Describing Disability Climate Justice at the G7 Ministerial Meeting

On October 15, 2024, HPOD's Executive Director, Professor Michael Ashley Stein, urged greater investment in disability-inclusive climate action at the first-ever G7 ministerial meeting on inclusion and disability in Umbria, Italy. Professor Stein joined the United States' G7 delegation at the invitation of the U.S. Special Advisor on International Disability Rights, Sara Minkara.

HPOD has been a thought leader on ensuring that efforts to confront the global climate crisis adequately account for the outsize climate risks faced by persons with disabilities. Together with HPOD Senior Associate Penelope J.S. Stein, Professor Stein has co-authored numerous calls that have been published in The Lancet, Nature, and beyond, for climate researchers, policy-makers, and activists to recognize and respond to the disproportionate adverse effects of climate change on persons with disabilities. 

HPOD has also pressed governments and civil society actors alike to work together to ensure participatory and disability-inclusive climate adaptation and mitigation, through submissions to the United Nations, regional human rights tribunals, and the U.S. government; organizing strategic events alongside governments in the Americas; publication and dissemination of accessible educational materials; and support for person with disability-led climate action in Bangladesh and in Ecuador.

While Professor Stein focused on disability-inclusive climate action, other panelists addressed critical topics ranging from accessibility and independent living to employment and artificial intelligence. As agreed by G7 leaders at the June 2024 summit, the recommendations from these historic proceedings are memorialized in the Solfagnano Charter to help catalyze disability inclusion across G7 nations, as well as greater disability inclusion in international cooperation efforts. 

---

---