Climate change has upended human lives and endangered their livelihoods. At the same time, the consequences of climate change in the form of rising sea levels, drought, melting of ice, rising sea and air temperatures, floods, fires, earthquakes, and the like interfere with the everyday lives of ordinary people. Climate change has negatively affected provisions of fundamental socio-economic rights and thereby negatively affected socio-economic livelihoods and has been responsible for loss and damage. In turn, the erosion of socioeconomic livelihoods has also negatively affected the enjoyment of civil and political rights. Businesses, also some preeminent carbon-significant corporations, have struggled to introduce due diligence in their operations and to employ climate mitigation and adaptation measures. Nonetheless, the rights-holders have struggled to enforce corporate human rights accountability for climate change. Climate change has consequently become a prominent public and political issue that has received considerable attention in the political science and public policy literature. Nevertheless, scholars have only recently begun to publish legal articles on corporate accountability, climate change, and human rights. Therefore, only a few articles were published in the broad field of business, human rights, and climate change. The legal debate on this issue, especially within Slovenian law, EU law, and international human rights, remains limited and scattered, but certainly in the early phase of the study.
The research project, for the first time in a very original way, theoretically analyses the responsibility of companies for human rights to climate change and will develop theoretical and normative foundations for a coherent and fair Slovenian and international legal order. It aims to identify the philosophical, legal, and normative underpinnings of corporate accountability for the negative impacts of climate change on human rights in Slovenian, European, and international legal orders. It aims to provide normative solutions to adapt and mitigate negative human rights effects of businesses due to climate change. The current structures in domestic and global systems are inadequate to deal with climate change’s negative effect on human rights, particularly concerning business actors. Firstly, it establishes robust theoretical foundations for analysing corporate accountability for climate change’s negative impacts on human rights. Second, it will examine whether the existing frameworks in the Slovenian, European, and international legal systems are adequate and appropriate for establishing corporate obligations concerning the prevention, promotion, respect, and protection of human rights in times of climate emergency. Thirdly, it will critically evaluate whether the current structures are fit to deal with the surge of cases in domestic and international legal orders due to the negative consequences of climate change on human rights. Fourthly, it drafts reform proposals based on measuring compliance with environment and human rights in global supply chains for Slovenian-based and other corporations to develop the reform of Slovenian, and international normative frameworks to strengthen corporate accountability. All in all, the project explores the normative basis and standards for business obligations, responsibilities, and accountability for climate change impact. The project is divided into four main substantive phases, which are based on and arise from four main research questions.