is expected to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year between 2030 and 2050 due to increases in malnutrition, malaria, dengue, diarrhea, and heat stress alone. 68 A broader study commissioned by the Climate Vulnerable Forum found that climate change is already responsible for approximately 400,000 deaths per year and that number is expected to rise to 700,000 deaths per year by 2030.69 These mortality estimates are based on the direct effects of climate change, such as extreme weather events, flooding, heat waves, disease, water shortages, and food shortages. Climate change can also affect mortality in other ways that are more difficult to quantify – for example, by undermining livelihoods and displacing people from their homes. In the Philippines, the most significant climate-related threats to life include observed and projected increases in storm intensity, extreme rainfall, flooding, and landslides, the effects of which will be exacerbated by sea level rise in coastal areas, as well as increased maximum temperatures and heat waves. Severe storms like Typhoon Haiyan have already claimed tens of thousands of lives in the past decade.70 The possibility of more severe or prolonged droughts is also a major concern in many parts of the country. 71 II. Right to Health The ICESCR enshrines “the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.” 72 The UDHR also recognizes a right to health as part of the right to an adequate standard of living. 73 Citing studies from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), WHO, and other expert bodies, OHCHR has concluded that climate change negatively affects the right to health.74 The key impacts of climate change on health include: increases in the incidence of heatrelated mortality as well as heat-related respiratory and cardiovascular disease; extreme weather events and natural disasters; expanding disease vectors; nutrition deficits linked to food shortages and loss of livelihoods; violent conflict associated with resource scarcity and displacement of people due to climate change; and adverse impacts on mental health owing to the physical and mental stress caused by various climate-related phenomena (e.g., displacement from homes due to sea level rise).75 Recognizing that these negative health impacts “will increase exponentially with every incremental increase in warming,” OHCHR has stated that “[l]imiting global 68 WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, QUANTITATIVE RISK ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON SELECTED CAUSES OF DEATH, 2030S AND 2050S (2014). 69 DARA AND CLIMATE VULNERABLE FORUM, A GUIDE TO THE COLD CALCULUS OF A HOT PLANET, 17 (2d ed. 2012). 70 Gwen de la Cruz, Worst Natural Disasters in the Philippines, RAPPLER, Aug. 1, 2014, https://www.rappler.com/move-ph/issues/disasters/64916-worst-natural-disasters-philippines. 71 For more on this, please refer to the discussion of the “right to water” below. 72 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Art. 12(1), Dec. 16, 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3 [hereinafter ICESCR]. 73 UDHR, supra note 65, Art. 25. 74 U.N. Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, Analytical Study on the Relationship Between Climate Change and the Human Right of Everyone to the Enjoyment of the Highest Attainable Standard of Physical and Mental Health, ¶ 45, UN Doc. A/HRC/32/23 (May 6, 2016). 75 Id. at ¶¶ 5-8, 12-22 (citing WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, CLIMATE CHANGE AND HEALTH, FACT SHEET NO. 266; INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE, CLIMATE CHANGE 2014: IMPACTS, ADAPTATION, AND VULNERABILITY, CONTRIBUTION OF THE WORKING GROUP II TO THE FIFTH ASSESSMENT REPORT OF THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE, 713 (Christopher Field et al. eds. 2014) [hereinafter IPCC WGII]). 23