A/HRC/37/35 sanitation, education, housing, development and culture. The negative effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels, droughts, flooding, more frequent extreme weather events, and desertification, were a clear driver of migration and were expected to increase. Migration itself was a multi-faceted and complex issue. Long-term, structural, socioeconomic, environmental and demographic dynamics, and more immediate triggers, such as natural disasters, affected the decision of people to migrate. 35. The panel discussion mandated by the Human Rights Council drew attention to these issues at an opportune moment. Speakers emphasized the importance of the present discussion for relevant processes, such as the negotiations on the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration and the work of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Several also referred to the relevance of the discussion to the negotiations on the global compact on refugees. 36. Speakers agreed that States should fully protect the human rights of all migrants regardless of their status, paying particular attention to the rights of migrants in vulnerable situations, such as children, including unaccompanied and separated children, pregnant and nursing women, indigenous peoples, persons in poor health, older persons, persons with disabilities and the poor. 37. Millions of people were on the move because of climate change, which affected the livelihoods of many subsistence farmers, particularly in developing countries. The poor and most vulnerable often had no choice but to pursue unsafe channels of migration. Such migrants of necessity were among those most vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. They faced serious human rights risks. Low-income migrant workers were particularly in need of human rights protection. 38. Some regions and countries were particularly vulnerable to climate change, including the Pacific, Africa, and developing countries, and least developed countries in particular. Those who had contributed the least to climate change were often those most affected. The compliance of developed countries with international commitments to limit global warming, including those relating to technology transfer and funding to developing countries under the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, was critical for climate change adaptation and justice. 39. Several speakers highlighted the specific protection gaps for persons crossing borders in response to the adverse effects of climate change. International law did not always protect the rights of disaster-displaced persons to gain admission to and stay in a country outside of their own. Still, there were people who, although they did not qualify as refugees under international law, needed international protection of their human rights. Complementary human rights protection mechanisms and temporary protection or stay arrangements could ensure access to international protection. The Nansen Initiative Protection Agenda highlighted relevant standards and guidance. 40. Speakers called for a human rights-based approach to climate change that put the interests of all people, including migrants, at the centre, and ensured that migration was a matter of choice, not necessity. A rights-based approach, which was explicitly called for by the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, was integral to the success of climate action. Human rights law should guide States in designing polices that prevented displacement, protected people during displacement, allowed people to move in dignity and addressed the root causes of climate change. Those affected by climate change should have access to remedy for the harm they experienced. Furthermore, the effective protection of human rights required all States to mitigate climate change and to decarbonize their economy on the basis of equity and the right to development. 41. Speakers also referred to the relationship between climate change and conflict, the issue of internal displacement, anti-migrant xenophobia, the rights of future generations, and the nexus between water, climate and peace. Several also described good practices that protected the rights of migrants negatively affected by climate change. The practices included the issuance of humanitarian visas, social welfare for all persons regardless of their nationality, legal permanent residency for residents of neighbouring low-lying atoll 7