39 Provinces had to ask help from external organizations to respond to the demand.178 It is clear that climate change has deleterious systemic and widespread effects on the realization of the right to health of Filipinos. iii. Right to Food Security The UDHR and the ICESCR protect the right to food as part of the right to a dignified standard of living.179 The CESCR in its General Comment No. 12 states that this right is “realized when every man, woman and child, alone or in community with others, have physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement.”180 While the Philippine Constitution does not explicitly mention the right to food, the recognition of such a right may be inferred from various provisions on human dignity as well as in Article XV, Section 3 which requires the State to, among others, defend children’s right to proper nutrition. The impacts of climate change on food availability, accessibility, adequacy and sustainability are outlined in a report by the Special Rapporteur on the right to food.181 Citing the IPCC, the report warns that the rising temperatures and increased frequency of extreme weather events will negatively affect crop, livestock, fisheries and aquaculture productivity, and will in turn impact food availability.182 Food accessibility will be more difficult—especially for the poor and socially-vulnerable groups— due to changes in food production and market prices.183 Food distribution during emergencies will also become increasingly complicated because of more frequent and intense extreme weather events.184 The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations also warns that the number of people battling hunger and undernourishment will continue to rise if we fail to tackle climate change.185 178 Id. 179 UDHR, supra note 140, art. 25 (1) & ICESCR, supra note 153, art. 11 (1). 180 United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 12: The Right to Adequate Food (Article 11 of the Covenant), E/C.12/1999/5 (May 12, 1999), para. 6. 181 Hilal Elver, Interim Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, A/70/287 (2015). 182 Id. 183 Id. 184 Id. 185 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World: Building Climate Resilience for Food Security and Nutrition (2018).