Be Human Rights Confident

??? The holidays are here!

Do you have something lovely planned? I hope it’s relaxing and exactly what you need. ??

I’ll be spending time with family, enjoying nature, and diving into history—three things that always help me recharge.

This year has flown by, hasn’t it? ?

I came across an interesting thought recently about New Year’s resolutions: they work, psychologically, because a new year feels like a fresh chapter—a clean slate ?? that inspires optimism ?? and the possibility of change. While many resolutions don’t last beyond February, we make them anyway, fueled by the hope that this time things will be different. And sometimes, they are. My feeling is: they will be—and they have to be.

I also read about an alternative approach: choosing a single word that reflects how you want your year to feel. Last year, my word was “groundedness” ??. I tried to deeply connect with what it means to feel grounded and anchor that energy as much as I could throughout the year. Honestly, it worked and I recommend it! I feel so much more centered now than I did 12 months ago. I must say, losing my friend this summer to breast cancer has also profoundly shaped my being.

I think I know my word for next year. It starts with a J. Let me know if yours is the same! ??

Whether you’re someone who sets resolutions ??, chooses words and feelings to guide you, or takes the year as it comes, one thing is certain:?

You’ll make an even greater impact in 2025 than you did in 2024.?

I truly believe it.?

We all will. The alternative is not an option. ?? And we’ll be here to support you as you do.

We’ll re-connect on this point this time next year. and I'm sure I'll be right.???

In the meantime, we’ll be back in your inbox in 2025, and we’re also looking forward to seeing you at our next Collective on 31st January—same time, same place (1 pm UK, online). ??

Wishing you a joyful and peaceful holiday season!

Anna

The Stockholm Resilience Centre (Stockholm University) and the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences) published Doing Business Within Planetary Boundaries (November 2024). The report outlines the key role that businesses and investors can play in addressing the climate and nature crisis, and calls for a shift in practices to measure corporate activities based on what really matters for the health of the planet. The report builds on ten years of transdisciplinary science, combining sustainable finance with ecological economics, resilience science, and Earth system science.

Human Level’s Take

• The science is clear: human and economic activities are destabilising the very climate and living ecosystems that we rely on for goods and services and, therefore, for our survival. We have already crossed 6 of the 9 planetary boundaries necessary for maintaining stable and resilient biological life-support systems on earth. The stakes are high—not just for people and planet but also for businesses, as climate change, biodiversity loss, and water crises threaten to render vast areas uninhabitable and make business costly or impossible.
• However, many companies focus primarily on global greenhouse gas emissions in their performance measures, often overlooking local environmental impacts. This gives a false sense of progress and underestimates the risks posed by ecosystem degradation. Current risk assessments for nature and climate fail to account for the cumulative and aggregate effects of environmental harm. This means companies are vulnerable not only to the impacts of their own activities but also to those caused by other sectors and actors.
• Additionally, when companies disclose only the environmental impacts they believe are financially material, they risk ignoring impacts that contribute to cumulative environmental harm that could lead to larger systemic risks—such as the large-scale loss of essential ecosystem services.
• So what can companies do? Companies should expand their impact assessments beyond just greenhouse gas emissions to include a broader range of environmental factors, using frameworks like the Planetary Boundaries. By applying environmental science, companies can prioritise disclosures that account for the cumulative effects of their activities. The report recommends two key tools that companies can use: the Essential Environmental Impact Variables (EEIV) and the Earth System Impact Score (ESI score). The first is a science-based and sector-specific framework to help prioritise and collect data on the environmental impact of corporate activities for each sector. The second is a systemic, science-based and context-sensitive tool that helps companies assess the global environmental impact of their local activities, identify key areas for improving environmental performance and account for the cumulative and aggregate effects of its activities.

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The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) launched its Assessment Report on the Interlinkages Among Biodiversity, Water, Food and Health – known as the Nexus Report (December 2024). The summary report for policymakers is available here. The report identifies interconnections between these four ecosystem services and the effects of climate change. By improving understanding of these interconnections, the assessment aims to foster more synergistic and effective management across sectors and scales.

Human Level’s Take

• As a global population, we are at a make-or-break moment in history. We are quickly changing the environment around us, leading to interconnected crises of biodiversity loss, water scarcity, food insecurity, impacts to health and climate change. Making forward, progress means we need to recognise the complexity of the systems around us — a change in one area could mean a multitude of cascading changes elsewhere. And delayed action increases the challenges and our resilience to address them, with the cost of addressing biodiversity loss potentially doubling over time.
• The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) believes that achieving positive outcomes across biodiversity, water, food, health, and climate is possible through integrated approaches focused on ecosystem conservation, sustainable resource use and climate mitigation, while ensuring equity and human rights, and addressing the needs of vulnerable populations.
• Economic and policy decisions that prioritise short-term gains over long-term sustainability exacerbate inequalities. By contrast, the most impactful approaches are those that involve transformative changes to our economic model: changing business models from extractive to regenerative; aligning incentives for nature protection through policy and market levers; and respecting human rights and ensuring equity of our shared resources. Companies and investors need to proactively push for these transformations if we’re going to make it to the other side of our global crisis point.

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The International Labour Organization (ILO) published the fourth edition of its Global Estimates on International Migrant Workers (December 2024). The report provides estimates of the international migrant labour force through 2022, including employed and unemployed migrants, disaggregated by age, sex, country income group and region.

Human Level’s Take?

• The ILO’s latest data shows that global labour migration is steadily rising. In 2022, the global labour force saw 167.7 million international migrants, making up 4.7% of the total workforce — an increase of 30 million since 2013. While the COVID-19 pandemic slowed migration, the overall number of employed migrants continues to rise, particularly in sectors like care —in part the result of an aging population in high-income destination countries. Most work in services (68.4%), followed by industry (24.3%) and agriculture (7.4%).
• Migrant women face additional barriers in the workforce, the result of structural barriers, socio-cultural factors and discriminatory practices in both host and home country labour markets. Women tend to have more limited access to jobs and greater unpaid care responsibilities.
• What are the implications of these trends for the private sector? For one, companies may find higher human rights risks to workers in their operations and value chains, driven by the heightened vulnerability of migrant workers compared to non-migrant workers, especially in ‘blue collar’ roles. Migrant women face even higher risks of labour exploitation.
• In addition, companies may need to account for the fact that migrant workers tend to have less access to social services in their host countries, making it more difficult for them to earn a living wage, access healthcare and achieve an adequate standard of living. This is especially the case for workers in sectors with high rates of informality, like construction. Conducting human rights due diligence with an eye to the higher risks facing migrant workers — including in the value chain — can help companies to better prevent and mitigate these risks.

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