environmental pollution, then “immediate steps should be taken by all relevant parties to prevent further damage to the health and development of children and repair any damage done”.20 In the context of climate change, preventing further damage to children’s rights will entail, amongst other measures, ambitious mitigation action by all relevant actors, and notably the business sector, in order to curtail warming to no more than 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels, as called for in the Paris Agreement. Indeed, it is clear that the impacts of climate change on child rights directly trigger the human rights responsibilities of companies such as the ‘Carbon Majors’ themselves, as elaborated in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The implications of the latter for child rights specifically are further elucidated in the Children’s Rights and Business Principles,21 which clarify that businesses should respect and support children’s rights in relation to the environment, including by: a) ensuring that business operations do not adversely affect children’s rights through damage to the environment or by reducing access to natural resources; b) taking measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from company operations and promoting sustainable resource use; and c) identifying opportunities to prevent and mitigate disaster risk and to support communities in finding ways to adapt to the consequences of climate change.22 3.3 Recent progress in recognizing child rights in climate-relevant frameworks Despite this body of guidance, children’s rights, and human rights more broadly, continue to remain largely absent from efforts to tackle climate change. The Convention is overlooked in designing and implementing climate-related policies and standards at the international, regional and national levels, while child-focused policies and legislation frequently fail to take account of the impacts and risks of climate change. However, the importance of child rights in the context of climate change is explicitly recognised in the Paris Agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), representing a major advance. The Agreement calls on States to “respect, promote and consider” their respective obligations on the rights of children and intergenerational equity in the context of climate action. The Philippines played an important role in championing and securing this landmark language, including in its capacity as chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum,23 and as a member of the Geneva Pledge for Human Rights in Climate Action.24 In parallel, other major international frameworks also recognise that tackling climate change and development are intrinsically linked, incorporate human rights as guiding principles, and place emphasis on children’s particular needs and vulnerabilities, as well as their role as agents of change. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls on States to ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills required to promote sustainable development (SDG 4.7), and to “promote mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management” including by focusing on youth (SDG13). The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction states that “children and youth are agents of change and should be given the space and modalities to contribute to disaster risk reduction”. Further progress is required however, to operationalise these commitments at the national and local levels, and to ensure that the principle of the best interests of the child is integrated throughout climate change, disaster risk reduction, and sustainable development action.