A/HRC/35/14 32. Speakers also emphasized the importance of gender equality in all climate action, noting that women and girls were disproportionately impacted by climate change, including natural disasters. One speaker called for gender and social inclusion considerations to be taken into account in all climate change and disaster risk management policies, projects and planning processes. 33. Speakers also welcomed the Paris Agreement, with its explicit reference to human rights, including the rights of children. The Paris Agreement had reaffirmed that States had human rights obligations related to climate change. It was observed that businesses also had responsibilities related to addressing the impacts of climate change on the enjoyment of children’s rights and that there was a need to ensure access to remedy when children’s rights were violated. Speakers called for every effort to be made to ensure the successful rights-based implementation of the Paris Agreement. They also highlighted the links between climate change, human rights and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It was emphasized that climate change threatened the implementation of development goals at all levels. In that regard, it was important to link up the actions, positions and processes related to the UNFCCC, the Human Rights Council, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sendai Framework in order to ensure effective and concerted progress towards sustainable development that benefited all persons. 34. One speaker reiterated the call for the Human Rights Council to appoint a special rapporteur on human rights and climate change to facilitate efforts to make these critical links and in order to better understand the impacts of climate change on the enjoyment of all human rights. Another speaker emphasized the role of the Geneva Pledge for Human Rights in Climate Action in bringing together the human rights and climate communities. Along these lines, it was also suggested that greater intersectoral cooperation was needed among government agencies and other stakeholders at the national level. All stakeholders could make further efforts to integrate climate change-related human rights issues within the universal periodic review of the Human Rights Council. 35. Many speakers called for the enhancement of child participation in decision-making and highlighted the importance of education to empower children as agents of change. This was necessary in order to prepare children to address future challenges concerning climate change and the preservation of the environment. Some delegations outlined their own national policies for educating and raising awareness among children about climate change and its effects. These included integrating teaching on climate change mitigation and sustainable development into national school curricula, creating local and national participatory mechanisms for collaborative ecological actions and engagement of children, building networks of schools concerned with the environment, promoting gender equality in climate action, developing national action plans and strategies aimed at ensuring youth and child engagement on climate change, enhancing socioeconomic development in order to improve the quality of life of current and future generations, and establishing environmental education centres. 36. Speakers also called for increased international cooperation to promote a rightsbased approach to mitigation and to adaptation to the negative effects of climate change. Action was needed in order to build capacity in developing countries, including through the transfer of technology. Some said that until financial pledges to address climate change were met, climate change would continue to affect generation after generation. They called for international solidarity in pursuing urgent climate action in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibility. Many delegations described international cooperation to address climate change as being an integral part of their foreign policy and development strategies. The importance of sharing effective measures to combat the negative impacts of climate change on children’s rights was emphasized. 37. Speakers put a number of specific questions to the panellists, asking them, inter alia, to share good practices in addressing the negative impacts of climate change on the rights of the child; to describe the potential role of child-centred policies in climate action; to elaborate on methods for mainstreaming human rights and specifically rights of the child in climate change adaptation and mitigation; to address how children’s right to remedy could be strengthened, including through UNFCCC principles and taking into account the transboundary effects of climate change caused by the failure of States to comply with their 8