CHR-NI-2016-0001 Statement of Resource Person, Katherine Lofts (iii) Right to food38 Climate change is progressively threatening food security. 39 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has stated that “all aspects of food security are potentially affected by climate change, including food access, utilization, and price stability.”40 Variability in rainfall, changes in the suitability of arable land, pests, and drought are projected to increase crop losses and reduce agricultural production, thereby affecting the availability of food.41 Access to food can also be affected by damage to crop yields, damage to infrastructure, and the destruction of livelihoods caused by extreme weather events such as typhoons. These factors can in turn lead to higher levels of malnutrition, wasting, and micronutrient deficiency.42 The impacts of climate change on the right to food will have a disproportionate effect on the developing world. Climate change is “projected to slow down economic growth, make poverty reduction more difficult, further erode food security, and prolong existing and create new poverty traps, the latter particularly in urban areas and emerging hotspots of hunger.”43 Impoverished communities are particularly at risk of under-nutrition from diminished food production in poorer regions.44 In the Philippines, the agricultural sector is strongly affected by climate change, and the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones is already having a detrimental effect on food security.45 These impacts are expected to worsen over time. For example, models predict that an estimated 70,000 additional children will be malnourished in the Philippines by 2050 due to climate change impacts, amounting to an increase of 4%.46 (iv) Right to water47 and sanitation48 Climate change is impacting the enjoyment of the right to water. The loss of glaciers and reductions in snow cover are projected to negatively affect populations supplied 38 ICESCR, supra note 16 at Art 11; CRC, supra note 29 at Art. 24(c); CRPD, supra note 29 at Arts 25(f) and 28(1); CEDAW, supra note 29 at Art 14(2)(h); CERD, supra note 29 at Art 5(e). 39 See eg: OHCHR, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, UN Doc A/HRC/7/5 (10 January 2008) at para 51; OHCHR, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food: Mission to Bolivia, UN Doc A/HRC/7/5/Add.2 (30 January 2008) at paras 11 and 15; A/HRC/31/52, supra note 6 at 26. 40 IPCC, supra note 32 at 18. 41 See, eg: UNICEF Philippines, supra note 1 at 20; A/HRC/31/52, supra note 6 at 26. 42 UNICEF Philippines, supra note 1 at 20. 43 IPCC, supra note 32 at 20, 6-8. See also: Columbia Law School – Human Rights Institute, Volume 8:Climate Change and the Right to Food: A Comprehensive Study (Executive Summary) (Berlin: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, 2009) at 14. 44 Ibid at 19. 45 Timothy S Thomas, Angga Pradesha & Nicostrato Perez, Agricultural Growth, Climate Resilience, and Food Security in the Philippines (Washington: IFPRI, 2016) at 1. 46 UNICEF Philippines, supra note 1 at 20. 47 ICESCR, supra note 16 at Art 11; CEDAW, supra note 29 at Art 14(2)(h); and CRPD, supra note 29 at Art 28(2)(a). See also: CRC, supra note 29 at Art 24(2)(c). 48 See eg: HRC, Report of the Independent Expert on the Issue of Human Rights Obligations related to Access to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque, UN Doc A/HRC/12/24 (1 July 2009); GA Res 64/292, The Human Right to Water and Sanitation, UN Doc A/RES/64/292 (28 July 2010). HRC Res 15/9, Human Rights and Access to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation, UN Doc A/HRC/RES/15/9 (6 October 2010); CESCR, Statement on the Right to Sanitation, UN Doc E/C.12/2010/1 (19 November 2010) at para 8; and CESCR, General Comment No 15, UN Doc E/C.12/2002/11 (26 November 2002) at para 1 [General Comment No 15]. 7