Uniting for the Planet: Environmental Promises of the United Nations Pact for the Future

In Fall 2024, the Human Rights at Home Law Profs Blog is excited to feature a series of blog posts focusing on human rights and the environment written by students in the International Human Rights Clinic at UIC Law. This is the first post in that series.

By Skylar Nafziger, 3L at UIC Law

With the world failing to keep up with the rapid degradation of the environment, the adoption of the Pact for the Future provided a critical opportunity for world leaders to reimagine the course of action taken to restore the environment for the future of humankind, and for the future of the environment itself.  The Pact was adopted by UN Member States at the UN Summit of the Future that took place on September 22 and 23, 2024, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.

The United Nations describes the Pact for the Future as “[a]n inter-governmentally negotiated, action-oriented”  formal agreement between Member States. The Pact contains a compilation of chapters addressing sustainable development and financing for development; international peace and security; science, technology and innovation and digital cooperation; youth and future generations; and transforming global governance.

The Pact for the Future recognizes that there cannot be a better future for humankind on this planet without also creating a better future for the planet itself. With that, the environmental issues the Pact for the Future seeks to rectify are climate change, global warming, sea level rise, biodiversity loss, pollution, water scarcity, food insecurity, floods, desecration, land degradation, deforestation, plastic pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. The Pact for the Future makes it clear that many of these issues have already been addressed through past agreements between Member States, meaning that they must fulfill their existing responsibilities while also tackling new issues arising from the currently state of environmental emergency. Additionally, the adverse impacts of climate change on developing countries that are particularly vulnerable are at the forefront of the issues the Member States must address following the adoption of the Pact for the Future.

Each chapter of the Pact for the Future is comprised of Actions that Member States are expected to take to combat each issue. The chapter on Substantial Development and Financing for Development recognizes that current “environmental challenges pose serious risks to our natural environment and our prospects for development,” and provides two specific Actions that Member States must take to thwart such risks. Action 9 of the Pact for the Future indicates that Member States will “strengthen [their] actions to address climate change.” In doing so, the Pact for the Future reaffirmed the goals of the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change and the Paris Agreement to transition away from fossil fuels in a “just, orderly and equitable manner. Action 10 more broadly states that Member States “will accelerate [their] efforts to restore, protect, conserve and sustainably use the environment.” These efforts include reversing trends of environmental degradation, improving the use of the ocean and its ecosystems, promoting sustainable consumption and production, addressing pollution of the air, land, soil, and water, halting and reversing biodiversity loss, and “strengthen[ing] international cooperation on the environment by implementing and complying with multilateral environmental agreements.”

If member states succeed in following through with the agreed actions of the Pact for the Future, then we can anticipate seeing a net zero emission energy system by 2050, a global average annual rate of energy efficiency improvements by 2030, halted and reversed deforestation and forest degradation by 2030, implementation of the Early Warning for All hazard warning system by 2027, and completed negotiations of a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution by the end of 2024.

Although the Pact for the Future provides what States will be expected to accomplish following its adoption, it lacks substance as to how States will do so—further yielding the question: How can States be expected to take additional action to address new issues when they are already failing to comply with their obligations concerning the protection of the environment under preexisting agreements?

While the right to a healthy environment was only officially recognized more recently by the General Assembly in its July 28, 2022, Resolution 76/300, an extensive list of rights already widely recognized are violated because of the degrading environment. For example, under Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), “[e]very human being has the inherent right to life.” In General Comment No. 36, the Human Rights Committee further acknowledged that “[e]nvironmental degradation, climate change and unsustainable development constitute some of the most pressing and serious threats to the ability of present and future generations to enjoy the right to life.” Additionally, the Committee on the Rights of the Child specifically acknowledged in General Comment No. 26 that “[c]hildren have the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.”

That being said, the fact that world leaders were able to come together and adopt the Pact for the Future in the first place allows members of society to be optimistic that States’ environmental actions will progress. The Pact for the Future reaffirms Member States’ commitments and obliges them to take expeditious action to better the world for the generations to come. However, because the environment is currently in a vulnerable state, there will be no future without immediate action. It is the responsibility of States to develop and follow through with the necessary action required to achieve the goals they collectively established in the Pact for the Future. Adopting the Pact for the Future constitutes a singular step in restoring the environment, leaving the States with much more left to be done.