CHR-NI-2016-0001 Statement of Resource Person, Katherine Lofts Republic of the Philippines Commission on Human Rights CHR-NI-2016-0001 In Re: National inquiry on the impact of climate change on the human rights of the Filipino People Statement of Resource Person: Katherine Lofts, Research Associate, Law, Governance & Society Lab at McGill University I am honoured to provide this statement, and to appear before the Philippine Commission on Human Rights as part of its 3rd public hearing (27-28th September 2018). The petitioners have invited me to serve as a resource person to the Commission, and to share my expertise on economic, social and cultural rights and climate change, and on how climate change acts as a threat multiplier with respect to these rights. A copy of my Curriculum Vitae is appended to this statement. The first two parts of my statement will address the relationship between climate change and human rights in general terms, and will set out the responsibilities of States and corporate actors with respect to climate change-related human rights harms. I will then turn to an examination of climate change impacts on specific economic, social and cultural rights – namely, the rights to equality and nondiscrimination, the right to self-determination and development, the right to an adequate standard of living (including the rights to food, water and sanitation, and adequate housing); the right to work and social security; the right to health; the right to education; and the right to culture. My statement draws on a range of international reports and declarations, as well as on the publication Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Climate Change: A Legal Reference Guide (New Haven, Ct.: CISDL, GEM & ASAP, 2013), which I co-edited with Sébastien Jodoin, a law professor at McGill University. I. The relationship between climate change and human rights The Philippines is amongst the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change.1 The country faces both rapid- and slow-onset climate change impacts, including increased intensity and frequency of typhoons, and modified typhoon patterns; more extreme and warmer conditions; increased variability, intensity and amount of rainfall; increased intensity of storm surges; floods; droughts; ocean acidification; and more frequent forest fires.2 The Philippines is also particularly vulnerable to sea level rise.3 Many of these impacts are already being felt in the country. For example, climate change-induced variability in rainfall has already been observed, along with evidence showing changes in the intensity of extreme rainfall events in some places, 1 Javier Bornstein Ortega & Christine Klauth, Climate Landscape Analysis for Children in the Philippines (Makati City: UNICEF Philippines, 2017), online: <https://www.unicef.org/philippines/UNICEFPHCLAC.pdf> at 11 [UNICEF Philippines]. See also: Sönke Kreft, David Eckstein & Inga Melchior, Global Climate Risk Index 2017 (Bonn: Germanwatch, 2017) at 4-5. 2 UNICEF Philippines, ibid at 11. 3 Ibid. The report notes that in the Philippines, water levels are projected to rise between 7.6 and 10.2 centimetres every 10 years, compared to the global average of 3.1 centimetres. 1