The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) has issued new guidance emphasizing that a healthy, sustainable environment is essential for realizing economic, social, and cultural rights.

In General Comment No. 27, the Committee warns that climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution are already undermining rights to food, health, housing, education, and cultural life, disproportionately affecting the poorest and historically marginalized communities.

It calls on developed States to lead mitigation efforts, provide financial and technological support to developing countries, and prevent companies under their jurisdiction from harming human rights abroad. The guidance frames sustainable development as inseparable from environmental justice, urging that development cannot succeed on a dying planet.