We pose five questions to former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, who is among the featured speakers at the first Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit. Former U.N. high commissioner of human rights and author of the 2019 bestseller Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future, Robinson is credited with helping to reframe the narrative around climate change to emphasize its effects on vulnerable populations, including women, Indigenous peoples and the poor.

When and how did you begin to focus on climate change as a priority?

I came to the issue of climate change later in my life. In 2003, I was working on my organization Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative to advance economic, social and cultural rights, particularly in African countries. For quite some time, I have prioritized the right to food, safe water, health education and decent opportunities for work—alongside civil and political rights. As I traveled around African countries around this period, I kept encountering the issue of climate change. People would tell me how much worse things were due to droughts, floods, unpredictable weather and crop yields. I realized that advocating for the rights of the most vulnerable people would not have an effect without paying attention to our world’s changing climate. 

How do you define climate justice?

People suffering the most grave impacts of climate change often come from communities that are the least responsible for the pollution that is warming the Earth. They are often overlooked in climate change policy discussions. Hearing their stories has made me very aware of the fact that the fight against climate change is fundamentally about human rights and securing justice for those suffering from its impact. To me, climate justice is about putting people at the heart of solutions. 

What positive signs do you see when it comes to combating climate change?

Between 2015 and 2018, global emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels leveled off after rising for decades. But sadly, more recently, major emitters are not keeping their pledges, and the war in Ukraine is making this worse. However, the good news is at COP26, all governments and the private sector were aligned to the need to stay at or below 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming. What is needed is implementation.

What more is needed from the global community to address this threat?

A global effort is still needed to hold warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre- industrial levels in order to save millions of vulnerable people living along the world’s coastlines. While the Paris climate agreement remains an unprecedented success, it is also fragile. The movement to address climate change must be handled with even more urgency and determination. All of us—governments both powerfulful and small, prosperous and impoverished; cities; communities; individuals; and universities, too—are responsible. We must all take up this challenge. The threat to our planet is dire, but the opportunity to stop it—while also conquering poverty and inequality—is historic. 

How important are sustainable energy and land use practices in addressing climate change?

Economic growth built on sustainable energy and land use will safeguard the lives of the most vulnerable from the effects of climate change and offer the best chance of lifting more communities out of poverty. If we follow the example of people on the frontlines of climate change, we can find silver linings of resilience and hope in the belief that we can indeed effect change. 

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We pose five questions to another co-chair of the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit steering committee: Heidi VanGenderen.

Heidi VanGenderen is ��ɫ��Ƶ’s first chief sustainability officer and an expert in environmental sustainability. She has years of experience developing sustainable strategies at the local, state, national and international levels, including her term as senior energy advisor for the Worldwatch Institute. 

Why is the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit so important?

The ��ɫ��Ƶ is co-hosting a global climate summit with United Nations Human Rights that frames the climate crisis through the lens of the human rights crisis. Climate is arguably the greatest imperative in the history of our species on the planet. The necessity for us to address it is immense, and the opportunity to co-host a summit that will bring together thought leaders from the public sector, the private sector and civil society, as convened and contributed to by academia, is a remarkable opportunity for us. 

Why is it so important that we understand and respond to the human rights effects of climate change?

Human contribution to climate change is well documented, yet we have not paid as much attention to the direct impacts of our changing climate on human beings. Climate change is affecting the most vulnerable populations on the planet most severely, whether it's the very young, the very old, the sick and disabled, or people who live in island nations that will literally disappear as sea level rise occurs. So many aspects of the reality of climate change center on the most vulnerable populations. There is a whole legal construct through the United Nations and elsewhere on human rights that is built around the rights of people to clean water, to adequate food, to shelter, to the ability to live a productive life through work and education—all of which are imperiled by a changing climate. 

How are you dealing with the carbon footprint of putting on a summit like this? 

There is a bit of an irony in the climate world for global summits that also produce a significant carbon footprint. We have been very aware of that from the outset. 

For this summit, we hope to have as many of the thought leaders who are actually speakers and participants as panelists in the summit come to Boulder so that they can also be in community among one another. For those participants, travel will be offset. The cross-fertilization between the sectors is a key ingredient in coming forward with policy innovations, technology, deployment strategies, financing strategies, the solution side to how we're going to advance climate solutions at sufficient speed and scale.  

We will also encourage and partner with universities around the world who can bring together thought leaders and activists in local communities. They will be able, through the miracle of technology, to tap into the summit in Boulder and will also be able to conduct local conversations focused on actionable solutions in each of their communities. 

Why is ��ɫ��Ƶ the perfect university partner for this summit? 

��ɫ��Ƶ has some of the premier climate research underway of any university in the world. We are part of the University Climate Change Coalition , thanks to Chancellor Phil DiStefano, who joined these 23 North American top-tier research universities, all of whom are working to advance climate science and climate solutions.  So many of the institutes on our campus—Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI) and projects like ASPIRE (Advancing Sustainability through Powered Infrastructure for Roadway Electrification)—contribute to our capacities in this arena.

In the array of research on the solution side, there is such a variety of amazing work being done. For example, engineering Professor Wil Srubar and team have developed a bio brick or block that not not only doesn’t contribute to increased atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases but actually draws carbon from the atmosphere and holds that carbon in place. Exponential efficiency gains in solar cells, development of bio-based jet fuels, fuel cell advances with an aim toward a renewable hydrogen energy economy . . . the list goes on! The innovation and expertise demonstrated in CU’s applied research is just mind-boggling. And so hopeful. We can't put all of our eggs in the technology basket, but it's a big part of it. 

