State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Tag: land rights

  • Just Climate Change Action: The Importance and Challenges of Centering Indigenous Wisdom and Perspectives

    Just Climate Change Action: The Importance and Challenges of Centering Indigenous Wisdom and Perspectives

    Indigenous communities are on the frontlines of the climate crisis, leading the way for innovative actions rooted in first-hand experiences of climate disasters and shifts, and knowledge transferred across generations.

  • Renewable Energy Poses a Serious Threat to Human Rights — But It Doesn’t Have To

    Renewable Energy Poses a Serious Threat to Human Rights — But It Doesn’t Have To

    A conversation on the critical need for embedding human rights, especially those of indigenous communities, within the renewable energy sector, and the hurdles of pursuing environmental justice without compromising human rights.

  • What the Climate Crisis Means for Land Rights

    What the Climate Crisis Means for Land Rights

    Climate change will shift the way we use land. A just transition to a low-carbon society requires recognition and protection of community land tenure.

  • Is There a Human Right to Land?

    Is There a Human Right to Land?

    For people around the world, land is a source of food, shelter, and livelihoods. Given their importance, land rights are surely human rights—right?

  • The Risks and Impacts of Expropriating Community Lands

    The Risks and Impacts of Expropriating Community Lands

    While a government might consider that a community’s lands can generate greater public benefits if used as the site of a large-scale project, such as for agriculture or forestry, that needs to be balanced with how taking the land will affect the people who lived there and depended on that land.

  • Toward a Carbon-Neutral Future: Why Land and Resource Rights Matter

    Toward a Carbon-Neutral Future: Why Land and Resource Rights Matter

    Climate change is a destabilizing force that touches all sectors of society, whether agriculture, forestry, infrastructure, energy, water or health. The inherently intertwined and complex nature of climate change impacts means that strong institutions, laws and policies are critical to ensuring that these impacts don’t impinge on the rights of local populations. Key among these…

  • No Free Passes: Making Renewable Energy Responsible

    No Free Passes: Making Renewable Energy Responsible

    As the world rushes to invest in clean energy, the potential impacts of these projects on the rights of local individuals and communities need to be properly addressed.

  • Protecting Indigenous Land Rights Makes Good Economic Sense

    Protecting Indigenous Land Rights Makes Good Economic Sense

    Indigenous peoples and other communities hold and manage 50 to 65 percent of the world’s land, yet governments recognize only 10 percent as legally belonging to these groups, with another 8 percent designated by governments for communities. That’s bad economic policy.

  • Just Climate Change Action: The Importance and Challenges of Centering Indigenous Wisdom and Perspectives

    Just Climate Change Action: The Importance and Challenges of Centering Indigenous Wisdom and Perspectives

    Indigenous communities are on the frontlines of the climate crisis, leading the way for innovative actions rooted in first-hand experiences of climate disasters and shifts, and knowledge transferred across generations.

  • Renewable Energy Poses a Serious Threat to Human Rights — But It Doesn’t Have To

    Renewable Energy Poses a Serious Threat to Human Rights — But It Doesn’t Have To

    A conversation on the critical need for embedding human rights, especially those of indigenous communities, within the renewable energy sector, and the hurdles of pursuing environmental justice without compromising human rights.

  • What the Climate Crisis Means for Land Rights

    What the Climate Crisis Means for Land Rights

    Climate change will shift the way we use land. A just transition to a low-carbon society requires recognition and protection of community land tenure.

  • Is There a Human Right to Land?

    Is There a Human Right to Land?

    For people around the world, land is a source of food, shelter, and livelihoods. Given their importance, land rights are surely human rights—right?

  • The Risks and Impacts of Expropriating Community Lands

    The Risks and Impacts of Expropriating Community Lands

    While a government might consider that a community’s lands can generate greater public benefits if used as the site of a large-scale project, such as for agriculture or forestry, that needs to be balanced with how taking the land will affect the people who lived there and depended on that land.

  • Toward a Carbon-Neutral Future: Why Land and Resource Rights Matter

    Toward a Carbon-Neutral Future: Why Land and Resource Rights Matter

    Climate change is a destabilizing force that touches all sectors of society, whether agriculture, forestry, infrastructure, energy, water or health. The inherently intertwined and complex nature of climate change impacts means that strong institutions, laws and policies are critical to ensuring that these impacts don’t impinge on the rights of local populations. Key among these…

  • No Free Passes: Making Renewable Energy Responsible

    No Free Passes: Making Renewable Energy Responsible

    As the world rushes to invest in clean energy, the potential impacts of these projects on the rights of local individuals and communities need to be properly addressed.

  • Protecting Indigenous Land Rights Makes Good Economic Sense

    Protecting Indigenous Land Rights Makes Good Economic Sense

    Indigenous peoples and other communities hold and manage 50 to 65 percent of the world’s land, yet governments recognize only 10 percent as legally belonging to these groups, with another 8 percent designated by governments for communities. That’s bad economic policy.