ABSTRACT
Climate change is among the most important drivers of ecosystem changes, along with overexploitation of resources and pollution. A number of observed and projected effects of climate change will pose direct and indirect threats to human lives. Climate change will affect the right to life through an increase in hunger and malnutrition and related disorders impacting on child growth and development, cardio-respiratory morbidity and mortality related to ground-level ozone. Climate change will exacerbate weather-related disasters which already have devastating effects on people and their enjoyment of the right to life, particularly in the developing world. The Special Rapporteur on the right to food has documented how extreme climate events are increasingly threatening livelihoods and food security. Non-climate-related factors, such as education, health care, are critical in determining how global warming will affect the health of populations. Indigenous peoples have been voicing their concern about the impacts of climate change on their collective human rights and their rights as distinct peoples.
