Operationalising the Sustainable Development Mechanism: Opportunities for a Human Rights-Based Approach

Even though it is widely acknowledged that responses to climate change need to take human rights into account, the Paris Agreement and its implementation guidelines missed several opportunities for the mainstreaming of human rights into climate action. There remains, however, a missing piece of the Paris Rulebook’s puzzle which holds great promise for a human rights-based approach to climate change: i.e., the future Sustainable Development Mechanism (SDM) – the new market-based tool which, like the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol, should allow for the trade of emission reductions generated by mitigation projects undertaken in developing countries especially. It is essential that the future SDM, whose operationalisation will be at the core of COP26, should be based on strong social and environmental safeguards in compliance with international human rights standards. Only then can the green recovery promoted by the international climate change regime also be socially equitable.