: Challenges and Opportunities. Abingdon/Oxon/New York: Routledge.

BC First Nations Energy and Mining Council, 2010. Sharing the Wealth: First Nation Resource Participation Models [online]. North Vancouver: First Nations Energy and Mining Council. Available from: http://fnemc.ca/?portfolio=sharing-the-wealth [Accessed 13 December 2019].

Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), 2019. CDP Supply Chain: Changing the Chain, Making Environmental Action in Procurement the New Normal [online]. Report. Available from: https://www.cdp.net/en/reports/downloads/4811 [Accessed 13 December 2019].

Castree, N., 2014. The Anthropocene and the Environmental Humanities: Extending the Conversation. Environmental Humanities [online], 5, 233-260. Available from: http://environmentalhumanities.org/arch/vol5/5.13.pdf [Accessed 29 June 2020].

Climate change and poverty: Report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights (A/HRC/41/39) [online]. United Nations Human Rights Council, 41st session, 25 June 2019. Available from: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session41/Documents/A_HRC_41_39.docx [Accessed 13 December 2019].

Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR), 2018. Climate change and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights [online]. Geneva: United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Available from: https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23691&LangID=E [Accessed 13 December 2019].

Craik, N., et al., eds., 2018. Global Environmental Change and Innovation in International Law. Cambridge University Press.

Doelle, M., and Seck, S.L., 2019. Loss and Damage from Climate Change: From Concept. to Remedy. Climate Policy [online], 7 August, forthcoming special issue: Loss & Damage. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2019.1630353 [Accessed 13 December 2019].

Expert Group on Climate Obligations of Enterprises, 2018. Principles on Climate Obligations of Enterprises. The Hague: Eleven International.

Expert Group on Global Climate Obligations, 2015. Oslo Principles on Global Climate Change Obligations [online]. New Haven: Yale University Global Justice Program. Available from: https://globaljustice.yale.edu/oslo-principles-global-climate-change-obligations [Accessed 13 December 2019].

Fineman, M.A., and Grear, A., 2013. Introduction: Vulnerability as Heuristic – An Invitation to Further Exploration. In: M.A. Fineman and A. Grear, eds., Vulnerability: Reflections on a New Ethical Foundation for Law and Politics. Farnham: Ashgate.

Galvao Ferreira, P., 2018. Differentiation in International Environmental Law. In: N. Craik et al., eds., Global Environmental Change and Innovation in International Law. Cambridge University Press.

Ganguly, G., Setzer, J., and Heyvaert, V., 2018. If at First You Don’t Succeed: Suing Corporations for Climate Change. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies [online], 38(4), 841-868. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1093/ojls/gqy029 [Accessed 29 June 2020].

Gonzalez, C.G., 2017. Global Justice in the Anthropocene. In: L. Kotzé, ed., Environmental Law and Governance for the Anthropocene. Oxford/Portland: Hart.

Grear, A., 2013. Vulnerability, Advance Global Capitalism and Co-symptomatic Injustice: Locating the Vulnerable Subject. In: M.A. Fineman and A. Grear, eds., Vulnerability: Reflections on a New Ethical Foundation for Law and Politics. Farnham: Ashgate.

Greenpeace Philippines, 2015. Petition to the commission on human rights of the Philippines requesting for investigation of the responsibility of the carbon majors for human rights violations resulting from the impacts of climate change [online]. The Philippines: Greenpeace Philippines. Available from: https://storage.googleapis.com/planet4-philippines-stateless/2019/05/5a38951a-5a38951a-cc-hr-petition_public-version.pdf?_ga=2.100780993.1185842205.1561918180-1478796561.1561918180 [Accessed 13 December 2019].

Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework (A/HRC/17/31) [online]. New York/Geneva: United Nations. 16 June 2011. Available from: https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/GuidingPrinciplesBusinessHR_EN.pdf [Accessed 13 December 2019].

Haraway, D.J., 2016. Staying with the Trouble: Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene. In: J.W. Moore, ed., Anthropocene or Capitalocene? Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism. Oakland: PM Press, pp. 34-76.

Harris, A., 2014. Vulnerability and Power in the Age of the Anthropocene. Washington and Lee Journal on Energy, Climate and Environment [online], 6(1), 98. Available from: https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/jece/vol6/iss1/5 [Accessed 29 June 2020].

Heede, R., 2014. Tracing anthropogenic carbon dioxide and methane emissions to fossil fuel and cement producers 1854-2010. Climatic Change [online], 122, 229–241. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-013-0986-y [Accessed 29 June 2020].

Heede, R., 2019. Carbon Majors: Updating activity data, adding entities, & calculating emissions: A Training Manual. September. Snowmass: Climate Accountability Institute, 1-56.

Iglesias Márquez, D., 2019a. La litigación climática en contra de los carbon majors en los Estados de origen: apuntes desde la perspectiva de empresas y derechos humanos. Revista electrónica de estudios internacionales [online], 37, 1-37. Available from: https://doi.org/10.17103/reei.37.05 [Accessed 29 June 2020].

