Disability led climate action

Climate change negatively and disproportionality affects disabled people. This negative effect is magnified for disabled people who are also Indigenous, People of Colour, women, transgender, non-binary, or have intersecting experiences of marginalisation.

We cannot develop real solutions to climate change without disabled people’s voices, wisdom, and activism across all levels of decision making.

The United Nations Convention On Climate Change (UNFCCC) conducts negotiations with state parties  (countries) each year, called the Conference of the Parties (COP). This has been going on for 25 years. These negotiations are important to ensure that the world stays under the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming limit.

In the UNFCCC, only parties (countries that have signed the agreement) are allowed to negotiate. Other people can be involved in the COP conferences as observers and media. People from all sorts of groups can be observers, most commonly, people from non-governmental organisations; Indigenous Peoples; researchers; and youth. These groups are sometimes referred to as “civil society”.

Some groups of civil society have organised themselves into groups which have been recognised by the UNFCCC as having a special stake in the conference. These are called “Constituencies”, and allow those groups to access some supports to participate fairly. Some examples include the Indigenous Peoples Constituency, and the Women and Gender Constituency.

Constituencies have their own processes to organise amongst themselves and bring the concerns of their global communities to the COP meetings. They also have focal points who can work with the UNFCCC to help convey concerns or messages from the Constituency, to ensure that Constituency members are able to be involved in the conference fairly.

There is currently no Constituency for Disabled People / People with Disabilities.

This means that it is very challenging for disabled people to participate at the COP conferences. It is challenging for disabled people to find each other at the conferences, and it is hard to get support. Without a Constituency for our community, we can’t meaningfully advocate for the needs of disabled people, and we have no voice at the table.

That’s why the SustainedAbility Disability and Climate Network was formed - to bring disabled people together from around the world, so we can work together, support each other, and bring much needed disability wisdom to the international climate sphere. We have been advocating for a Disability Constituency at the UNFCCC since COP23 in 2017, and we have been doing the work on the ground to form a caucus of disabled people at the COP meetings, as well as those who want to support disability inclusive climate action from around the world.

1 bil

disabled people in the world

There are more than one billion disabled people in the world, according to the World Heath Organisation (WHO)

25 years

of climate negotiation that have excluded our voices

The conference of the parties (COP) have been going for 25 years without any meaningful engagement with disabled people and without a dedicated constituency to have our voices heard.

70%

of the disabled community are in the global south

We must make sure all our voices are heard, especially voices from the global south, and Indigenous Peoples who are on the front lines of climate change.

COSP11 UNCPRD

During the 11th meeting of the convention and the rights of people with disabilities, We made a address at the general assembly about the need four inclusion, for the UNCRPD to take action on Climate Change and to insight stakeholdership at the COP.