 An Open Letter dated 17 October 2014 to State Parties to the UNFCCC from 28 Special Procedures mandates that urges the UNFCCC "to adopt urgent and ambitious mitigation and adaptation measures to prevent further harm" and to include in the 2015 climate agreement a commitment that "the Parties shall, in all climate change related actions, respect, protect, promote and fulfil human rights for all."16 At the panel discussion, John Knox, the Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, emphasized critical elements of this letter which describes climate change as one of the greatest challenges of our generation, highlights its disproportionate effects on disadvantaged, marginalized, and excluded person, groups and peoples, and urges the incorporation of human rights obligations into climate change negotiations  A joint statement drawing attention to the grave harm even a two degree Celsius increase in average global temperature would cause to the enjoyment of human rights issued on the occasion of World Environment Day 2015.17 The Special Rapporteurs urged climate negotiators to reach an agreement that reflects the obligations human rights law places on States to protect and promote human rights.  A report prepared by several Special Rapporteurs for the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a group of twenty countries that are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change. On behalf of the Forum, the Philippines, the current chair, submitted the report, entitled “The Effects of Climate Change on the Full Enjoyment of Human Rights”, on 1 May 2015 to the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC.18 This report warns that a temperature increase of just 1.5 degrees Celsius will threaten human rights, challenging the level of ambition of the current temperature goal of two degrees Celsius. What steps should be taken going forward? In the Geneva Pledge for Human Rights in Climate Action, announced on 13 February 2015, eighteen States committed to facilitate the sharing of best practices and knowledge between human rights and climate experts at the national level, in order to build collective capacity to deliver responses to climate change that are good for people and the planet. The Geneva Pledge remains open to States and is one of many important initiatives aimed at improving understanding of the linkages between human rights and climate change. During the panel discussions, panellists repeatedly emphasized the importance of this initiative noting that improved communication between these distinct constituencies is an important prerequisite for a greater integration of human rights in the climate change discussion. The ultimate objective of these and other initiatives must be to take this discussion from a theoretical level to a practical one which inspires urgent, immediate, rights-based action to mitigate and adapt to the negative impacts of climate change. By building upon previous work in the area of human rights and climate change and the panel discussion of 6 March 2015, the remainder of this report seeks to inform and inspire the action needed to integrate human rights in climate action at COP 21 and beyond. The next section examines particular rights affected by climate change. Part III, 16 Available at: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/SP/SP_To_UNFCCC.pdf (last accessed 7 September 2015). 17 Available at: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16049&LangID=E (last accessed 7 September 2015). 18 Available at: http://www.thecvf.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/humanrightsSRHRE.pdf (last accessed 7 September 2015). Page 12 of 28