Africa's loud voice was made crystal clear at the just concluded Africa Climate Summit to the global community to take immediate action to reduce emissions and fulfil past climate promises. Calls from the society’s most vulnerable groups, such as women, children, youth, marginalised and minorities communities, were also felt at the summit.
Sadly, the usually forgotten and most excluded group — people with disabilities who represent more than 180,000,000 people in Africa — were deliberately left behind in the planning, discussions and making commitments at the summit.
Yet, evidence from the International Disability Alliance and local research findings indicate that the impacts of climate change– from rapid onset disasters such as floods, wildfires, droughts, temperature increase, wildfires and sea level rise – have disproportionate effects on the lives, well-being and livelihoods of PWDs in Africa.
Studies further reported that the consequences of climate change are especially severe for members of the disability community that experience intersecting forms of discrimination, including women, children, indigenous peoples, older persons, displaced populations and other marginalised groups.
Others affected are those experiencing poverty and underrepresented groups of PWDs, such as persons with intellectual disabilities, persons with psychosocial disabilities and persons with deafblindness.
It is vital to point out that a large proportion of PWDs in rural settings over rely on agricultural activities as a form of livelihood and they face heightened risks posed by climate, which are closely interlinked with food security.
Furthermore, various data have highlighted existing barriers to accessing food, nutrition and equitable participation in the food production chain which continue to exacerbate their vulnerability to the impacts of climate change.
More significantly, with decreasing food security and increasing malnutrition, it is expected that more children, including those parents with disabilities will acquire disabling impairments. It is therefore pivotal to link the climate and agriculture agenda, and target climate finance to poor rural communities, including persons with disabilities.
In addition to being more exposed to the impacts of climate change, PWDs may also be adversely affected by responses to climate change. Policies to reduce carbon emissions, such as carbon pricing schemes or bans of carbon intensive products, are often designed without consideration of the rights, perspectives and requirements of the disability community. These types of ableist climate mitigation policies create barriers for PWDs and reinforce social inequities.
To address the above challenges, the climate change actors from the Disability Community proposed a disability rights approach to climate change. This calls for state parties to ensure the participation of PWDs in the development and implementation of legislation, policies and other decision-making processes concerning them, as well as the protection and safety during humanitarian emergencies and natural disasters.
More actions are recommended to adopt and implement ambitious measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a manner compatible with maintaining the global temperature increase below 1.5 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
This is in order to limit the detrimental impacts of climate change on PWDs as one of the groups experiencing the most harm caused by climate crisis. It is also to ensure their meaningful, informed and effective participation through their representative organisations in climate policymaking and decision-making processes, including UNFCCC processes.
The donor communities and private sector are encouraged to ensure dedication of sufficient resources to identify and address gaps in inclusion and participation of PWDs in climate adaptation and climate mitigation policies. There is also need to mobilise resources and target dedicated climate financing to enhance inclusion and participation of PWDs in climate action, prioritising projects led by organisations of such persons.
This should include appropriate obligations and safeguards in funding processes to ensure mainstream climate action is accessible, does not undermine disability rights and facilitates meaningful participation of PWDs and their representative organisations at all stages of design, implementation and monitoring.
Together let us make our society inclusive to all.
Disability inclusion expert and vice chairperson, Commission on Administrative Justice
