Disability Climate Justice and Building Forward Better

September 29–30, 2022

This conference is closed to the public.

An estimated one billion people with disabilities globally are uniquely and disproportionately impacted by the climate change crisis, and yet the field of disability and climate change has received little academic attention and is characterized by significant research gaps. This conference convenes key experts on disability and climate change with diverse perspectives with expertise in human rights, public health, humanitarian response, and bioethics from high, middle, and low-income countries, and Small Island States—including people of color, women, and Indigenous people with disabilities. We utilize our systematic review of research gaps to identify worldwide research priorities and generate an academic paper “Worldwide Priorities for Disability and Climate Change Research.” Moreover, this dialogue catalyzes research collaborations and additional academic publications and outputs focused on the identified research priorities. This conference also leads to the formation of an international working group on disability and climate change. Research on disability and climate change enables decision makers to develop evidenced-based mitigation and adaptation polices and plans that benefit all of society and not “only” people with disabilities.