Report: More Effort Needed to Include Disabled Population in Climate Policies

The Disability Inclusive Climate Action Research Program at McGill University and the International Disability Alliance have released a new report, Disability Inclusion in National Climate Commitments and Policies.

Released during negotiations at the Bonn Climate Change Conference and a few days before the start of the 15th session of the Conference of State Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), the new report demonstrates that governments are far from complying with their duties to pursue disability-inclusive climate action.

Read the report here.

The report provides a systematic analysis of the inclusion of persons with disabilities and their rights in the climate policies adopted by State Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 

The report finds that only 35 of the 192 States Parties to Paris Agreement refer to persons with disabilities in their NDCs or INDCs. 

Statements in the report follow:

“Climate mitigation policies
Our systematic analysis of climate mitigation policies reveals that no State

“Parties to the Paris Agreement currently refer to people with disabilities in their framework climate mitigation policies. The failure to include persons with disabilities in climate mitigation actions may lead to outcomes that are inconsistent with rights of persons with disabilities. For example, while the development of sustainable transport systems is seen as a key component of the transition to greener societies, these systems are often inaccessible to persons with physical and visual impairments. Moreover, the exclusion of persons with disabilities from the planning, implementation, and monitoring of mitigation measures also means that the potential contributions of the disability community to reducing carbon emissions remain unrealized.

About the Disability Inclusive Climate Action Research Program
Based at the McGill Centre for Human Rights & Legal Pluralism, the Disability-Inclusive Climate Action Research Program (DICARP) works with disability and climate activists and experts from around the world to generate, co-produce, share, and translate knowledge on how efforts to combat climate change can be designed and implemented in ways that respect, protect, and fulfill the human rights of disabled persons.

https://www.disabilityinclusiveclimate.org

About the International Disability Alliance
The International Disability Alliance brings together over 1,100 organisations of persons with disabilities and their families from across eight global and six regional networks. Together we promote the inclusion of persons with disabilities across global efforts to advance human rights and sustainable development. We support organisations of persons with disabilities to hold their governments to account and advocate for change locally, nationally and internationally.

https://www.internationaldisabilityalliance.org