A/HRC/43/30 climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies.14 The increasing global incidence of climate change threatens children’s lives, destroys critical infrastructure and affects children’s cultural survival. Globally, approximately 160 million children inhabit areas at risk of drought, 500 million live in flood zones and 115 million are highly exposed to cyclones.15 12. The central climate change impacts upon children are extreme weather and natural disasters, water scarcity, food insecurity, air pollution, vector-borne and infectious diseases and mental health issues. Water and food scarcity can lead to irreversible developmental conditions. The World Health Organization (WHO) projects that in 2030 there will be approximately 100,000 additional deaths due to climate change-attributable undernutrition.16 13. Use of unsafe water due to water scarcity and floods contributes to communicable diseases such as cholera,17 to which children are particularly susceptible. Children are the most vulnerable to the climate change-related increase in vector-borne diseases, which constitute a major cause of under-5 child mortality.18 14. Climate change heightens social and economic inequalities. Children from indigenous communities, who rely strongly on land, and the poorest families are particularly vulnerable to climatic changes because they lack the resources and the support to adapt.19 15. According to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, climate change is the most significant intergenerational injustice of our time. States have clear human rights obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, other human rights treaties and the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to act to protect children’s rights from climate change.20 B. Childhood exposure to pollution and toxic substances 16. Children’s direct and indirect exposure to pollution and toxic substances through the air, ground or water significantly affects their health, development and well-being, violating multiple rights. Children are exposed daily while playing, swimming in local water sources, going to or at school, eating, drinking or working.21 17. Hundreds of hazardous chemicals have been found in children due to in utero exposure, compromising their fetal development. 22 Toxic substances are particularly harmful for children because children absorb them at a higher rate and quantity due to their smaller size and rapidly developing physiology.23 18. Children who survive harmful exposures to toxic substances risk delayed development and a lifelong disease burden that jeopardizes their rights and long-term prospects. 24 They are at an especially high risk of premature birth, developmental and 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 4 Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 15 (2013) on the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, para. 50. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Unless We Act Now: The Impact of Climate Change on Children (November 2015). WHO, Quantitative Risk Assessment of the Effects of Climate Change on Selected Causes of Death, 2030s and 2050s (Geneva, 2014), p. 89. WHO, Inheriting a Sustainable World?, p. 24. Ibid., p. xi. UNICEF, Unless We Act Now, p. 62. www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24998&LangID=E. A/HRC/33/41, para. 7. Ibid., paras. 5 and 28. Ibid., para. 4. Principles for evaluating health risks in children associated with exposure to chemicals.