CRC/C/GC/26 States should not only protect children against environmental harm, but also ensure their well-being and development, taking into account the possibility of future risk and harm. 6 18. The adoption of all measures of implementation should also follow a procedure that ensures that the best interests of the child are a primary consideration. A child rights impact assessment should be used to evaluate the environmental impact of all implementation measures, such as any proposed policy, legislation, regulation, budget or other administrative decision concerning children, and should complement ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the impact of measures on children’s rights. 19. Potential conflicts of the best interests of the child with other interests or rights should be resolved on a case-by-case basis, carefully balancing the interests of all parties. Decision makers should analyse and weigh the rights and interests of all those concerned, giving appropriate weight to the primacy of the best interests of the child. States should take into account the possibility that environmental decisions that seem reasonable individually and on a shorter timescale can become unreasonable in aggregate and when considering the full harm that they will cause to children throughout their life courses. C. Right to life, survival and development 20. The right to life is threatened by environmental degradation, including climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss, which are closely linked to other fundamental challenges impeding the realization of this right, including poverty, inequality and conflict. States should take positive measures to ensure that children are protected from foreseeable premature or unnatural death and threats to their lives that may be caused by acts and omissions, as well as the activities of business actors, and enjoy their right to life with dignity. 7 Such measures include the adoption and effective implementation of environmental standards, for example, those related to air and water quality, food safety, lead exposure and greenhouse gas emissions, and all other adequate and necessary environmental measures that are protective of children’s right to life. 21. The obligations of States under article 6 of the Convention also apply to structural and long-term challenges arising from environmental conditions that may lead to direct threats to the right to life and require taking appropriate measures to tackle those conditions, for example, the sustainable use of resources needed for covering basic needs and the protection of healthy ecosystems and biodiversity. Special measures of protection are needed to prevent and reduce child mortality from environmental conditions and for groups in vulnerable situations. 22. Environmental degradation increase children’s risk of facing grave rights violations in armed conflict due to displacement, famine and increased violence. In the context of armed conflict, States should prohibit the development or retention of, and ensure the clean-up of areas contaminated by, unexploded ordnance and residue of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons, in line with international commitments. 23. Environmental degradation jeopardizes children’s ability to achieve their full developmental potential, with implications for a wide range of other rights under the Convention. The development of children is intertwined with the environment in which they live. The developmental benefits of a healthy environment include those linked to opportunities to experience outdoor activities and to interact with and play in natural environments, including the animal world. 24. Younger children are particularly susceptible to environmental hazards due to their unique activity patterns, behaviours and physiology. Exposure to toxic pollutants, even at low levels, during developmental windows of increased vulnerability can easily disrupt the maturational processes of the brain, organs and the immune system and cause disease and impairments during and beyond childhood, sometimes after a substantial latency period. The 6 7 4 General comment No. 14 (2013) on the right of the child to have his or her best interests taken as a primary consideration, paras. 16 (e), 71 and 74. Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 36 (2018) on the right to life, para. 62. GE.23-11144