United Nations General Assembly passes resolution on the Human Right to a Healthy Environment (HR2HE)

Creating a sustainable, safe and healthy environment is one of our core values at Environment Bank. The damage we have done and continue to do to the planet is now recognised – climate change and biodiversity loss both represent an existential threat to us. It is therefore critical that we restore nature and natural capital immediately. We have almost run out of time – the costs of restoring biodiversity and tackling climate change are infinitesimally small compared with inaction. Whilst it is difficult to state this at the current time, in relative terms the impacts of the Covid pandemic, the current cost of living crisis and geo-political instability are insignificant compared to the impacts that climate change and biodiversity loss will have on us. We need to understand this. We have a right to a planet that can support us comfortably in the future.

That’s why Environment Bank has been a firm campaigner for the adoption of the Human Right to a Healthy and Sustainable Environment as an officially recognised resolution by the United Nations. Together with more than 50 other businesses working with the B Team, we have worked hard to get this resolution implemented and we are delighted that the Human Right to a Healthy Environment (HR2HE) has been passed. It represents a milestone moment for Planet Earth as we all continue to fight for environmental justice and the protection of biodiversity through taking decisive climate action. A healthy environment is key to human well-being, thriving societies and long-term business performance. It is now critical that we adequately prepare to raise awareness of HR2HE. Read more on the unep.org website.

Our chairman, Professor David Hill CBE, said:

“This resolution is a huge win for humanity and the species with which we share the planet. There is nothing more important to us than tackling climate change and restoring biodiversity if we are to have a stable future. The global impacts of failure will be beyond anything we can imagine now. In fact, those impacts have already started. Unless we act now, mass migrations of people will increase as vast areas of Earth become uninhabitable as a result of temperature rise, a huge expansion of aridity and lack of water, sea level rise, inability to grow food across huge swathes of the planet, atrocious air quality and a total breakdown in health care systems. In the light of this resolution Governments now have a mandate from the people to put words into effective action.