On Tuesday 6 December First Minister Alex Salmond delivered a speech to the Central Party School in Beijing, which highlights the role Scotland can play in delivering climate justice measures internationally.

Read the speech here.

Climate justice is a major international human rights issue and sits at the heart of development, planning and mitigation responses to climate change. In response to the First Minister's speech Professor Alan Miller, Chair of the Scottish Human Rights Commission said:

“Before his visit to China the Commission had a productive meeting with the First Minister and encouraged the development of a realistic, meaningful and ongoing dialogue on human rights between Scotland and China. We warmly welcome the emphasis he placed on climate justice in his speech to the Central Party School earlier today – climate justice places human rights at the centre of economic decision making and seeks to redress the unfairness of people in developing countries feeling the impact of climate change which they did not cause.

"During our pre-visit meeting the Commission stressed the shared responsibilities of Scotland and China of cooperating in embracing a human rights based approach to climate change and becoming champions of climate justice. This could include Scotland sharing with China its renewable energy expertise so as to facilitate a low carbon path of economic development for China which would promote and protect the enjoyment of human rights not only of its own population but of the wider world.

“More broadly, while it should be acknowledged that China has made progress regarding economic and social rights, lifting many millions out of poverty, further progress needs to be made across the full range of human rights - including civil, political and cultural - as is the case with all countries. Scotland could make a distinctive contribution towards this through sharing both international and its own experience in the implementation of international human rights obligations and standards, with particular reference to the establishment of a UN recognised national human rights institution and development of a national action plan.”

You can read more about climate justice and human rights in our Environment pages.