A/HRC/17/39 (a) The right to food, drinking water, sanitation, health, clothing, housing, education and culture; (b) The right to work and to enjoy fair conditions of employment and trade union association; the right to equal remuneration among persons who perform the same occupation or function; the right to have access to social services on equal terms; and the right to leisure.59 4. All peoples and individuals have the right to the elimination of obstacles to the realization of the right to development, such as the servicing of unjust or unsustainable foreign debt burdens and their conditionalities, or the maintenance of an unfair international economic order, because they generate poverty and social exclusion. States and the United Nations system shall fully cooperate in order to remove such obstacles, both internationally and domestically.60 C. The environment, in particular climate change 57. The environment is a crucial aspect of the right to peace. An area of particular relevance is climate change.61 58. Climate change has a negative impact on a variety of human rights, ranging from the right to life, food, water, health, housing and shelter through to the right to selfdetermination of peoples and rights relating to livelihood and culture, migration and resettlement and personal security in cases of conflict.62 Furthermore, the historical contribution to and the share of the burden caused by climate change are distributed highly unevenly.63 Adaptation and mitigation policies and long-term protection, however, may also have adverse effects.64 59. In 2008, the Human Rights Council, in its resolution 7/23, requested OHCHR to undertake a study on human rights and climate change. The study65 was presented in 2009 and deals with, inter alia, the impact of climate change-induced displacement and conflict. It also analyses the consequences of climate change on relevant obligations under international human rights law. According to the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, land degradation has prompted, together with other factors, fights over resources in the conflict in the Darfur region of the Sudan and in other conflicts in Africa.66 The nongovernmental organization Alert International has identified 46 countries with a high risk of armed conflict owing to climate change and 56 States threatened by political instability.67 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 16 Ibid., art. 3, para. 4. Ibid., art. 4, para. 2. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change defines climate change or “global warming” as “a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods” (art. 1, para. 2). “Climate Change and Human Rights: A Rough Guide“, International Council on Human Rights Policy, p. 1, available from http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/climatechange/docs/submissions/136_report.pdf. See also Human Rights Council resolution 7/23, first preambular paragraph. A/HRC/10/61; see also article 3 of the Framework Convention. See International Council on Human Rights Policy, “Climate Change and Human Rights“, pp. 1–2. A/HRC/10/61. A/HRC/7/5. For information on indicators and criteria used for country assessment, see “A climate of conflict: the links between climate change, peace and war”, International Alert, November 2007, pp. 18–19,