Delivering on the Paris Promises: Combating Climate Change while Protecting Rights

The negotiations of the Paris Rule Book are critical to ensuring that the promises made in the Paris Agreement will be met – including the commitment of governments to respect, protect, and take into consideration existing human rights obligations.

To enhance the likelihood that the Paris Agreement is effectively implemented, when developing the Paris Rule Book, parties should fully integrate human rights and the social and environmental principles reaffirmed in the preamble, which includes the rights of Indigenous Peoples, public participation, gender equality, safeguarding food security and ending hunger, a just transition and ecosystem integrity.

This Briefing Paper explores the key human rights and environmental and social principles set forth in the preamble of the Paris Agreement, including the linkages to existing international obligations, and how these principles can be integrated into four key elements of the Paris Rule Book: Nationally Determined Contributions, Adaptation Communications, the Transparency Framework and the Global Stocktake (without precluding the relevance of other aspects of the work of the APA or work under other bodies in the UNFCCC).