In order to counter the potential for substantive discrimination in Australia’s climate change response, the government must therefore take special measures to ensure that Indigenous peoples do not bear a disproportionate burden. For example, Indigenous communities should be involved in helping to set policy under the future ETS. 102 In addition, tax relief promised by the government to offset the adverse impacts of the ETS on disadvantaged communities should be specially fine-tuned in the case of Indigenous peoples to achieve more equal outcomes. 103 4.3 Understanding the Right to Equality and Non-Discrimination in the Context of Climate Change Adaptation Policies The right to non-discrimination is also relevant in the context of climate change adaptation. Because populations will be unequally affected by climate change impacts, States adaptation responses must take this inequality into account in their design and implementation. For instance, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women highlighted that “climate change does not affect women and men in the same way and has a genderdifferentiated impact.”104 Women’s unequal access to health care, social security, adequate housing and disaster relief are just several examples of this gender differentiation, which requires particular consideration in adaptation planning.105 In particular, the right to non-discrimination does not only prohibit unjustified distinctions based on certain grounds; it also demands that public authorities distinguish between significantly different situations. In the words of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, “States parties may be, and in some cases are, under an obligation to adopt special measures to attenuate or suppress conditions that perpetuate discrimination.”106 Therefore, public authorities may be required to take positive measures to help those categories of persons who are most vulnerable to climate change. For example, in some circumstances, such populations may require specific adaptation policies, tailored for their particular needs and response to their particular characteristics.107 Case study: Project for the protection of children under five and pregnant women against malaria in the areas most vulnerable to climate change, Benin The project for the protection of children under five and pregnant women against malaria in areas most vulnerable to climate change was developed by a partnership between several Beninese government ministries, with the support of the Global Environment Facility’s Least Developed Countries Fund. This project succeeded in mainstreaming the protection of these particularly vulnerable groups into one of the country’s adaptation strategies. The project identifies malaria as a growing public health issue due to the effects of climate change. In particular, it recognizes that some sections of the population are particularly vulnerable to the disease, noting that: - An important part of the population cannot access to health services for lack of financial resources, in the absence of a social security plan; - Certain regions are at higher risk; 32