The Human and Ecological Health Impacts of Carbon Emissions: Structural Injustice, Legal Fragmentation, and the Path to Integrated Climate Governance
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53704/jkexq116Keywords:
Carbon Emissions, Legal Fragmentation, Integrated Climate Governance, Human and Ecological Health ImpactsAbstract
This paper offers an interdisciplinary analysis of the human and ecological health impacts of carbon emissions, foregrounding their role as structural drivers of environmental injustice and legal fragmentation. Drawing on international environmental law, climate science, and human rights frameworks, the paper reconceptualises carbon emissions not merely as atmospheric pollutants but as embedded causes of systemic health disparities and ecological collapse. The analysis demonstrates how fine particulate matter (PM2.5), black carbon, and ozone disproportionately affect low-income, racialised, and geographically marginalised populations. These health burdens are not incidental but result from regulatory failure and weak accountability mechanisms. Indirect effects, including food insecurity, mental health deterioration, and displacement, further compound these inequities, particularly in the Global South. The paper critiques the limitations of prevailing legal regimes such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Despite mounting scientific evidence and normative advances, these frameworks remain poorly integrated and weakly enforced. Landmark litigation and human rights developments, including the 2021 United Nations Human Rights Council recognition of the right to a healthy environment, are examined as legal counter-narratives. The paper concludes with a call for integrated legal-ecological governance. It proposes binding reforms that link public health, biodiversity, and emissions accountability through mechanisms such as ecological personhood, citizen climate councils, and climate-health surveillance systems. These innovations are essential to advancing justice-based climate law responsive to both planetary thresholds and human vulnerability.
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