factor in climate-related hazards.123 Accordingly, the Committee on the Rights of the Child has called on States “to ensure that the special vulnerabilities and requirements of children, as well as their views, are taken into account when developing policies and programmes addressing the issues of climate change and disaster risk management.”124 In a 2013 report to the UN General Assembly, the UN Secretary General noted the necessity of interpreting human rights instruments in the context of intergenerational equity, observing that our moral obligations to future generations arise from “the equal concern and respect we owe to all humans, regardless of where and when they may have been born.” 125 More recently in an Advisory Opinion, the IACtHR acknowledged that the right to a healthy environment is an individual and a collective right stating that “in its collective dimension, the right to a healthy environment constitutes a universal interest, which is owed to present as well as future generations.”126 Similarly, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) has recognized that certain enumerated rights, including the rights to food and water, must be protected for both present and future generations.127 As noted in the amicus brief submitted by Our Children’s Trust, “the current generation of children are developing into adults as States fail to address the causes of climate change; they live their lives in a time of increasing climate instability under threat of increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather events, increasing ocean acidification, loss of coastline and even entire geographic regions to rising sea levels, rising rates of epidemiological disease, dislocation, and social disruption.”128 These threats will be even more pronounced for future generations in the Philippines and around the world. Summary Conclusions There is no question that climate change poses a substantial threat to human rights in the Philippines and abroad. The OHCHR and other expert bodies have issued numerous reports detailing both current and future threats to life, health, clean water and sanitation, food, housing, self-determination and development, and equality and non-discrimination. As detailed in the science section, the causal linkages between the emissions generated by the companies named in this investigation and these harmful impacts are well established. It is therefore appropriate and necessary to hold these companies accountable for the ways in which their actions have interfered and will continue to interfere with the full enjoyment of human rights. 123 IPCC WGII, supra note 75, 1066. Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding Observations for Bhutan 2017, Antigua and Barbuda 2017, Mauritius 2015, New Zealand 2016, Samoa 2016, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 2017. 125 United Nations General Assembly Report, Intergenerational solidarity and the needs of future generations Report of the Secretary-General, A/68/322 (Aug. 2013). 126 Solicitada por la República de Colombia, Medio Ambiente y Derechos Humanos, Opinión Consultiva OC-23/17 Inter-Am. Ct. H.R., at ¶ 55 (internal citation omitted) (unofficial translation) (Original: “En su dimensión colectiva, el derecho a un medio ambiente sano constituye un interés universal, que se debe tanto a las generaciones presentes y futuras.”) 127 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, CESCR General Comment No. 12: The Right to Adequate Food (Art. 11), E/C.12/1999/5 (May 12, 1999); Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, CESCR General Comment No. 15: The Right to Water (Arts. 11 and 12 of the Covenant), E/C.12/2002/11 (Jan. 20, 2003). 128 Our Children’s Trust brief, at p. 10. 124 29

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