Protecting Environmental Rights in the Age of Climate Crisis: Toward a Rights-Based Framework for Sustainable Governance

The climate crisis poses serious threats to environmental sustainability and human well-being in Indonesia, including floods, droughts, forest fires, sea-level rise, biodiversity loss, and ecosystem degradation. These impacts endanger environmental rights, which are protected under international law and the Indonesian Constitution. This study analyzes the legal protection of environmental rights in Indonesia amid the climate crisis and formulates a rights-based framework for sustainable governance. Using normative legal research with statutory, conceptual, and comparative approaches, this study examines constitutional provisions, environmental laws, climate regulations, international agreements, legal doctrines, scholarly literature, and policy documents. The findings show that Indonesia has established a substantial legal framework for environmental protection and climate governance. However, its implementation remains constrained by regulatory fragmentation, weak enforcement, limited public participation, poor institutional coordination, and environmental justice issues affecting vulnerable communities. The study argues that climate change directly undermines environmental rights by limiting access to essential resources and increasing social vulnerability. Therefore, a rights-based governance framework grounded in participation, transparency, accountability, equality, access to justice, and intergenerational equity is needed. Strengthening environmental rights through this approach is essential to achieving effective climate governance, environmental justice, and long-term sustainability in Indonesia.