A/HRC/29/19 humanity, that its reality and impacts were the subject of consensus and that it was time the international community actually did something about it. IV. Summary of the second panel discussion 49. At the outset, the moderator, Mr. Knox, recalled the 2014 Human Rights Day message from all special procedures mandate holders, which described climate change as one of the greatest challenges of our generation, highlighted its disproportionate effects on disadvantaged, marginalized, excluded and vulnerable individuals and groups, and urged the incorporation of human rights obligations into climate change negotiations. In the Geneva Pledge, States made a concrete commitment to further this objective. In a recent report to the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/28/61), Mr. Knox identified good practices, particularly on climate change. The right to food was most affected by climate change and required concrete action. A. Contributions of panellists 50. In a video message, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Hilal Elver articulated the link between food security and climate change, pointing out that fossil fuels and intensive chemical agricultural practices were unsustainable and contributed to greenhouse gas emissions. She said that, currently, food production exceeded global needs but failed to reach almost a billion chronically hungry people and another billion malnourished people. Climate change threatened to worsen the situation of those afflicted by hunger, including many small holder farmers, fishing communities, indigenous peoples and urban poor. Furthermore, mitigation and adaptation policies, including the production of biofuels and clean development mechanisms, such as the advanced mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, could shift land use away from agriculture and threatened the enjoyment of the right to food. Women’s and indigenous peoples’ knowledge of biodiversity and agroecology must inform mitigation and adaptation strategies. Small-scale farmers should be the cornerstone of any global strategy to address climate change and hunger. The Geneva Pledge offered hope that a rights-based approach to climate change would be included in the outcome of the 2015 Paris Conference of the Parties, but making this a reality would require profound societal change. 51. The Prime Minister of Tuvalu, Enele Sopoaga, expressed how critically important the theme of the panel discussion was to him and to his nation. He echoed the stories and sentiments of Mr. Tong, noting the incredibly serious situation on the ground in Tuvalu. He said that climate change had significant impacts on food security-related to saltwater intrusion, loss of croplands and coral bleaching, among others. But, more fundamentally, it was an issue of basic survival and development. Therefore, it was almost irrelevant to talk about food security when the entire nation and all its people were threatened. 52. Mr. Sopoaga called on the Human Rights Council to employ a human response to the impacts of climate change that considered the need to preserve traditions and livelihoods, protect the economic rights of communities and ward off or mitigate the impacts of displacement. In that regard, sovereign continuity was necessary and would pose complex challenges for the international community as rising sea levels threatened the entire land area of low-lying island States. It was important that the international community take up the work of the Council to address climate change in a broader sphere. Although the global response to climate change would continue to be negotiated under the aegis of the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Council offered a critical and complementary perspective, and the linkages between climate change and human rights must be recognized and strengthened. 11