Promoting a Symbiotic Relationship Between Trade Policy and Climate Action
By Vahini Naidu
This paper is based on remarks delivered in the lead up to COP30. It outlines how African countries are working to align trade, climate action, and development priorities through early transparency on climate-related trade measures, technology transfer, and the protection of policy space for green industrialisation. It also highlights the growing focus on critical minerals, the rise of unilateral climate-related trade measures, and the need to bring scattered initiatives into a coherent multilateral framework that supports fair and sustainable outcomes.
The Role of Advisory Opinions in Shaping International Climate Change Law
By Daniel Uribe Terán
This policy brief analyses how advisory opinions (AOs) from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) are fundamentally reshaping international climate law. These AOs are crystallising States’ climate commitments, transforming them from voluntary political pledges into binding legal obligations grounded in customary international law and human rights. This judicial shift establishes stringent, science-based due diligence standards, confirms State responsibility for harm, and provides a powerful legal foundation for accountability and reparation.
Leveraging the ICJ Opinion to Secure a Just Climate Future for the South during COP30
By Daniel Uribe Terán
The 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) in Belém converges with the recent International Court of Justice (ICJ) Advisory Opinion on Climate Change, creating a critical inflexion point for global climate action. This policy brief analyses how the ICJ Opinion has the potential to reframe climate commitments, transforming them from political aspirations into legally binding obligations. The Opinion establishes objective standards for ‘due diligence’, integrates the CBDR-RC principle as a legal criterion for ambition, and inextricably links climate action with human rights. The ICJ Opinion confirms that a breach of these obligations triggers a duty of ‘full reparation.’ This policy brief recommends a strategy for developing countries to leverage this new legal framework at COP30.
Submission on the Work Programme of the High-Level Champions and the Marrakech Partnership (CHLC/MP) 2025 and the Global Climate Action Agenda
South Centre
August 2025
Voluntary action is no longer enough. The South Centre submission to the UNFCCC calls for transforming the climate agenda to ensure true inclusivity, tackle harmful lobbying, and create accountability mechanisms and policy gaps.
Reflections on Global Development in Times of Crisis: Arguments in Favour of an Alternate Development Paradigm
By K. Seeta Prabhu
The multiple interlinked and interacting crises that the world faces today is of unprecedented range and magnitude, halting progress and causing even a reversal in crucial Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) relating to well-being. The current situation of an unequal, unstable and unsustainable world that is fragile and leaves people vulnerable on multiple counts, is due to the policy decisions taken by national governments since the post second World War period that gave priority to economic growth and neglected both intra and inter-generational distributional issues. Economic growth was considered the end instead of the means it was meant to be and ‘being well-off’ was equated with ‘well- being’. The tendency to adopt a ‘Business as Usual’ approach is not an option as empirical analysis indicates that such an approach would lead to global warming that is 3–5 degrees Celsius above pre–industrial levels, which threatens the very existence of the planet. Earlier attempts at reorienting the current development paradigm towards equity and sustainability have not been successful, as exemplified by vaccine distribution during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the limited success of concepts such as inclusive growth and green growth. Often, the elements infusing equity have been add-ons to an inequitable growth process and are more in the nature of token gestures rather than serious efforts at change.
The combined human development and Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) approach that is proposed in this paper is promising as it has the ethical values of equity and sustainability at its core, propagates the notion of the ‘common good’ and thereby fosters responsible consumption and production. It is also people-centric and builds on indigenous knowledge and agency. The ushering in of this transformational development paradigm will require the forging of a new social contract between the State and Society. Additionally, the developed countries must recognise their responsibility towards the environment and extend support and cooperation to developing countries in the pursuit of a common agenda of attaining a more equal and sustainable world. Increased flow of financial resources to developing countries as well as devising new financing mechanisms enhancing the equity and efficiency dimensions of financing for human development so as to accelerate progress on the SDGs will also be of paramount importance.
Designing an Independent Panel onEvidence for Action on Antimicrobial Resistance: Lessons from Selected Bodies in Global Health, Climate Change and Biodiversity
By Viviana Munoz Tellez and Francesca Chiara
This paper proposes a framework for designing an Independent Panel on Evidence for Action on Antimicrobial Resistance (IPEA), responding to the 2025 United Nations General Assembly mandate. Through a comparative analysis of selected international scientific advisory bodies, we identify the panel’s mandate as the foundational element that will critically shape its composition, scope, deliverables, and governance structure. Our framework addresses key domains of credibility, scientific integrity, authority, policy relevance, and sustainability while establishing equity as a fundamental design principle—not merely ensuring low and middle-income country (LMIC) participation but designing the IPEA to address existing imbalances in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) evidence production and dissemination. We analyse potential mandate options, from evidence synthesis to policy recommendations, highlighting the importance of defining a unique and complementary role for IPEA within the existing AMR governance landscape to avoid duplication and maximize impact on global AMR response.
South Centre Statement at the Expert Conversation on Human Rights in the Life Cycle of Renewable Energy and Critical Minerals
21 May 2025
This expert conversation organized by the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change in collaboration with the Geneva Environment Network will build on a call for inputs which was issued in December 2024 in order to inform the thematic report of the UN Special Rapporteur to the United Nations General Assembly 80th session. This conversation will gather all interested experts including from Member States, UN agencies, civil society organizations, Indigenous Peoples, peasants, academia and the private sector to participate in this conversation.
Scaling Up the Health Response to Climate Change: Highlights from the World Health Organization Executive Board’s 156th Meeting on the Global Action Plan on Climate Change and Health
By Bianca Carvalho
The Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO), during its 156th meeting held from 3-11 February 2025, discussed a draft Global Action Plan on Climate Change and Health (2025 – 2028) (EB156/40). This policy brief explains the content of the draft Global Action Plan and summarises the feedback provided by Member States during the Executive Board meeting.
Member States at the 156th WHO Executive Board meeting made recommendations for the Global Action Plan, including to ensure that equity remains central, to foster collaboration across sectors, and to enhance support mechanisms—both technical and financial—for developing countries addressing the intersection of climate change and health challenges. Member States also called for more consultations before the draft Global Action Plan is considered for adoption at the 78th World Health Assembly in May 2025.
The South Centre carries out multiple activities to support developing countries with policy-oriented research, inputs and advice for negotiations and capacity building. The Report summarizes the South Centre’s activities in 2024 and highlights the contexts in which they were conducted as well as the objectives that were pursued with their implementation.
Inputs to Inform the Thematic Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the Context of Climate Change to the Human Rights Council 59th session
South Centre
February 2025
The South Centre calls for a Just Transition away from fossil fuels, centering the rights of marginalized communities & the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.
Inputs to the Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development Study on Climate Justice, Sustainability, and the Right to Development
February 2025
The South Centre inputs to the Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development Study on Climate Justice, Sustainability, and the Right to Development makes a call for upholding Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDRRC) in ensuring a just transition, protecting the human rights of the most affected populations and reforming Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms that threaten climate action.
Can international law promote innovation from genetic resources and benefit sharing while recognizing the rights of traditional knowledge holders?
By Henry de Novion
Indigenous peoples and local communities have been innovating for millennia and contributing to the development of new products and processes. For international law to promote innovation, it is indispensable to promote indigenous peoples and local communities’ rights to prior informed consent, to benefit sharing, and to guaranteeing their territories, culture, and existence.
