A/HRC/48/78 populations. The persistent failure to take sufficiently ambitious action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thereby mitigate climate change has the heaviest impact on States and communities that have been subject to historic exploitation, discrimination and marginalization. States must pay attention to historical or persistent prejudice, recognize that environmental harm can result from and reinforce existing patterns of discrimination, and take measures against the conditions that cause or perpetuate discrimination. States should take measures to protect those who are at particular risk of environmental harm. 59. Environmental justice and reparations are human rights to which people of African descent are entitled. As environmental human rights defenders, people of African descent have faced threats, intimidation and violent attacks while defending their communities’ human rights or campaigning for the promotion of economic alternatives that contribute to the development of environmentally safe livelihoods for people of African descent. 60. Environmental racism is perpetrated by States, international corporations and other non-State actors, often in violation of international human rights obligations and local law, and also with deliberate indifference to the impact on communities of African descent. It is for this reason that the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action requested States, supported by international cooperation as appropriate, to consider positively concentrating additional investments in environmental control in communities of primarily African descent. 61. The climate crisis has now become a ticking time bomb. This global emergency, characterized by global warming and climate change as a result of human decisionmaking, including the burning of fossil fuels and the release of excessive amounts of carbon into the environment, has already had a disproportionate impact on the lives of people of African descent. Disproportionate effects have also been reported on the African continent. Communities and even entire States that occupy and rely upon lowlying coastal lands, tundra and Arctic ice, arid lands, and other delicate ecosystems are at particular risk. Policymaking, including how States respond to the climate crisis, may strengthen the impact of the climate crisis on communities of African descent, which often have less political and positional power locally and globally. Addressing the climate crisis requires a human rights-based approach that prioritizes the inclusion of people of African descent in decision-making at all stages, including preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery. Protection should be equal and effective.11 62. The evidence from climate tipping points in the climate system, which suggests that “we are in a state of planetary emergency”, points to a worsening situation for people of African descent. 12 Among other things, the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action invites States to consider non-discriminatory measures to provide for a safe and healthy environment for individuals and groups of individuals victims of or subject to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, and in particular, to ensure that relevant concerns are taken into account in the public process of decision-making on the environment. This further requires appropriate remedial measures, as possible, to clean, re-use and develop contaminated sites, and where appropriate, relocate those affected on a voluntary basis after consultation. 63. The world is currently facing a climate crisis, environmental racism, pervasive toxic pollution, dramatic loss of biodiversity and a surge in emerging infectious diseases of zoonotic origin, such as COVID-19. These interlocking environmental crises have a negative impact on a wide range of human rights, including the rights to life, health, water, sanitation, food, decent work, development, education, peaceful assembly and cultural rights, as well as the right to live in a healthy environment. 64. The adverse effects have a disproportionate impact on women and girls and the rights of billions of people, especially those who are already vulnerable to 11 12 14 See www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/HRAndClimateChange/Pages/HRClimateChangeIndex.aspx. Timothy M. Lenton et al., “Climate tipping points — too risky to bet against”, Nature, 2019; 575 (7784).