Iglesias Márquez, D., 2019b. La responsabilidad de las empresas de respetar los derechos humanos en el contexto de la crisis climática. Revista de Direito Internacional [online], 16(3), 51-74. Available from: https://www.publicacoes.uniceub.br/rdi/article/viewFile/6152/pdf [Accessed 29 June 2020].

Informe sobre Empresas y Derechos Humanos: Estándares Interamericanos (OEA/Ser.L/V/II, CIDH/REDESCA/INF.1/19) [online]. Prepared by the Special Rapporteurship on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. 1 November 2019. Available from: http://www.oas.org/es/cidh/informes/pdfs/EmpresasDDHH.pdf [Accessed 29 June 2020].

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2018. Summary for Policymakers. In: V. Masson-Delmotte et al., eds., Global Warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty [online]. Available from: https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/chapter/spm/ [Accessed 29 June 2020].

Knop, K., 1993. Re/Statements: Feminism and State Sovereignty in International Law. Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems, 3(2), 293.

Kotzé, L., and Muzangaza, W., 2018. Constitutional international environmental law for the Anthropocene? Review of European, Comparative, and International Environmental Law [online], 27(3), 278-292. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12244 [Accessed 29 June 2020].

Lepori, M., 2015. There Is No Anthropocene: Climate Change, Species-Talk, and Political Economy. Telos, 172, 103-124.

Liao, C., 2017. A Critical Canadian Perspective on the Benefit Corporation. Seattle University Law Review [online], 40(2), 683-716. Available from: https://commons.allard.ubc.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1417&context=fac_pubs [Accessed 29 June 2020].

MacMaster, K., and Seck, S.L., 2020. Mining for Equality: Soft Targets and Hard Floors for Boards of Directors? In: O.E. Fitzgerald, ed., Corporate Citizen: New Perspectives on the Globalized Rule of Law. Waterloo: CIGI Press.

Makokis, J.A., 2008. Nehiyaw iskwew kiskinowâtasinahikewina: paminisowin namôya tipeyimisowin: Learning Self Determination through the Sacred. Canadian Women Studies [online], 26(3-4), 39. Available from: https://cws.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cws/article/view/22111 [Accessed 29 June 2020].

McGregor, D., 2013. Indigenous Women, Water Justice, and Zaagidowin (Love). Canadian Women Studies [online], 30(2), 71. Available from: https://cws.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cws/article/viewFile/37455/34003 [Accessed 29 June 2020].

McGregor, D., 2020. Indigenous Environmental Justice and Sustainability. In: S. Atapattu, C.G. Gonzalez and S.L. Seck, eds., The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Justice and Sustainable Development. Cambridge University Press.

Moore, J.W., 2017. The Capitalocene, Part I: On the nature and origins of our ecological crisis. The Journal of Peasant Studies [online], 44(3), 594-630. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2016.1235036 [Accessed 29 June 2020].

Mufson, S., 2017. ExxonMobil refineries are damaged in Hurricane Harvey, releasing hazardous pollutants. The Washington Post [online], 29 August. Available from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/08/29/exxonmobil-refineries-damaged-in-hurricane-harvey-releasing-hazardous-pollutants/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5a5c2defd221 [Accessed 13 December 2019].

Nagra, S., 2017. The Oslo Principles and Climate Change Displacement: Missed Opportunity or Misplaced Expectations? Carbon & Climate Law Review [online], 11(2), 120-135. Available from: https://doi.org/10.21552/cclr/2017/2/8 [Accessed 29 June 2020].

Nedelsky, J., 2011. Law’s Relations: A Relational Theory of Self-Autonomy, and Law. New York: Oxford University Press.

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2017. OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement in the Extractive Sector [online]. Paris: OECD Publishing. Available from: https://www.oecd.org/publications/oecd-due-diligence-guidance-for-meaningful-stakeholder-engagement-in-the-extractive-sector-9789264252462-en.htm [Accessed 13 December 2019].

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2018. OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct [online]. Paris: OECD Publishing. Available from: http://mneguidelines.oecd.org/OECD-Due-Diligence-Guidance-for-Responsible-Business-Conduct.pdf [Accessed 13 December 2019].

Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos, A., 2015. Spatial Justice; Body, Landscape, Atmosphere. London: Routledge.

Ruggie, J.G., 2016. Keynote Address. United Nations Forum on Business & Human Rights [online]. 14 November. Geneva: Palais des Nations. Available from: https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Business/ForumSession5/Statements/JohnRuggie.pdf [Accessed 13 December 2019].

Safe Climate: Report of the Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment (A/74/161) [online]. Geneva: United Nations General Assembly, 74th session, 15 July 2019. Available from: https://undocs.org/en/A/74/161 [Accessed 13 December 2019].

Scott, D.N., Haw, J., and Lee, R., 2017. Wannabe Toxic-Free? From Precautionary Consumption to Corporeal Citizenship. Environmental Politics [online], 26(2), 322. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2016.1232523 [Accessed 29 June 2020].

