4.2 Right to Health As outlined in section 3, the Convention on the Rights of the Child expressly connects the right to health with the environment, and the Committee has described climate change as “one of the biggest threats to children’s health.”52 Due to their unique stage of physical and psychological development, all children are exceptionally vulnerable to the impacts of climate-related stresses, which pose severe and far-reaching threats to their physical and mental health. Young children, particularly between birth and the age of 5, are at particular risk due to their less developed physiology and immune systems.53 Disease, safe drinking water and nutrition According to the World Health Organization (WHO), infectious and vector-borne diseases, exposure to flooding due to sea level rise, heat-related deaths, and under-nutrition are all priority health issues for the Philippines in a changing climate, in addition to ambient and indoor air pollution.54 Rising temperatures are lengthening the transmission season and expanding the geographic range of vector-borne diseases, including malaria, dengue fever, Zika and Japanese encephalitis.55 The global burden of these climate-sensitive diseases is already heavily concentrated on children – 70 per cent of all deaths from malaria in 2015 for example occurred in children under the age of 5,56 and the World Health Organization projects that climate impacts will cause an additional 60,000 deaths from malaria among children globally under the age of 15 by 2030.57 In the Philippines, malaria is currently endemic in more than 57 provinces, affecting predominantly poorer communities in remote locations. 58 By 2070, the WHO projects that over 150 million people will be at risk of malaria in the Philippines, under both high and low emissions scenarios.59 In addition, a spread in dengue fever outbreaks has also been observed in recent years, including a 30 per cent increase in cases in Manila and the Cordillera Autonomous Region.60 Children are also highly susceptible to many infectious water-borne diseases that become more prevalent in the context of drought, floods and extreme weather, particularly when damage to essential water and sanitation infrastructure occurs. According to UNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring Programme estimates, 6.66 per cent of the population remains reliant upon unimproved or surface water, predominantly in rural areas,61 while per capita water availability in the Philippines is the second lowest among Southeast Asian countries, and significantly lower than the world average.62 By 2025, water availability is projected to be marginal in the majority of big cities, as well as in 8 of the country’s 19 principle river basins.63 Consumption of contaminated water increases the incidence of diarrhoea, the fourth leading cause of death of under-5 year olds in the Philippines.64 Although the total number of diarrhoeal deaths in Filipino children under the age of 15 is projected to decline over time, the WHO projects that the share of those attributable to climate change could increase from 7.7 per cent in 2030 to 11 per cent by 2050. 65 Children’s access to adequate nutrition is severely threatened by climate change, which will significantly affect crop production, food availability and household income, leading to increased malnutrition and worsening rates of stunting, wasting and micronutrient deficiency, particularly among poor communities.66 Children are once again at heightened risk as they need to consume more food per unit of body weight than adults, leaving them more vulnerable to deprivation of food.67 Undernutrition exacerbates the severity of a range of diseases, and is responsible for almost half of worldwide deaths of children under the age of 5.68 The WHO estimates that climate change will lead to nearly 95,000 additional deaths per year in children aged 5 years or less globally by 2030 due to under-nutrition.69 Furthermore, undernutrition during the first two years of life can lead to irreversible stunting, affecting