We demand a strong voice for the climate – now!
A retrospective on the UN Climate Change Conference SB62 in Bonn
From 16 to 27 June 2025, delegates from all over the world met at the World Conference Centre Bonn for the 62nd session of the subsidiary bodies of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – UNFCCC SB62 for short. The SB “interim” negotiations serve to prepare for the annual major UNFCCC COP climate conferences. The next, COP30, will take place in Belém, Brazil, in November.
IDDC (International Disability and Development Consortium) participated, represented by our Climate Task Group Co-Coordinator colleagues, Mark Barrell (Director of Advocacy, CBM UK) and Jennifer Pitter-López (Gender and Climate Expert, Light for the World). Together with our partners, we sent a clear signal: climate policy must take everyone into account – including people with disabilities.
Why is the SB62 important to us to be at?
SB62 is less political and not about major decisions – but about preparing and developing texts, rules, and frameworks for the COP negotiations. Focus this year, amongst a number of areas, was the development of the new Gender Action Plan and preparing indicators to measure global adaptation efforts. These need an inclusive approach, aligning to our call for the recognition of a “Disability Constituency” to be a priority on the agenda. The voice of people with disabilities needs to be heard and taken seriously by governments debating climate policy – not at some point, but now.
Compounded Discrimination – women with disabilities in the climate crisis
The climate crisis does not affect us all equally – people with disabilities, children, the elderly and people in poverty are particularly at risk. Women and girls with disabilities are particularly disadvantaged, often experiencing compounded discrimination, due to their gender and disability.
Climate-related disasters, including floods, droughts and heat waves, can often significantly reduce access to shelters, health care or evacuation measures. Barriers in communication, lack of assistive devices, and safe spaces or consideration in emergency plans mean marginalised groups are left behind and overlooked.
Women with disabilities are often excluded from climate and disaster decision-making, despite their valuable insights into inclusive protection, with barriers including poverty, lack of education, and family support dependency increasing vulnerability. Yet, when included in climate policy, they drive positive change for whole communities. Climate action must always be gender-equitable and inclusive. This is why, despite our advocacy at the Gender Action Plan workshops in June, it is discouraging to see a lack of positive mention of disability within the proposed new text. It must now be a high priority for us to seek to influence the final text which is expected to be ratified at COP30.
Our side event: Gender-Just and Disability Inclusive Climate Action
A special highlight was our side event: “Gender-Just and Disability Inclusive Climate Action”, organised jointly with CBM UK, CBM Ireland, CBM Global Disability Inclusion, Light for the World, the European Disability Forum (EDF), the International Disability Alliance (IDA) and the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR).
View the whole session now!
More than 100 participants – online and on-site – joined to engage on the central issue of “Why sex- and disability-disaggregated data is imperative to ensure effective gender and disability inclusion in climate policy and action”.
Personal testimonials, by Salma Mahbub, Aneth Gerana, Camila Aragao, Pratima Gurung, David Ndung’u, spoke clearly on the detrimental impact the climate crisis has on people with disabilities and how rarely their perspectives are taken into account in solutions, and why it is so crucial.
Strong voices for more justice
Jennifer and Mark presented key recommendations from the new IDDC/BOND report “Unequal Climate Justice for People with Disabilities”, and on which our panel built and brought valuable perspectives to a complex picture. Elena Ratoi, an expert on gender equality, a committee member of European Disability Forum, spoke about inclusive participation in international programmes. Prof. Elisa Morgera, UN Special Rapporteur on Climate Change and Human Rights, emphasised the role of legal frameworks, while Animesh Kumar, Head of the UN Civil Protection Office in Bonn, showed how early warning systems can become more inclusive, before Bala Nagendran (GDI Hub/UCL) and Mahbub Kabir (CBM Ireland) presented very concrete approaches to inclusive climate action.
We need disaggregated data, but more importantly we need to do a qualitative intersectional analysis of the data. With this we create evidence to ensure gender just and disability inclusive climate policy and action.
Jennifer Pitter-Lopez, Co-coordinator of the IDDC Task Group on Climate Action and Expert Gender and Climate at Light for the World
How we create climate justice for all
A central concern of the IDDC/BOND report is around closing data gaps, and that it is only with reliable data, broken down by factors including disability, age and gender, can inequalities be properly addressed in a targeted manner.
The report calls for women and men, including youth and children, with disabilities to be systematically included in all climate decisions – from planning to implementation, emphasising the need to make global climate finance more inclusive and available – this is especially important for organisations run by people with disabilities (organisations of persons with disabilities – OPDs), with strong partnerships developed with OPDs to ensure all measures correspond to their lived experiences and context.
Climate justice can only exist if no one is excluded. The report offers clear instructions for action – and we are working together with our partners to ensure that this is implemented.
A policy brief can be found here for advocacy purposes with governments based on the report’s findings.