A/HRC/38/21 While the Convention does not explicitly address migration, the preamble to the Paris Agreement calls upon all States to respect, promote and consider the rights of migrants when taking climate action. The ongoing work of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention and its subsidiary bodies, including the Task Force on Displacement of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts, provide a forum for discussing issues related to the protection of those displaced by the adverse effects of climate change. The Task Force and the Executive Committee of the Mechanism are mandated to develop recommendations for integrated approaches to avert, minimize and address displacement related to climate change. 30. Regional environmental agreements may also protect migrants affected by climate change. The Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in DecisionMaking and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (the Aarhus Convention) recognizes the right of every person to live in an environment adequate to ensure their health and well-being and establishes legally binding obligations related to access to information, participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters. In March 2018, a similar agreement was adopted by 24 Latin American and Caribbean States.37 3. Global compacts 31. The New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants identifies climate change, disasters and environmental degradation as drivers of human movement that require cooperative, rights-based responses. It calls for preparation of two global compacts — on refugees and on safe, orderly and regular migration — to further its objectives, which include a framework for comprehensive international cooperation on human mobility including human rights protection. According to the Secretary-General, the compact on migration must protect human rights for all and both compacts must respond to the reality that climate change is likely to exacerbate economic, environmental and social pressures to migrate over the next few decades.38 Current drafts of each compact have made explicit reference to environmental degradation, disaster or climate change. For example, the “zero draft plus” of the global compact on safe, orderly and regular migration 39 calls for the development of tailored migration schemes to facilitate migration as an adaptation strategy to slow-onset environmental degradation related to the adverse effects of climate change. 4. Other relevant law and policy frameworks 32. In rare circumstances, the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons might protect people fleeing the adverse effects of climate change; however, it does not apply to or respond to the needs of most people fleeing the adverse effects of climate change.40 33. Although not legally binding, there are also many policy processes and instruments that address important aspects of human mobility in the context of climate change. The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction aims to substantially reduce disaster risks, strengthen disaster risk governance and enhance disaster preparedness, particularly for vulnerable populations. The Framework explicitly addresses climate change and disaster displacement. It includes guiding principles that call for promoting and protecting all human rights and developing coherent policies across the climate change, disaster risk reduction and sustainable development agendas. 34. The International Organization for Migration (IOM), through the regular meetings of its governing bodies, offers a platform for State-led efforts to address environmental 37 38 39 40 See https://negociacionp10.cepal.org/9/en/news/latin-america-and-caribbean-adopts-its-first-bindingregional-agreement-protect-rights-access. See A/72/643, paras. 1, and 51–52. Available at https://refugeesmigrants.un.org/sites/default/files/2018mar05_zerodraft.pdf. See S. Park, “Climate Change and the Risk of Statelessness: The Situation of Low-Lying Island States”, (2011), p. 3, available at www.unhcr.org/4df9cb0c9.pdf. See also “Protecting People Crossing Borders” (footnote 32 above), pp. 32–34. 9