A/HRC/48/78 environmental harm, including people living in poverty, minorities, older persons, LGBT persons, racially and ethnically marginalized groups, indigenous peoples, people of African descent, persons with disabilities, migrants, internally displaced persons, and children. 65. Peoples and communities historically subject to exploitation, including people of African descent, continue to bear the brunt of pollution, environmental degradation and climate change, including in some actions ostensibly intended to protect the environment. In addition, environmental human rights defenders have been subject to a shocking rate of killings, threats, arbitrary arrests, harassment and intimidation as a direct result of their legitimate work on human rights and the environment. 66. Climate change is a biproduct of an economic system that is heavily reliant on extraction, exploitation and accumulation through dispossession. There are credible authorities, including civil society organizations, academics and individual experts, that can attest to the racialized impact of environmental racism and the climate crisis, in every region. Resources abound to facilitate the understanding of the severe, ongoing and systemic impact of the climate crisis and environmental racism on communities of African descent. Although people of African descent should be at the centre of climate and environmental analyses, particularly as communities subject to historical and ongoing exploitation, any genuine understanding or acknowledgment that climatic and other environmental effects are particularly pervasive in the global South has been lacking. The climate crisis, and specifically any effort to exclude, minimize or ignore its dramatic impact on communities of African descent in particular (including in the most developed countries) and on the Global South in general, reflect a mindset that is a legacy of white supremacy. A racialized analysis illustrates that climate change is not an isolated crisis but a symptom of economic and political systems that have disregarded the right to life and other core human rights. 67. Transformative actions are urgently required to address systemic racism and the COVID-19 pandemic, to protect the environment and human rights, and to address the drivers of the climate emergency, toxic pollution, biodiversity loss and zoonotic diseases, including by requiring businesses to respect the rights of affected communities and the environment. 68. A human rights-based approach would help to address inequality and ensure protection for people in vulnerable situations, including people of African descent. 69. The right to a healthy environment includes the rights to clean air, safe and sufficient water, sanitation, healthy and sustainable food, a toxic-free environment, a safe and stable climate and healthy ecosystems and biodiversity. It also includes the rights to environmental information, participation in decision-making and access to justice with effective remedies. 70. The Working Group welcomes the steps taken towards environmental justice and the inclusion of people of African descent in all conversations on the climate crisis worldwide. It also welcomes, in the United States of America, the Executive Order on Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis of 20 January 2021. It calls upon the Government of the United States to deliver environmental justice in communities in America, including areas like “Death Alley” and other areas that face environmental degradation, climate crises and disaster, all of which are compounded by infrastructure deficiencies, including a lack of potable water, sanitation, plumbing, and assurances of air quality. The Working Group calls upon all Governments to protect the right to a healthy environment and to partner with communities for environmental justice for people of African descent globally. 71. The Working Group welcomes the considerations made by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to prepare a new general recommendation on the right to health and racial discrimination. In the light of the climate crisis, the impact of environmental racism and of climate-related disasters on communities of African descent, it is clear that the right to health and the right to environmental justice are inextricably linked. 15