4 The Impacts of Climate Change on the Rights of Children in the Philippines The below is intended to illustrate how the impacts of climate change in the Philippines are already undermining various child rights laid down in the Convention, recognizing that these are interdependent and interrelated. The section also explores how these infringements are likely to become increasingly severe in the context of future climate projections. 4.1 Rights to Life, Survival and Development As average global temperatures increase, deaths and injuries from increasingly intense climate-related disasters rise, as do mortality and morbidity linked to drought, heat waves, flooding, disease and malnutrition. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stated that the consequences of even a 2ºC rise in temperature will place children at particularly acute risk.33 In the Philippines, a 2ºC rise is likely to be catastrophic for children’s fundamental rights. An observed mean annual temperature increase of 0.010ºC (or 0.65ºC rise in total) over the period 1951-2010 is already associated with an increase in the intensity of storms,34 a rise in the variability of rainfall patterns and more frequent and intense extreme rainfall events,35 more hot days and warm nights,36 longer drought episodes,37 and more frequent forest fires.38 Further projected changes will heighten these impacts, and are also expected to lead to longer and hotter heatwaves, more floods, landslides and mudslides resulting from more intense storms and the increase in rainfall they bring, more intense storm surges, and threats arising from sea level rise, ocean acidification, and salinization of soil and freshwater resources.39 In every instance, children – particularly young children – are among the most susceptible.40 In the context of extreme weather and floods for example, many children lack the strength to stay on their feet in the face of fast currents, even in shallow water. Strong currents and debris in the water put them at high risk of injuries and drowning. 41 In November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan devastated the much of the Visayas, inflicting significant damage in Region VIII where the Typhoon first made landfall.42 While the country has many measures in place to deal with the estimated 7 to 9 typhoons affecting the Philippines each year,43 Haiyan was the strongest ever tropical storm to make landfall, and traditional coping mechanisms were overwhelmed. More than 14 million people were affected, including 5.9 million children.44 Coastal and inland areas of Leyte, Samar, Eastern Samar, northern Cebu and Panay Island were hardest hit, compounding the plight of some of the most vulnerable communities in the Philippines in which 40 per cent of children were living in poverty even prior to the typhoon.45 While information on the final child death toll is not available, the Government confirmed a total of 6,300 fatalities across the country, of which 92 per cent occurred in Leyte.46 According to the 2010 census, children aged 10 to 14 years comprised the largest age group in this province, followed by those in age groups 5-9 years and 0-4 years.47 Drowning and trauma were found to be the principle causes of most deaths.48 Similarly, during heatwaves, infants and young children are also more likely to die or suffer from heatstroke than adults, due to their inability to regulate their body temperature and control their surrounding environment, and their heightened sensitivity to dehydration and contaminated water.49 Children under 12 months are particularly vulnerable. Extreme heat also affects children through a variety of heat-related illnesses.50 One recent study found that over the past decade, Manila and Tuguegarao have already experienced heatwaves on 100 days per year, and suggests that areas of the Philippines such as Mindanao could face up to 300 heatwave days per year by 2050, under a business-as-usual emissions trajectory.51