A/HRC/44/30 hunger and adverse impacts on their health. 8 Multiple and intersecting factors of discrimination related to gender, age, displacement, indigenous origin or minority status can further heighten the risks of persons with disabilities experiencing negative impacts of climate change. 7. Because they are disproportionately affected by climate change, persons with disabilities must be included in climate action. Their participation would allow for tailored climate action that addresses the specific concerns of persons with disabilities related to the adverse impacts of climate change. A human rights-based approach, as defined in the next section of the present report, empowers persons with disabilities as agents of change to address the harmful impacts of climate change in their day-to-day lives. If persons with disabilities are left out of decision-making, that leaves them unable to contribute by identifying risk reduction and adaptation measures that could be effective for, and carried out by, persons with disabilities.9 Persons with disabilities are a heterogeneous group with different requirements (see A/71/314) and best practices in terms of disability inclusion may also be relevant for the population at large, helping to avert some of the worst impacts of climate change.10 A. Health 8. Climate change can exacerbate existing health and health care inequalities faced by persons with disabilities and the health impacts of climate change may be experienced more severely by persons with disabilities owing to the harmful impact of climate change on health systems. 11 Persons with disabilities may have reduced access to health care and poorer health outcomes than others owing to a combination of structural factors, including stigma, social exclusion, poverty, discriminatory legislation and policies and the limited availability of tailored services and programmes (see A/73/161). 9. The adverse impacts of climate change exacerbate environmental, attitudinal and institutional barriers to the right to health of persons with disabilities. Climate change events can have a direct effect on injuries and increase public health concerns, such as malnutrition, non-communicable diseases, respiratory conditions and infectious diseases (see A/HRC/32/23).12 In addition, climate change disrupts social protection systems and essential health-care services, which can have grave consequences for persons with disabilities. Lack of measures to ensure accessibility to the physical environment, to transportation, to information and communications, including information and communications technologies and systems, and to other facilities and services open or 8 9 10 11 12 4 See Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Global Warming of 1.5ºC. An IPCC Special Report on the Impacts of Global Warming of 1.5°C above Pre-industrial levels and Related Global Greenhouse Gas Emission Pathways, in the Context of Strengthening the Global Response to the Threat of Climate Change, Sustainable Development, and Efforts to Eradicate Poverty, ch. 5, p. 479 (2018). See Marilise Turnbull, Charlotte L. Sterrett and Amy Hilleboe, Toward Resilience: a Guide to Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation (Rugby, Warwickshire, Practical Action Publishing Ltd., 2013). See John Twigg and others, “Disability and climate resilience: a literature review” (April 2017). Inter-Agency Standing Committee. Guidelines: Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action (2019). See also Sébastien Jodoin, Nilani Ananthamoorthy and Katherine Lofts, “A disability rights approach to climate governance”, Ecology Law Quarterly, vol. 47, No. 1; John Twigg and others, “Disability and climate resilience: a literature review”; and Alyssa Gutnik and Marcie Roth, “Disability and climate change: how climate-related hazards increase vulnerabilities among the most at risk populations and the necessary convergence of inclusive disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation” (2018).