BY: Habeeb Adisa
Climate change is often discussed in terms of rising temperatures, flooding, drought, food insecurity and environmental degradation. But behind these broad categories are people whose ability to prepare for, respond to and recover from climate-related shocks is shaped by barriers that climate policies do not always see.
For persons with disabilities, climate change is therefore not only an environmental issue. It is also an issue of accessibility, human rights, livelihoods, public infrastructure, emergency preparedness and participation in decision-making.
This reality came into focus at the recent public presentation and official launch of the Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) research report, Disability-Inclusive Greenhouse Gas Emission and Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in Nigeria, held in Lagos. The programme brought together government institutions, disability organisations and other stakeholders to examine how Nigeria can make its climate response more inclusive.
Speaking at the event, the General Manager of the Lagos State Office for Disability Affairs (LASODA), Mrs. Adenike Oyetunde-Lawal, called for stronger collaboration among government agencies, organisations of persons with disabilities and other stakeholders. She stressed that disability considerations must be deliberately incorporated into climate policies, programmes and systems.
Her intervention points to a larger question for Nigeria: what does climate action look like when persons with disabilities are placed at the centre rather than treated as an afterthought?
Climate risk is not experienced equally
The science and international policy framework increasingly recognise that climate change does not affect everyone in the same way. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) notes that climate emergencies disproportionately affect persons with disabilities, while people with disabilities are also frequently excluded from adaptation planning.
The consequences can be practical and immediate.
A flood evacuation announcement that is communicated only through an inaccessible format may not reach a deaf person. An evacuation centre without ramps, accessible toilets or appropriate accommodation may be unusable for someone with a physical disability. A warning system that does not consider people with visual, hearing, intellectual or psychosocial disabilities can leave people without the information they need to act.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has similarly identified the heightened risks faced by persons with disabilities, including dependence on accessible infrastructure and information and the possibility of being overlooked in emergency and long-term climate planning.
This is why disability-inclusive climate action cannot begin and end with the question of whether a climate policy mentions persons with disabilities.
It must ask a much more important question: Can persons with different disabilities actually access, understand, participate in and benefit from the policy? Nigeria already has a legal foundation. Importantly, disability inclusion is not an entirely new idea that Nigeria needs to introduce into its climate governance.
Nigeria’s Climate Change Act 2021 established the National Council on Climate Change and explicitly provides for a representative of persons with disabilities on the Council. The Act also seeks to mainstream climate change actions, build resilience and strengthen adaptive capacity.
Nigeria’s updated NDC also recognises gender equality and social inclusion. It proposes approaches intended to create an enabling environment for women, youth, children and persons with disabilities and to strengthen their participation in climate management decision-making.
Nigeria’s newer NDC 3.0 also recognises that groups with lower adaptive capacity can face greater exclusion because of limited access to resources, mobility, food security and information.
The foundation therefore exists. The challenge is turning representation and policy language into measurable implementation. A representative on a national council is important. But meaningful inclusion also requires disability-disaggregated data, accessible climate information, inclusive budgeting, accessible infrastructure, disability-inclusive early warning systems and the active participation of organisations of persons with disabilities throughout policy design and implementation.
The global standard is participation, not consultation after the fact
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) provides a particularly important framework. Article 11 requires States Parties to take all necessary measures to protect and ensure the safety of persons with disabilities in situations of risk, including humanitarian emergencies and natural disasters.
The principle extends beyond emergency response.
The UN human rights framework stresses that persons with disabilities and their representative organisations should be actively involved in shaping climate action, including planning, implementation, monitoring, research, resource allocation and data collection. This means disability inclusion should not be reduced to inviting persons with disabilities to a climate conference.
Nothing about climate resilience should be designed without the people who will experience its consequences. The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction reinforces this principle. UNDRR’s current inclusion framework calls for disability perspectives to be integrated across disaster risk reduction policies and practices, while emphasising the participation and leadership of organisations of persons with disabilities.
The evidence suggests that there remains considerable work to do. UNDRR’s 2023 global survey, based on responses from 6,342 people in 132 countries, found limited progress in disability inclusion in disaster risk reduction over the preceding decade. It calls for governments to include persons with disabilities in policymaking and implementation, improve equity and support disability-focused research and evidence.
Nigeria’s gap is therefore an implementation gap
A 2025 situational analysis of the rights of persons with disabilities in Nigeria identifies an important contradiction: while Nigeria’s Climate Change Act provides for disability representation on the National Council on Climate Change, major national climate frameworks have not adequately translated disability inclusion into specific strategies and provisions.
The analysis specifically identifies gaps around disability-disaggregated data, disability-inclusive early warning systems and accessible emergency responses.
These gaps matter because climate resilience is ultimately experienced locally. A national climate strategy may be ambitious, but the real test comes when a person with a disability needs to receive a flood warning, evacuate a community, reach an emergency shelter, obtain relief materials, protect assistive devices, access healthcare or rebuild a livelihood. If the system fails at that point, the climate policy has not been inclusive enough.
From policy to practical action
The discussion at the CCD report launch provides an opportunity to move the conversation forward. Nigeria needs climate policies that require disability inclusion to be visible in budgets, targets, indicators and implementation plans.
Emergency management agencies should routinely audit shelters and evacuation routes for accessibility. Early warning systems should communicate through multiple accessible formats, including sign language, captions, audio and other appropriate formats. Climate information should be available in formats that persons with different disabilities can use.
Government agencies should also collect and use disability-disaggregated data to understand who is most exposed, where the gaps are and whether interventions are actually reaching persons with disabilities. These are not additional luxuries. They are components of effective disaster risk reduction and climate resilience.
UNDRR’s guidance specifically highlights disaggregated data, inclusive governance and the leadership of organisations of persons with disabilities as essential elements of disability-inclusive resilience.
The case for action is already here
Any efforts towards disability inclusion in climate action have to include accessible climate information, accessible emergency shelters, inclusive early warning systems, disability-inclusive climate finance and budgeting, and accessible livelihoods and recovery programs.
Above all, it is imperative that people with disabilities have a seat at the decision-making table on issues related to their safety and future. Nigeria does not have to wait for its next climate disaster to learn of these gaps. The country already has the frameworks in place to take action. The issue now is the political will to do so. Climate resilience is hardly resilient when so many people have yet to benefit from it. Disability-inclusive climate action is not an exceptional approach to climate action; it is how climate action should really be done.