What will it really take for us as a species to tackle what often seems like an insurmountable issue: human-caused climate change?

I think about history all the time and recognize that it really might require a World War II-scale effort that mobilizes so many aspects of our society to pull this off. The policy, the research and development, the investments, the political will . . . all are key ingredients. What on earth can galvanize that? We live in an increasingly complex world made up of nearly 8 billion of us. We need to lay out a realistic landscape and create and implement one of the most innovative but sound business plans ever created. In the immediate term, however, we can each take steps in our own lives—in how we participate as consumers and citizens. As Dave Matthews sings in You Might Die Trying: “To change the world/Start with one step/And however small/The first step is hardest of all . . . .”

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In this month’s newsletter, we pose a few questions to Benjamin Schachter, U.N. Human Rights officer and environment team leader, and a key partner for the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit. 

What is the main role of United Nations Human Rights?

United Nations Human Rights has a unique mandate from the international community to promote and protect human rights for all, everywhere. Fighting climate change is at the very heart of our mandate. 

To what degree is climate change already impacting human rights globally?

Climate change already negatively affects the rights of millions of people around the world. Rights such as those to food, water, housing, health, decent work, development, and even life itself. Climate change is not just an environmental issue. It is a human rights crisis bearing down hardest on the poor and marginalized. That's why U.N. Human Rights is proud to be a global partner of the Right Here Right Now Global Climate Alliance, a human rights initiative committed to promoting  and advancing the rights of people around the world suffering from the devastating effects of climate change. 

What is unique about the approach the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance is taking to address climate change?

Through a people-centered approach to advocacy and awareness building, including events such as the annual Right Here Right Now Climate Summit, and the Right Here Right Now concert featuring awards for climate champions, the global climate alliance will explain why we must rely on human rights, science and facts to help people affected by climate change. We will highlight innovative people and organizations rising to meet this unprecedented challenge through human rights and evidence-based climate action, sharing stories of hope and progress to inspire the global community to action. 

Who are the target audiences for Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit?

We are committed to work with policymakers, persons affected by climate change, NGOs, foundations, businesses, academics, celebrities, scientists and all people to fight climate change and preserve our common future. The Global Climate Alliance can help bring us all together, right here right now, to protect the planet and humanity from climate change.

What do you hope comes out of the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit?

We need transformative change in our societies and economies to prevent further global heating and address its human rights impacts. The first Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit is an important opportunity to bring together diverse stakeholders and rights-holders to raise awareness of the human rights impacts of climate change and generate momentum and ideas for catalytic rights-based climate action. We hope the summit will be the first step on a longer journey to bring about concrete human rights-based commitments and actions in the context of the growing Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance, thereby leveraging partnerships for the benefit of people and the planet.

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Jim Anaya is Distinguished Professor and the Nicholas Doman Professor of International Law at the University of Colorado Law School and one of three co-chairs of the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit steering committee. 

The law school’s former dean, Anaya has lectured around the world, advised internationally on matters of human rights and Indigenous peoples, and represented Indigenous groups from many parts of North and Central America in landmark cases. He also participated in the drafting of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 

What is the purpose of the summit? 

The purpose is to raise awareness about the human rights problem—really a crisis—that climate change is, and to look for solutions. We're really concerned about climate change because of the impact it's going to have—and already is having—on the lives of human beings and the enjoyment of our basic human rights, such as the right to life, our health and the cultural practices many people engage in. We also want to talk about the responsibilities that governments and others have to address these human rights impacts under the international human rights norms that apply across the globe. 

What makes ��ɫ��Ƶ the perfect university to co-host this event?

Our university has deep expertise in climate and energy, environmental studies through a multidisciplinary perspective, and also in human rights. With this wealth of expertise and perspective throughout the university, we're particularly well-suited to host an event like this with United Nations Human Rights.

What can people expect if they attend and who's the target audience? 

Anybody interested in human rights. Anybody interested in the planet. Anybody interested in doing something about climate change. Anybody who fits one of those categories (which I think should really be all of us) should think about attending. The summit is going to be both in-person and online via webcasts. People should come expecting not just to listen, but to contribute to the ideas about solutions. There are many people across the globe—Indigenous peoples in the Arctic, for example, people in small island nations—who are feeling the effect of climate change in their everyday lives. We want people to hear from them.

How are you integrating perspectives from people experiencing these impacts?

There are groups in vulnerable situations, including Indigenous people, people with disabilities, and women and children, who are disproportionately feeling the impacts of climate change. We're making a very direct effort to include their voices by having people participate in leading roles in the summit. It's not just about hearing their stories. It's about learning. It's about a dialogue where we can all come together as a group of people concerned about climate change and talk about potential solutions.

Why are you personally excited about the global climate summit and why did you agree to serve on the steering committee? 

Throughout my career I've touched upon issues of human rights that have to do with the natural environment, and more and more with the effects of climate change on the natural environment. I was very privileged to have worked with Inuit people in the Arctic in the early 2000s in presenting a claim to an international human rights body alleging violations of their human rights because of the effects of climate change on their lives. Since my involvement in that litigation, it's been very much an interest of mine as something that I think is very important and that I hope to contribute to in some small way.

Editor’s note: Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity. 

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