Memorandum for the Petitioners | 149 A.3. Findings concerning human rights and climate change a) Climate change is a human rights issue and must be addressed in order to permit the full enjoyment of all fundamental human rights in the Philippines;690 b) There is international recognition that climate change is already affecting people’s lives, the effective enjoyment of human rights, and the ecosystems humans rely on;691 c) Communities in the Philippines have demonstrated through written and oral testimonies that climate impacts are affecting the full enjoyment of their human rights;692 d) The harmful effects of climate change pose a tremendous threat to human rights in the Philippines. Increases in the severity and frequency of sudden-onset disasters, such as typhoons and floods, already have and will continue to cause deaths, injuries, property destruction, and human displacement, while more gradual forms of environmental degradation will undermine access to clean water, food, and other key resources;693 e) These impacts will impair fundamental rights, including the rights to dignity, life, a clean and healthy environment, health, clean water and sanitation, food, adequate housing, self-determination and development, and equality and non discrimination. The impacts will disproportionately affect certain countries, such as the Philippines, and individuals, including those who are in disadvantaged situations due to poverty, gender, age, disability, cultural or ethnic background, and other factors, as well as children and future generations who will experience increasingly severe impacts over time;694 and f) The impacts of climate change threaten human dignity directly, by altering the environment in which humans live, and indirectly, by threatening peoples’ ability to enjoy and exercise the full range of their human rights. The rights affected by climate change are all connected to the right to C r Naidoo, K . supra note 628 . B achelet, M. (2018), Open- Letter from United Nations High Commission on Human Rights on integrating human rights in climate action, available at https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/ Issues/ClimateChange/OpenLetterHC21 Nov2018.pdf, (last accessed on 12 September 2019). 692 See statements and testimonies of all the community witnesses. 693 Joint Summary of the Amicus Curiae , supra note 50, p. 9. 694 Ibid. 690 691