Seck, S.L., 1999. Environmental Harm in Developing Countries Caused by Subsidiaries of Canadian Mining Corporations: The Interface of Public and Private International Law. Canadian Yearbook of International Law [online], 37, 139-221. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0069005800007141 [Accessed 29 June 2020].

Seck, S.L., 2015. Business, Human Rights, and Canadian Mining Lawyers. Canadian Business Law Journal, 56, 208-237.

Seck, S.L., 2017a. Business Responsibilities for Human Rights and Climate Change – A Contribution to the Work of the Study Group on Business and Human Rights of the International Law Association [online]. Available from: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2974768 [Accessed 13 December 2019].

Seck, S.L., 2017b. Revisiting transnational corporations and extractive industries: Climate justice, feminism, and state sovereignty. Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems, 26(2), 383-413.

Seck, S.L., 2018a. Climate Change, Corporate Social Responsibility, and the Extractive Industries. Journal of Environmental Law and Practice, 31(1), 271.

Seck, S.L., 2018b. Transnational Labour Law and the Environment: Beyond the Bounded Autonomous Worker. Canadian Journal of Law and Society [online], 33(2), 137. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1017/cls.2018.15 [Accessed 29 June 2020].

Seck, S.L., 2019a. Moving Beyond the E-word in the Anthropocene. In: D.S. Margolies et al., eds. The Extraterritoriality of Law: History, Theory, Politics. London: Routledge.

Seck, S.L., 2019b. Relational Law and the Reimagining of Tools for Environmental and Climate Justice. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law [online], 31, 151-177. Available from: https://doi.org/10.3138/cjwl.31.1.07 [Accessed 29 June 2020].

Seck, S.L., and Slattery, M., 2015. Business, Human Rights, and the IBA Achieving Climate Justice Report. Journal of Energy and Natural Resources Law [online], 34(1), 1-11. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/02646811.2016.1120044 [Accessed 29 June 2020].

Smit, L., et al., 2020. Study on due diligence requirements through the supply chain: Final Report [online]. Commissioned by the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, Civic Consulting and the London School of Economics and Political Science for the European Commission. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, January. Available from: https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/8ba0a8fd-4c83-11ea-b8b7-01aa75ed71a1/language-en [Accessed 29 June 2020].

Spier, J., 2018a. Legal Obligations of Enterprises and Investors in the Face of Climate Change. Chinese Journal of Environmental Law [online], 2, 99-111. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1163/24686042-12340025 [Accessed 29 June 2020].

Spier, J., 2018b. The Principles on Climate Obligations of Enterprises: an attempt to give teeth to the universally adopted view that we must keep global warming below and increase of two degrees Celsius. Uniform Law Review [online], 23, 319-335. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1093/ulr/uny010 [Accessed 29 June 2020].

Stout, L., 2012. The Shareholder Value Myth: How Putting Shareholders First Harms Investors, Corporations, and the Public. Oakland: Berrett-Koehler.

Taylor, M., and Watts, J., 2019. Revealed: the 20 firms behind a third of all carbon emissions. The Guardian [online], 9 October. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/09/revealed-20-firms-third-carbon-emissions [Accessed 13 December 2019].

United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) (UNGA A/RES/61/295) [online]. Geneva: United Nations. Available from: https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf [Accessed 13 December 2019].

United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), 2014. OHCHR Accountability and Remedy Project: Improving accountability and access to remedy in cases of business involvement in human rights abuses [online]. United Nations. Available from: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Business/Pages/OHCHRaccountabilityandremedyproject.aspx [Accessed 13 December 2019].

United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), 2015a. Key Messages on Human Rights and Climate Change [online]. New York/Geneva: United Nations. Available from: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/ClimateChange/KeyMessages_on_HR_CC.pdf [Accessed 13 December 2019].

United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), 2015b. Understanding Human Rights and Climate Change [online]. New York/Geneva: United Nations. Available from: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/ClimateChange/COP21.pdf [Accessed 13 December 2019].

United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) 2020. Climate Change and the UNGPs [online]. Geneva: United Nations. Available from: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Business/Pages/Climate-Change-and-the-UNGPs.aspx [Accessed 1 June 2020].

Varvastian, S., and Kalunga, F., 2020. Transnational Corporate Liability for Environmental Damage and Climate Change: Reassessing Access to Justice after Vedanta v Lungowe. Transnational Environmental Law [online], 15 May. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1017/S2047102520000138 [Accessed 31 May 2020].

Voigt, C., 2008. State responsibility for climate change damages. Nordic Journal of International Law [online], 77, 1-22. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1163/090273508X290672 [Accessed 29 June 2020].

Wewerinke-Singh, M., 2018. State responsibility for human rights violations associated with climate change. In: S. Duyck, S. Jodoin, and A. Johl, eds., Routledge Handbook of Human Rights and Climate Governance. London/New York: Routledge.