Disability and climate justice: From marginalization to leadership

Abstract

Disabled people globally are on the frontlines of climate breakdown, especially those living in the Global South or who are otherwise multiply marginalized. While disabled people remain significantly marginalized across all aspects of climate response, there is a burgeoning academic literature as well as strong examples of the leadership of disabled people shaping research, policy, practice and activism. This article explores the relationship between ableism and climate (in)justice. To provide a scaffolding for understanding the interconnections between disability and the climate crisis, this article discusses the socially and environmentally contingent relationships between disability, vulnerability, risk, adaptive capacity and resilience alongside the legal and human rights obligations of states to uphold disabled people's human rights. It then contends that disabled people live in a state of chronic crisis into which climate impacts are layered. As a result, disabled people are marginalized across multiple facets of climate response, including research, policy, resourcing and activism. Finally, the article discusses dimensions of meaningful exclusion and disabled leadership and emphasizes the importance of intersectionality, adequate resourcing and disabled wisdom