Advancing disability-inclusive climate research and action, climate justice, and climate-resilient development

Penelope J S Stein; Michael Ashley Stein; Nora Groce; Maria Kett; Emmanuel K Akyeampong; Willliam P Alford; Jayajit Chakraborty; Sheelagh Daniels-Mayes; Siri H Eriksen; Anne Fracht; Luis Gallegos; Shaun Grech; Pratima Gurung; Asha Hans; Paul Harpur; Sébastien Jodoin; Janet E Lord; Setareki Seru Macanawai; Charlotte V McClain-Nhlapo; Benyam Dawit Mezmur; Rhonda J Moore; Yolanda Muñoz; Vikram Patel; Phuong N Pham; Gerard Quinn; Sarah A Sadlier; Carmel Shachar; Matthew S Smith; Lise Van Susteren

doi:10.1016/S2542-5196(24)00024-X

Advancing disability-inclusive climate research and action, climate justice, and climate-resilient development

Lancet Planet Health. 2024 Apr;8(4):e242-e255. doi: 10.1016/S2542-5196(24)00024-X.

Authors

Penelope J S Stein¹, Michael Ashley Stein², Nora Groce³, Maria Kett⁴, Emmanuel K Akyeampong⁵, Willliam P Alford¹, Jayajit Chakraborty⁶, Sheelagh Daniels-Mayes⁷, Siri H Eriksen⁸, Anne Fracht¹, Luis Gallegos⁹, Shaun Grech¹⁰, Pratima Gurung¹¹, Asha Hans¹², Paul Harpur¹³, Sébastien Jodoin¹⁴, Janet E Lord¹⁵, Setareki Seru Macanawai¹⁶, Charlotte V McClain-Nhlapo¹⁷, Benyam Dawit Mezmur¹⁸, Rhonda J Moore¹⁹, Yolanda Muñoz²⁰, Vikram Patel²¹, Phuong N Pham²², Gerard Quinn²³, Sarah A Sadlier²⁴, Carmel Shachar²⁵, Matthew S Smith¹, Lise Van Susteren²⁶

Affiliations

¹ Harvard Law School Project on Disability, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, USA.
² Harvard Law School Project on Disability, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, USA. Electronic address: mastein@law.harvard.edu.
³ Harvard Law School Project on Disability, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, USA; International Disability Research Centre, University College London, London, UK.
⁴ International Disability Research Centre, University College London, London, UK.
⁵ Harvard Law School Project on Disability, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, USA; Department of African and African American Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁶ Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
⁷ Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
⁸ Faculty of Landscape and Society, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway.
⁹ Harvard Law School Project on Disability, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, USA; The United Nations Institute for Training and Research, Quito, Ecuador.
¹⁰ Community Based Inclusive Development Initiative, CBM, Bensheim, Germany.
¹¹ National Indigenous Disabled Women Association Nepal, Kusunti, Nepal.
¹² School of Women's Studies, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, India.
¹³ Harvard Law School Project on Disability, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, USA; TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
¹⁴ Faculty of Law, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
¹⁵ Harvard Law School Project on Disability, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, USA; Center for International and Comparative Law, University of Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, USA.
¹⁶ Pacific Disability Forum, Suva, Fiji.
¹⁷ World Bank, Washington, DC, USA.
¹⁸ Faculty of Law, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa.
¹⁹ All of US Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Washington, DC, USA.
²⁰ Global Greengrants Fund, Montreal, QC, Canada.
²¹ Harvard Law School Project on Disability, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, USA; Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA, USA.
²² Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Cambridge, MA, USA; Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
²³ Harvard Law School Project on Disability, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, USA; Faculty of Law, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland.
²⁴ History Department, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
²⁵ Health Law and Policy Clinic at the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, USA.
²⁶ Department of Psychiatry and Behavorial Sciences, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC, USA.

PMID: 38580426
DOI: 10.1016/S2542-5196(24)00024-X

Abstract

Globally, more than 1 billion people with disabilities are disproportionately and differentially at risk from the climate crisis. Yet 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. We present pivotal research recommendations and guidance to advance disability-inclusive climate research and responses identified by a global interdisciplinary group of experts in disability, climate change, sustainable development, public health, environmental justice, humanitarianism, gender, Indigeneity, mental health, law, and planetary health. Climate-resilient development is a framework for enabling universal sustainable development. Advancing inclusive climate-resilient development requires a disability human rights approach that deepens understanding of how societal choices and actions-characterised by meaningful participation, inclusion, knowledge diversity in decision making, and co-design by and with people with disabilities and their representative organisations-build collective climate resilience benefiting disability communities and society at large while advancing planetary health.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Climate Change
Disabled Persons*
Human Rights
Humans
Mental Health
Resilience, Psychological*