Climate change is intensifying and increasing the frequency of extreme weather events worldwide. This summer shows we can no longer ignore this risk, with heat waves, droughts and wildfires across Europe including in Scotland’s Cairngorms.
Disabled people make up 26% of the Scottish population and are disproportionately impacted by climate change. In a 2025 survey and report by Scope, for example, 75% of disabled people reported significant challenges during hot weather, from exacerbated symptoms to unaffordable electricity costs for running fans or cooling equipment, and unsuitable homes. The heightened risk of climate change to disabled people is not, however, due to intrinsic ‘vulnerability’ but a result of adverse societal decisions, policies and practices that disadvantage disabled people.
A collaborative programme of work by the Sensing Climate research project, Inclusion Scotland and the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland has identified a series of priorities for disability-inclusive climate emergency planning centred on a six-step model:
- Know the needs of disabled people
- Acknowledge and address existing inequality
- Develop inclusive governance
- Build awareness and capacity of disabled people to engage in emergency planning
- Build awareness and capacity of emergency services to respond to disabled people
- Ensure emergency planning information and resources are accessible.
The priorities were informed by a policy analysis and lived experience workshop with disabled people last November and were discussed at a roundtable event in Edinburgh in June 2026. The event brought together climate adaptation policy and resilience practitioners and decision-makers, with disabled people and Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs). The aim was to identify challenges and opportunities for disability-inclusive climate emergency planning in Scotland.
Three key areas were identified as essential to progressing this work:
- Ensuring that multi-agency resilience partnerships have safeguarded access to relevant, up-to-date information about the emergency assistance needs of disabled people. There is a need for an emergency assistance ‘one-stop-shop’ for people to record (and update) their assistance needs that is only shared with relevant agencies to keep people safe in the event of an emergency.
- Ensuring that emergency preparedness guidance – which is used for households and multi-agency resilience partnerships – reflects the needs of disabled people and embeds inclusive language throughout.
- Recognising that disabled people and DPOs are key actors within climate emergency planning and capacity building. Accessible information, dedicated time and multi-year funding schemes are needed to support collaborative working with DPOs (and/or with Access Panels) in ways that are strategic and proportionate.
Heather Fisken, CEO of Inclusion Scotland, said:
“Taking forward these recommendations, informed by disabled people, is urgent. Action is required now before disabled people are put at further risk in climate emergencies because they are not being included in action planning and their needs have not been accounted for. Disabled People’s Organisations need to be around the table to inform the ‘how’ of the next steps, with resources to ensure that our disabled members are involved and informed.”
We are excited and encouraged by the engagement from key stakeholders to work with DPOs to be disability competent, we are seeking funding to progress this work through a Disabled People’s Climate Action Network led by Inclusion Scotland.
If you would like to find out more, do get in touch:
- Dr Sarah Bell, Sensing Climate, sarah.bell@exeter.ac.uk
- Dr Pauline Nolan, Inclusion Scotland, Pauline@inclusionscotland.org
- Dr Shivali Fifield, Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland, sfifield@ercs.scot
