The devastating effects of climate change on human rights has led the United Nations to recommend a human rights-based approach to climate action. However, no research has examined the relations between support for human rights and climate change beliefs, which is critical if such a rights-based approach is to receive widespread public backing. Here we combine variable- and person-centred analyses to investigate the cross-sectional and longitudinal relations between support for human rights and climate change beliefs/concern with data from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (N ≈ 17,656). Cross-lagged analyses indicate that support for the broader human rights item about the right to food, clothing, housing and medicine had a bidirectional relationship with climate change beliefs/concern. A latent profile analysis then revealed four distinct subgroups of New Zealanders whose climate change beliefs/concern differed between subgroups, while all subgroups consistently supported human rights. Lastly, latent transition analysis revealed that, although two of these distinct profiles were relatively unstable across the one-year period, New Zealanders generally moved from profiles of lower to higher levels of climate beliefs/concern. Findings reveal novel implications for a rights-based climate change response.

气候变化对人权的破坏性影响促使联合国建议采用基于人权的气候行动方法。然而，没有研究检查对人权的支持与气候变化信念之间的关系，如果这种基于权利的方法要获得广泛的公众支持，这一点至关重要。在这里，我们结合变量和以人为中心的分析，利用新西兰态度和价值观研究 (N ≈ 17,656) 的数据，调查对人权的支持与气候变化信念/关注之间的横截面和纵向关系。交叉滞后分析表明，对有关食物权、衣着权、住房权和药品权的更广泛的人权项目的支持与气候变化信念/担忧具有双向关系。然后，潜在的概况分析揭示了四个不同的新西兰人亚组，他们对气候变化的信念/担忧在亚组之间存在差异，而所有亚组都始终支持人权。最后，潜在转变分析显示，尽管其中两个不同的概况在一年期间相对不稳定，但新西兰人通常从较低的气候信念/担忧水平转向较高水平的气候信念/担忧。调查结果揭示了基于权利的气候变化应对措施的新含义。新西兰人普遍从较低水平的气候信念/担忧转向较高水平的气候信念/担忧。调查结果揭示了基于权利的气候变化应对措施的新含义。新西兰人普遍从较低水平的气候信念/担忧转向较高水平的气候信念/担忧。调查结果揭示了基于权利的气候变化应对措施的新含义。