A/77/189 when undertaken without adequate resources. Water quality and availability are also negatively impacted by climate change. Sea-level rise can result in the salinization of fresh water sources, drought can reduce access to water supplies and flooding can affect the quality of water. Health is tied to adequate food and water, and thus, where access to these rights is limited, so too is human health. Migrants – and rural to urban migrants, in particular – face increased disease and health risks from conditions in slums and informal employment sectors. 34. Adequate housing is a component of the right to an adequate standard of living. The right to adequate housing includes protection against forced evictions, security of tenure, access to affordable housing, habitability and accessibility, and availability of facilities, services, materials and infrastructure. 8 The right to adequate housing also means that adequate housing must meet a number of criteria, including privacy, space, security and location. People who are compelled to leave their homes owing to slow onset effects of climate change may face poor living conditions and, while in transit, are likely to live in precarious conditions. 35. Slow-onset events of climate change, such as coastal erosion in areas of Honduras, for instance, are exacerbating pre-existing poverty, inequality and exclusion, compelling people to migrate. In this sense, t he absence of public policies on prevention and mitigation, as well as a lack of environmental due diligence by private companies, may be drivers that exacerbate these impacts on territories and peoples. Likewise, the adverse effects of sudden-onset events linked to climate change may have serious effects on subsistence in the territory, while they can also accentuate dynamics of violence, insecurity and political persecution. 9 36. The adverse effects of climate change are placing existing environmental systems, governance and social structures under stress. They are also increasing the drivers of internal migration within Vanuatu, as people increasingly move towards urban centres. Storm surges represent the highest displacement risk for Vanuatu, and there is a 64 per cent probability that one will displace 10,900 people in the next 50 years. 10 37. The Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants notes that climate change is challenging the adaptive capacities of many different communities and overwhelming some owing to its interaction with and exacerbation of existing problems of food security, water scarcity and the scant protection afforded by marginal lands. The critical aspects are clearly varying from place to place and from individual to individual. Natural disasters might displace large numbers of people for relatively short periods of time; however, the slow-onset drivers are likely to displace permanently many more people, those who can access migration as an adaptation strategy, in a less headline-grabbing way. 11 38. It must be acknowledged that migration should serve as an important adaptation strategy to climate change and a means to build resilience among individuals and communities, while also reducing exposure and vulnerability to hazards. The Special Rapporteur reiterates the analysis of his predecessor that migration has been a traditional coping mechanism, widely used by populations around the world since time immemorial to adapt to changing environments. If properly managed, migration can therefore also be a solution to cope with climate change ( A/67/299). __________________ 8 9 10 11 22-11278 See www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-housing/human-right-adequate-housing. Submission by the Center for Justice and International Law and Franciscans International. Submission by Vanuatu. See https://olibrown.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/2008-Migration-and-Climate-ChangeIOM.pdf. 9/23