A/HRC/32/23 5. Many of the negative impacts of climate change, such as loss of livelihood, reductions in crop yields, destruction of homes, increased food prices and food insecurity, are disproportionately borne by persons and communities already in disadvantageous situations owing to geography, poverty, gender, age, disability, or cultural or ethnic background, among others, who have historically contributed the least to greenhouse gas emissions. In the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change it is stated that people who are socially, economically, culturally, politically, institutionally or otherwise marginalized are especially vulnerable to climate change and also to some adaptation and mitigation responses. 5 For example, the biofuel agro-industry, hydroelectric power and forest conservation efforts can contribute to food insecurity and displacement. Persons, communities and even entire States that occupy low-lying coastal lands, tundra and Arctic ice, arid lands and other delicate ecosystems and territories at risk and rely upon such land for housing and subsistence, face substantial risks of displacement. 6. The World Health Organization (WHO) maintains that climate change is affecting health now, and will do so in the future. WHO describes the main health risks posed by climate change as more intense heatwaves and fires; increased prevalence of food-, waterand vector-borne diseases; increased likelihood of undernutrition; and lost work capacity in vulnerable populations. Additional potential risks include: breakdown in food systems; violent conflict associated with resource scarcity and population movement; and exacerbation of poverty. Climate change is expected to widen existing health inequalities, both between and within populations, and “the overall health effects of a changing climate are likely to be overwhelmingly negative”. 6 7. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change confirms that the health of human populations is sensitive to shifts in weather patterns and other aspects of climate change. Direct effects on health occur “due to changes in temperature and precipitation and occurrence of heat waves, floods, droughts, and fires”, while indirectly, “health may be damaged by ecological disruptions brought on by climate change (crop failures, shifting patterns of disease vectors), or social responses to climate change (such as displacement of populations following prolonged drought)”.7 8. At its most extreme, climate change kills. A study commissioned by the Climate Vulnerable Forum linked 400,000 deaths worldwide to climate change each year. 8 WHO has estimated that between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress alone.9 Taken by themselves, premature deaths from climate change would be ample cause for urgent action. Climate change, however, also endangers the underlying determinants of health at every level, acting as a threat multiplier. According to the Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change, climate change threatens to undermine the last 5 6 7 8 9 4 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2014—Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability: Summary for Policymakers, p. 6. WHO input (see footnote 1 above); WHO, “Climate change and health”, Fact sheet No. 266, available from www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs266/en/. K.R. Smith and others, “Human health: impacts, adaptation, and co-benefits”, Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, p. 713. See DARA, Climate Vulnerability Monitor: A Guide to the Cold Calculus of a Hot Planet, 2nd ed. (2012). See WHO, Quantitative Risk Assessment of the Effects of Climate Change on Selected Causes of Death, 2030s and 2050s (2014).