may result in 1 to 2 billion no longer having enough water to meet their needs.36 Reduced access to water will disproportionately impact persons, groups and peoples in vulnerable situations. For example, reduced access to water introduces added burdens for women and girls in developing countries, who are often responsible for fetching water for their families from distant sources and have distinct needs for water and sanitation.37 During the panel discussions, several speakers stressed the importance of water and sanitation, and the impacts that climate change could have on this right. According to Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, “millions at the bottom of the development pyramid…are exposed to various climatic shocks. Slow-onset disasters like river erosion, desertification, ground water contamination, or inland salinity intrusion do not make headlines, yet impact people’s living.” There can be no doubt that the right to water and sanitation which is derived from the rights to health and an adequate standard of living found within the ICESCR is threatened by inadequate climate action. The right to health “Adverse effects of climate change” means changes in the physical environment or biota resulting from climate change which have significant deleterious effects… on human health and welfare…. The Parties should take precautionary measures to anticipate, prevent or minimize the causes of climate change and mitigate its adverse effects. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Articles 1 and 3 The human right to health is articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in Article 12 of the ICESCR which provides that all persons have the right “to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.” The Human Rights Council has specifically recognized the impacts of climate change on the right to health on multiple occasions, most recently in its resolution 29/15 which calls for a panel discussion and a detailed study on the relationship between climate change and the enjoyment of the right to health. According to World Bank reports, climate change will cause “health impacts [that] are likely to increase and be exacerbated by high rates of malnutrition,”38 including potential increases in vector-borne diseases and “heat-amplified levels of smog [that] could exacerbate respiratory disorders.” 39 In its most recent report, the IPCC found that “climate change is expected to lead to increases in ill-health in many regions and especially in developing countries with low income, as compared to a baseline without climate change”.40 During the panel discussion, Dan Bondi Ogolla, Coordinator and Principal Legal Adviser at the UNFCCC, stressed that the right to health is safeguarded in the UNFCCC, as “the definition of ‘adverse effects’ of climate change under the Convention includes impacts…on ‘human health and welfare’.” However, the level of ambition in climate action to date has fallen short of that necessary 36 World Bank, World Development Report, 5. See UN Women Watch, Fact Sheet: Women Gender Equality and Climate Change (2009). 38 The World Bank, Turn down the heat 2013, p. 24. 39 World Bank, Turn down the heat 2012, p. xvii. 40 IPCC, AR5, p. 15. 37 Page 18 of 28