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New UN resolution urges states to ensure people’s access to “healthy and sustainable environment”
The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution Thursday morning calling on states to step up efforts to ensure their people have access to a “clean, healthy and sustainable environment.”
The United Nations General Assembly declared today that everyone on the planet has a right to a healthy environment, a move backers say is an important step in countering the alarming decline of the natural world.
In the resolution, the General Assembly said climate change and environmental degradation were some of the most pressing threats to humanity’s future.
The resolution is not legally binding on the 193 UN Member States. But advocates are hopeful it will have a trickle-down effect, prompting countries to enshrine the right to a healthy environment in national constitutions and regional treaties, and encouraging states to implement those laws. Supporters say that would give environmental campaigners more ammunition to challenge ecologically destructive policies and projects.
“This resolution sends a message that nobody can take nature, clean air and water, or a stable climate away from us – at least, not without a fight,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Program (UNEP).
The resolution comes as the planet grapples with what Andersen called a triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste. Left unchecked, the new resolution said those problems could have disastrous consequences for people around the world, especially the poor, and women and girls.
The General Assembly resolution follows a flurry of similar legal reforms at the international and national levels. In April, the UN Human Rights Council declared access to a “clean, healthy and sustainable environment” a human right.
Earlier this year, countries in Latin America and the Caribbean pledged more protections for so-called environmental defenders, including indigenous peoples campaigning against logging, mining and oil exploration in protected areas. In 2021, 227 environmental defenders were reportedly killed. And last year, New York state passed a constitutional amendment guaranteeing citizens a right to a “healthful environment.”
Those changes come as environmental campaigners increasingly use the law to force countries to address pressing environmental problems like climate change.
In the days before the General Assembly resolution was passed, Andersen pointed to a similar decree from 2010 that recognized the right to sanitation and clean water. That, she said, spurred countries across the globe to add drinking water protections to their constitutions.
She said the latest resolution has the same historic potential.
“The resolution will trigger environmental action and provide necessary safeguards to people all over the world,” said Andersen. “It will help people stand up for their right to breathe clean air, to access safe and sufficient water, healthy food, healthy ecosystems, and non-toxic environments to live, work, study, and play.”
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