E-Paper
Why COP30 must put inclusion on the agenda
This article is authored by Suryaprabha Sadasivan, senior vice president, Chase Advisors.
As the world prepares for COP30 in Brazil, a crucial question looms over the climate negotiations: who is counted and who remains invisible in global climate action? Amidst the calls for equity, financing, and just transitions, one of the largest and most vulnerable groups continues to be excluded from climate discourse: persons with disabilities.
More than 1.3 billion people globally, roughly 16% of the world’s population, live with some form of disability. Yet climate frameworks rarely reflect their realities. The climate crisis, often described as a collective challenge, is not an equaliser. Its impacts magnify pre-existing inequalities, and disability remains one of the least recognised dimensions of that inequity.
Extreme weather events, from heatwaves and floods to cyclones and droughts, are particularly devastating for people with disabilities. Many rely on assistive devices, medicines, and community support systems that can easily be disrupted by disasters or displacement. Shelters and evacuation centres are often inaccessible, early-warning systems seldom include sign language or text-based alerts, and health care services are frequently the first to break down.
According to the Global Disability Innovation Hub, around 80% of persons with disabilities live in potentially highly climate-vulnerable settings, underscoring how disability and climate risk overlap geographically, not just theoretically. Yet policy response remains alarmingly limited. A 2025 empirical study revealed that only 21% of parties to the Paris Agreement mention disability in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and just 38.4% refer to disability in their adaptation policies.
Preparedness and participation gaps compound the problem. A review by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) in 2023 found that 84% of persons with disabilities surveyed did not have a personal disaster-preparedness plan, and only 11% were aware of a national or sub-national disaster-risk-reduction plan. These findings expose a deeper flaw: when communication, evacuation, and recovery systems are not designed for accessibility, vulnerability becomes systemic, reproduced by the very institutions meant to protect.
Climate change, in this sense, is not disability-neutral. It deepens disparities in health, livelihoods, and social participation. Disruptions in healthcare and medicine supply, damage to rehabilitation centres, or loss of assistive technologies can turn an extreme-weather event into a life-threatening emergency. Research shows that persons with disabilities are two to four times more likely to be injured or killed during disasters than those without disabilities. Poverty and limited access to credit or insurance make recovery even harder, trapping many in cycles of exclusion.
There are, however, glimpses of progress. In recent years, some governments have begun to acknowledge disability inclusion as integral to climate resilience. India’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has issued Disability-Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction Guidelines, formally recognising the need for accessible infrastructure, inclusive communication, and participatory planning. States such as Kerala and Odisha have experimented with integrating these principles. Kerala’s State Disaster Management Authority has trained thousands of persons with disabilities and caregivers and now issues Indian Sign Language early-warning videos on official channels. Odisha, working with Handicap International, retrofitted dozens of cyclone shelters with ramps and accessible facilities. These are promising beginnings, but they remain the exception rather than the rule.
Across most countries, including India, disability considerations are still treated as an add-on rather than a structural design principle. National climate plans rarely include accessibility audits or participation from disabled persons’ organisations. Climate-finance and infrastructure programmes continue to define beneficiaries in generic terms, such as “vulnerable communities,” without disaggregating by disability. The result is that the people most exposed to climate risk often have the least say in shaping solutions.
And yet inclusion demonstrably strengthens resilience. Evidence from the Philippines and Uganda shows that when persons with disabilities are engaged in local adaptation planning, early-warning systems reach more people, compliance improves, and community recovery accelerates. Persons with disabilities possess unique knowledge of adaptive coping, mobility, and resourcefulness that can inform better, more equitable climate design.
Globally, the frameworks for action still lag behind this understanding. The Paris Agreement underscores equity and human rights but does not explicitly refer to disability. While the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development emphasise inclusion, their integration into the global climate regime is weak, with only a minority of countries referencing disability in their NDCs or adaptation plans. At COP28 in Dubai, although the lens of “loss and damage” and social justice was broadened, persons with disabilities remained largely peripheral in official outcomes. COP30 offers a critical opportunity to move from acknowledgement to accountability by embedding disability-inclusion metrics into adaptation communications, climate finance reporting, and the Global Stocktake process.
True inclusion will depend on what the world does next. COP30 can set a new benchmark by moving disability from the margins of discussion to the core of accountability. Governments should be required to report on disability inclusion within their climate strategies, while finance mechanisms, from multilateral development banks to philanthropic funds, must link financing to accessibility standards in project design and implementation.
Equally important is representation. Persons with disabilities and their organisations must have a seat at the table where decisions on adaptation, resilience, and recovery are made. Their lived experiences can inform better design of infrastructure, communication systems, and community-based resilience models that benefit all citizens, not just a few.
The test of climate justice will be whether resilience is built for people with disabilities or with them. COP30 offers a chance to make that distinction matter, and to ensure that inclusion becomes a measurable outcome, not just an aspiration.
This article is authored by Suryaprabha Sadasivan, senior vice president, Chase Advisors.
