What is disability inclusive climate justice?
Miriam from drought-hit Tharaka Nithi county, Kenya, setting up her kitchen garden with drought tolerant “green gram” seeds. PC: CBM/Plateau Media
Climate change is an ongoing issue affecting us all. It involves significant changes in average conditions—such as temperature, precipitation (rain), wind patterns, and other aspects of climate—that occur over years, decades, centuries, or longer. It involves longer-term trends, such as shifts toward warmer, wetter, or drier conditions and changes in traditional growing seasons.
Climate justice refers to the origins and impacts of these changes in the climate, which have unequal impacts and uneven origins. What is unfair is that the wealthiest countries with the highest economies in the world have enjoyed for generations the profits and development gains that caused global warming. Since the Industrial Revolution, colonial countries with a history of expanding exploitative industries have sustained and developed their economies at the expense of low—and middle-income countries, which have done little to cause climate change but are now facing the worst of its effects.
Climate justice, therefore, links human rights and development with the climate crisis to achieve a people-centred approach, which focuses on the real impacts of climate change on our everyday lives. This approach aims to safeguard the rights of the most vulnerable people worldwide and shares the burdens and benefits of climate change and its impacts equitably and fairly. Climate justice is informed by and responds to science and acknowledges the need for equitable stewardship of the world’s resources.
This approach also considers the climate crisis in terms of those most impacted by it and seeks to bring their voices to the forefront of climate action. Climate justice demands that fair solutions address the historic and systemically disproportionate impacts on countries and communities that have least contributed to the crisis but face the greatest consequences.
Why is climate justice important for people with disabilities?
Everyone on Earth will be affected by climate change, but some people and communities will be more impacted than others. Universally, changes in our climate may lead to a higher risk of forced displacement through an increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as cyclones and drought, as well as environmental degradation that impacts livelihoods and survival. The quality of our physical, social, economic, and environmental conditions directly impacts our vulnerability to climate change.
People with disabilities are likely to be most affected by these, as they already face heightened protection risks and barriers to inclusion. Globally, more than 1 billion people with disabilities are disproportionately and differently at risk from the climate crisis. They are also likely to have specific, additional needs related to forced displacement in the context of disasters and climate change, which need to be accounted for in disaster management plans.
Despite all this, there is a notable absence of climate policy, programming, and research at the intersection of disability and climate change. Advancing climate justice urgently requires accelerated disability-inclusive climate action, which is led by people with disabilities themselves.
How does it apply to the Global South?
Ironically, many low—and middle-income countries with the fewest resources, which have historically contributed the least harm to the environment, suffer the worst impacts of climate change. They also have the least access to resources to recover from or adapt to the increasing frequency of climate hazards. They are often trapped by established economic structures and systems of dominance that saddle them with debt and tie them up in increasing cycles of dependency and de-development.
As well as individuals, countries will also feel the impacts of climate change differently and in unequal ways. Not all countries feel the negative impact of climate change equally. 80% of people with disabilities live in low and middle-income countries, many of which are highly climate-vulnerable. For example, 25.5% of people in Bangladesh have a disability, and the country is ranked as the 7th most climate-vulnerable country in the world. Due to rising sea levels, severe floods, and cyclones, it has been estimated that by 2050, one in every seven people in Bangladesh will be displaced by climate change, and the impact will be felt even more acutely by people with disabilities.
This is because persons with disabilities living in low-income countries are most at risk of climate-related emergencies and face severe threats to their lives, homes, health, food security, access to water, sanitation, and livelihoods. These populations are more likely to feel the most severe impacts of climate change because they rely on the natural environment and their specialised needs during crises. In extreme cases, persons with disabilities are more likely to die or become even more marginalised due to the climate crisis, including climate-induced disasters. This is a severe worldwide injustice.
Inclusive climate justice invites people with disabilities into the climate space to consider the impacts of the climate crisis on their everyday lives. The climate crisis is also a justice issue for people with disabilities in low-income countries, as the negative impacts of climate change are felt more acutely by people who have contributed the least. Groups who are already facing discrimination and exclusion experience the impacts on a disproportionate basis, amplifying inequalities and undermining sustainable development across all regions. Tackling the crisis caused by climate change must happen through an equality and human rights lens, addressing the power imbalances in and between countries and communities.
How can this be addressed?
A key component of climate justice is the involvement of everyone in society everywhere across the world. Active, inclusive involvement of people is crucial to help them understand the issues and their role in tackling them. This knowledge and understanding provide a foundation for developing local context-driven solutions that are fit for purpose. Very often, persons with disabilities and OPDs are left out at even the most basic level of participatory processes. There is a lack of recognition of the valuable role OPDs have in community actions on climate change.
While states have recently adopted new policies and mandates for inclusive climate action, which may reference people with disabilities, these gestures fail to meet OPD demands for the protection and fulfilment of their disability human rights. And, despite OPD advocacy, disability is still systemically excluded from UN climate negotiations, as shown by the dearth of disability-related organisations admitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change process. (Stein et al., 2024)
Internationally, disability climate activists are increasingly advocating to change this exclusionary narrative and to bring disability-inclusive climate justice to the forefront, including OPDs such as the Pacific Disability Forum, the National Indigenous Disabled Women Association Nepal, and the International Disability Alliance.
Confronting the climate crisis requires solidarity in and between countries and development partners. The participation of people affected by climate change is critical to ensure responsive, accountable and effective DRR and humanitarian programming. Unless policy and related mitigation, adaptation and response efforts are implemented, climate change will continue to be a leading driver of humanitarian needs. Inclusion and equal participation of all is a precondition to climate justice. As an INGO working alongside persons with disabilities and in low-income countries, CBM Global is committed to taking an active role in climate advocacy focused on reducing carbon emissions to ensure the climate crisis does not become irreversible
Article by Jennifer Byrne