human rights obligations related to participation of persons, groups and peoples in vulnerable situations in decision-making processes and to ensure that adaptation and mitigation efforts do not have adverse effects on those that they should be protecting. Human rights impact assessments of climate actions should be employed to ensure that they respect human rights. Further, States should develop and monitor relevant human rights indicators in the context of climate change, keeping disaggregated data to track the varied impacts of climate change across demographic groups and enabling effective, targeted and human rights compliant climate action. Part I. Human Rights and Climate Change “Climate change threatens our ability to achieve sustainable development, and in some cases, our very survival.” Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations As emphasized by the United Nations Human Rights Council in its Resolution 26/27, “climate change is an urgent global problem requiring a global solution.” The Council called for international cooperation to implement the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) “in order to support national efforts for the realization of human rights affected by climate changerelated impact.” The Council affirmed that “human rights obligations, standards and principles have the potential to inform and strengthen international, regional and national policymaking in the area of climate change, promoting policy coherence, legitimacy and sustainable outcomes.” In recognition of these facts, the Human Rights Council held a full-day panel discussion on human rights and climate change on 6 March 2015.2 The discussion addressed challenges posed by climate change towards the realization of all human rights for everyone, particularly those in vulnerable situations, and the adverse impacts of climate change on States’ efforts to progressively realize the right to food. Panellists, who included eminent speakers representing United Nations Member States, intergovernmental organisations, civil society and academia, recommended forward-looking rights-based solutions to address climate change.3 This submission to the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an outcome of the above-mentioned panel discussion that is complemented by human rights commentary and analysis. It is intended to inform climate action and policy at all levels including the work of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP) and to further elucidate the critical links between human rights and climate change identified by panellists. Panellists highlighted a number of human rights challenges resulting from or exacerbated by climate change as well as efforts to mitigate and adapt to it. They stressed the importance of ensuring transparency and participation, especially of those most affected, in all climate-change 2 The summary report of this discussion is contained in A/HRC/29/19 For more information about this discussion including the concept note and statements of panellists please see http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/HRAndClimateChange/Pages/Discussion6March2015.aspx (last accessed 6 October 2015). 3 Page 5 of 28