The human rights of the world’s most vulnerable will be severely threatened unless urgent action is taken to improve access to justice and legal frameworks for people affected by climate change, concludes a new report by the International Bar Association (IBA) Task Force on Climate Change Justice and Human Rights.

The ground-breaking 240-page report Achieving Justice and Human Rights in an Era of Climate Disruption finds that, while climate change affects everyone, it disproportionately strikes those who have contributed to it the least and lack the resources to respond. The Report assesses the severe challenges currently facing national and international legal regimes which are poorly suited to provide legal remedies to those most affected, and outlines concrete recommendations for reform to create climate change justice structures that actively help protect and preserve environmental and human rights.