A/HRC/35/13 I. Introduction 1. The present study is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 32/33, in which the Council requested the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to conduct a detailed analytical study, in consultation with relevant stakeholders, on the relationship between climate change and the full and effective enjoyment of the rights of the child. 2. On 9 September 2016, OHCHR circulated a note verbale and questionnaire to Member States requesting inputs for the study. Communications were also sent to other stakeholders, including international organizations, national human rights institutions and civil society. Their inputs were summarized in a conference room paper prepared by OHCHR in advance of the panel discussion on the adverse impact of climate change on States’ efforts to realize the rights of the child and related policies, lessons learned and good practices, held on 2 March 2017.1 The panel discussion, written inputs, consultations and independent research have informed the present study. 3. In the study, OHCHR examines the impacts of climate change on children and the related human rights obligations and responsibilities of States and other actors, including the elements of a child rights-based approach to climate change policies. It provides examples of good practices and concludes with concrete recommendations for fulfilling human rights obligations, particularly those related to children’s rights, in the context of climate change. II. Key impacts of climate change on children 4. Children are disproportionately affected by changes in their environment, due to their unique metabolism, physiology and developmental needs. 2 Changes in temperature, air and water quality and nutrition are likely to have more severe and long-term impacts on children’s health, development and well-being. Young children, because of their less developed physiology and immune systems, will experience most intensely the effects of climate change-related stresses. 3 During childhood, alterations to the social and physical environment can have far-reaching implications for children’s long-term physical and mental health and overall quality of life. 5. According to United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), there may be no greater threat facing the world’s children, and future generations, than climate change. 4 In 2014, there were 2.2 billion children in the world, with approximately 30 per cent of the world’s population being under 18 years old.5 Existing and future demographic trends reveal that many of the countries that have been identified as highly vulnerable to climate change also have higher proportions of children in their overall population. These include parts of South Asia, the Pacific islands and other small island developing States, equatorial Africa and the Pacific coast of South America. 6. As discussed below, some of the most substantial impacts of climate change on children are caused by extreme weather and natural disasters, water scarcity and food insecurity, air pollution and vector-borne diseases and resulting psychological trauma. Children in vulnerable situations are disproportionately affected by climate change. 1 2 3 4 5 For the summary of the panel discussion, see A/HRC/35/14. The original inputs received and the informal summary of those inputs are available at www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/HRAndClimateChange/Pages/RightsChild.aspx. See generally World Health Organization (WHO), Inheriting a Sustainable World? Atlas on Children’s Health and the Environment (2017), available at www.who.int/ceh/publications/inheritinga-sustainable-world/en/. P.J. Landrigan and A. Garg, “Children are not little adults”, in Children’s Health and the Environment: A Global Perspective, J. Pronczuk-Garbino, ed. (Geneva, WHO, 2005). UNICEF, Unless We Act Now: The Impact of Climate Change on Children (New York, 2015), p. 6. UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children 2014: Every Child Counts (New York, 2014). 3