A/HRC/10/61 page 10 Cultural Rights also enshrines “the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger”.30 Elements of the right to food include the availability of adequate food (including through the possibility of feeding oneself from natural resources) and accessible to all individuals under the jurisdiction of a State. Equally, States must ensure freedom from hunger and take necessary action to alleviate hunger, even in times of natural or other disasters.31 26. As a consequence of climate change, the potential for food production is projected initially to increase at mid to high latitudes with an increase in global average temperature in the range of 1-3° C. However, at lower latitudes crop productivity is projected to decrease, increasing the risk of hunger and food insecurity in the poorer regions of the word.32 According to one estimate, an additional 600 million people will face malnutrition due to climate change,33 with a particularly negative effect on sub-Saharan Africa.34 Poor people living in developing countries are particularly vulnerable given their disproportionate dependency on climate-sensitive resources for their food and livelihoods.35 27. The Special Rapporteur on the right to food has documented how extreme climate events are increasingly threatening livelihoods and food security.36 In responding to this threat, the realization of the right to adequate food requires that special attention be given to vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, including people living in disaster prone areas and indigenous peoples whose livelihood may be threatened.37 30 ICESCR, art. 11, para. 2. 31 CESCR general comment No. 12 (1999) on the right to adequate food (art. 11), para. 6. 32 IPCC AR4 Synthesis Report, p. 48. 33 UNDP Human Development Report 2006, Beyond scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis. 34 IPCC AR4 WGII Report, p. 275. 35 IPCC AR4 WGII, p. 359. United Nations Millennium Project 2005, Halving Hunger: It Can Be Done, Task Force on Hunger, p. 66. Furthermore, according to the Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on the right to food, “half of the world’s hungry people … depend for their survival on lands which are inherently poor and which may be becoming less fertile and less productive as a result of the impacts of repeated droughts, climate change and unsustainable land use” (A/HRC/7/5, para. 51). 36 37 See e.g. A/HRC/7/5, para. 51; A/HRC/7/5/Add.2, paras. 11 and 15. See e.g. CESCR general comment No. 12 (1999) on the right to adequate food (art. 11), para. 28.

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