Given that climate change and environmental damage are having an ever-greater impact on people’s health, safety and livelihoods, the United Nations recognised the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable living environment as a human right in 2022. 

Flooding or heatwaves caused by climate change can affect people’s ability to exercise their right to health, and even their right to life if people die as a result. Climate change renders certain places uninhabitable, forcing people to move to another location, or even to another country. This affects the right to private and family life. Similarly, when people live near a factory emitting toxic fumes, suffer noise pollution from a nearby airport, or experience earthquake damage caused by gas drilling, the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable living environment is compromised. This also applies to exposure to chemicals, such as PFAS, which hardly break down and can enter the body via water, soil or food.