6 Future Generations and considerations of Intergenerational Equity The disproportionate impact of climate change on children and other vulnerable groups raises fundamental questions of climate justice, fairness, equity and access to effective remedy, including judicial and other redress mechanisms. These concerns also apply to future generations, who, like children, have contributed the least to greenhouse gas emissions, and yet will encounter more severe violations of their rights than current generations, while being least able to exercise their right to be heard and participate with regards to key decisions affecting them. In addition, while the worst impacts of climate change will be felt in the future, the ability of future generations to hold those responsible to account will be limited due to the time lag between cause and effect. Children already face major barriers in asserting their right to access effective remedy in any setting, but many of these challenges are magnified in the context of environmental issues, due to, inter alia, complexity in linking specific harm to the actors whose activities are responsible, the burden of proof required, restrictive limitation periods, and onerous financial costs. Moreover, by the time tipping points are reached, children growing up today and future generations may face a significant additional challenge in seeking effective remedy for climate harm – namely, that many of the actors responsible, particularly in the private sector, may have ceased to exist altogether due to fundamental shifts towards a low carbon global economy.166 The Convention on the Rights of the Child considers that children are rights holders from birth, but as the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment has stated, ‘future generations are being born every day’.167 Applying a child rights-based approach to climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts – notably by taking into account the best interests of the child – holds the key to providing adequate protection of both children and future generation’s rights. This involves, notably, affirmative action by States to take urgent and ambitious measures to curb temperature rise to no more than 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels, including through adequately regulating the emissions of businesses, as well as focusing adaptation efforts on reaching the most vulnerable children. Critically, it necessitates empowering children to exercise their right to be heard and to participate meaningfully in the design and planning of these measures, including through the provision of environmental education – as enshrined in Article 29 of the Convention – and effective consultative mechanisms. It also involves guaranteeing that children have access to effective remedies for climate harm, including as a result of business activity. Addressing the rights and best interests of the child in this manner would provide a powerful means for serving long terms needs over short term interests, providing children with the tools to become critical agents of change and defenders of their environmental rights for both current and future generations. Underpinning these steps will be the need to collect child-specific disaggregated data, and to mobilize resources for effective climate action, both domestically and through international cooperation. Positive steps and commitments towards bridging States’ obligations under the Convention and other relevant frameworks have already taken place at the international level, including in the Paris Agreement, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, as set out in section 3.3. Furthermore, at the national level, the Philippines has a progressive record in recognizing intergenerational equity in environmental matters. Children in the Philippines filed some of the earliest environmental protection cases in 1993 to challenge the destruction of rainforests, both on their own behalf as well as that of future generations, and the ruling in their favour by the Supreme Court continues to be regarded as an exemplary example of