Stand up for science, justice, and the human right to a healthy and sustainable environment

A safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is essential to and underlies many human rights; these rights are incorporated into the constitutions of over 100 countries (UNEP, 2019). In 2022, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution declaring that everyone on the planet has a right to a healthy environment, calling upon states, international organizations, and business enterprises to scale up efforts to ensure a healthy environment for all (https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/07/1123482). Yet six of nine planetary processes have breached their safe planetary boundaries (Caesar et al., 2024), and we have passed the 1.5 °C global warming threshold (Tollefson, 2025). Although a few targets of the UN Sustainable Development Goals are on track, progress on more has been marginal, stagnant, or regressing (UN, 2025). Climate change is exacerbating military mobilizations, and these actions are fueling greater climate-damaging emissions, as well as death (armed conflict-related loss of life surged 40% in 2024 [UN, 2025]), injustice, and mass migration. Ensuring human rights requires that nations seek to support environmental justice (EJ) for all individuals, regions, and states.