Climate Justice and the Right to Development: Friends or Foe?
Presented by Sureya Deva, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development and Director, Centre for Environment Law, Macquarie University
In this webinar, Professor Deva presented how the right to development is often seen in conflict with the need to take urgent and decisive climate actions. Prof Surya Deva rebutted this view and argued that a holistic approach to the right to development provides a sound basis to develop a transformative climate justice framework rooted in principles such as fair distribution, intergenerational equity, intersectionality, common but differentiated responsibilities and self-determination. Drawing on his climate justice framework, Deva made a case for the world community to embrace a new model of “planet-centred participatory development”. Such a model will not only assist in overcoming the current climate crisis but also support the implementation of the Pact for the Future.
Professor Surya Deva is the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development. He is also a Professor at the Macquarie Law School and Director of the Centre for Environmental Law at Macquarie University. Professor Deva is an internationally recognised scholar in the field of business and human rights and a former member of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights (2016-22).
