HPOD Events
Disability Climate Justice
Towards Evidence-Based Research on Disability and Climate Change
People with disabilities living in the Global South bear a disproportionate share of the burden of climate change. Disability-inclusive climate change research can inform evidence-based disaster risk mitigation and climate adaptation strategies that can reduce this burden.
An estimated one billion people with disabilities globally are uniquely and disproportionately impacted by the climate change crisis, and yet the field of disability and climate change has received little academic attention and is characterized by significant research gaps. With the generous support of Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, this invitation-only conference convened by Professors William Alford and Michael Ashley Stein brings together key experts on disability and climate change with diverse perspectives with expertise in human rights, public health, humanitarian response, and bioethics from high, middle, and low-income countries, and Small Island States—including people of color, women, and Indigenous people with disabilities. We utilize our systematic review of research gaps to identify worldwide research priorities and generate an academic paper “Worldwide Priorities for Disability and Climate Change Research.” Moreover, this dialogue catalyzes research collaborations and additional academic publications and outputs focused on the identified research priorities. This conference also leads to the formation of an international working group on disability and climate change. Research on disability and climate change enables decision makers to develop evidenced-based mitigation and adaptation polices and plans that benefit all of society and not “only” people with disabilities.
