Climate-Human Rights Integration in Transnational Business Regulation: State and Non-state Approaches

The idea that corporations are responsible for conducting climate-related human rights due diligence is gaining traction in different governance spheres. National courts have increasingly reached decisions that fossil fuel companies are responsible for reducing emissions as part of their duty of care. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change is meant to present a report at the Human Rights Council in 2024 on corporate accountability for climate-related human rights impacts. Yet, legislation on environmental and human rights due diligence is found in only a few states, and these laws generally do not take an explicitly holistic approach. Scholars find that both climate and human rights due diligence are less effective when siloed. As the body of jurisprudence and calls for international standards on climate due diligence both increase, it remains unclear what government and business preferences are and how they affect the prospects for global policy convergence. This paper identifies and develops a typology of four approaches to climate-related human rights due diligence: corporate responsibility for respecting the right to a healthy environment; corporate responsibility for mitigation and adaptation; corporate responsibility to respect human rights in climate-aligned projects; and corporate responsibility for reparation of loss and damage. The author codes governments’ National Action Plans on business and human rights to identify and categorize extant approaches to integrating climate and human rights in business regulation. It also codes corporate social responsibility reports from the world’s largest carbon emitters to take stock of existing business practices on climate-human rights integration in corporate self-governance.