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This issue of  eco-ablism, where discrimination against those with disabilities by environmentalists – either though policies that work to the detriment of disabled people, or by being made to feel that they aren’t ‘green’ enough has to be dealt with urgently. This is not something that we can tolerate in a just society. 

From my understanding- some of the eco-ablism comes from a worldview that being environmentally friendly, or ‘saving the planet’ is down to individual action and behaviour change. The messages we have been getting over the past decade are all about this: ‘Recycle more’, ‘Drive less’, ‘Don’t take a straw’, ‘Take public transport’ and then we will sort out climate change.

But we won’t sort out climate change by making small changes like this.

Putting the burden for the climate crisis on individuals takes away the onus on the big baddies in the room – the big polluters, those that finance the way things work, the vested interests, governments.  

We’ve been talking about behaviour change and consumer choice for so long now it’s hard for us to see what the impacts of this way of thinking actually are. These can be counterproductive to making the real change we need to make and some of the impacts are these:

• Guilt – people feel guilt if they can’t do things and then feel powerless to act
• Tokenism – ‘I’ve not taken a straw – that’s great, I’m a green superstar. Now let’s get on easyjet and book that weekend to Prague’
• Injustice – the burdens are being placed on individuals who are often least able to deliver that change 
• Deflection from the real issues – people are made to feel like they cannot have an opinion or speak out on climate unless they personally have a miniscule carbon footprint – so it discredits people’s voices and real experiences

And this approach of individual responsibility, although well meant by some, has been exploited by those with vested interests to avoid changing the things that would really and truly make a difference.   

Plastic straws is the ultimate example of this. Having caused so much pain and exclusion to disabled people, the ambition of removing straws from everyday life is just so obviously tokenistic, when you compare it with the monumental climate and nature emergency we are trying to solve.

It is changing the system that we really need. The influential IPCC 1.5 degree report of 2018  stated that ‘‘limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees would require rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society”.

This doesn’t mean making changes in individual choices it means wholesale change. In the whole of society.

We need to move from this behaviour-change / individual-change model, to a climate justice centred approach where we look at the issue of climate crisis as one of many symptoms of an unjust system which is designed to enrich a small proportion of people at the expense of other people, and the planet. Ableism, racial injustice, social injustice, and the climate and nature and covid crises have a common thread – we need to join the dots to work on creating solutions that tackle the root cause of the many injustices we see in the world. We can’t tackle the climate crisis without tackling exclusion of disabled people

So Where to Start? 

We need to Join The movements: I’ve seen how effective, determined and passionate disability activists are over the past few months. We need to bring together the work that we are all doing – and bring in other movements too so that we can start to talk about linking things up with this Justice-centred approach.

We need disabled people in the decision-making space for the environment and climate. Firstly and simply we’d love groups to join Stop Climate Chaos Scotland – we have NGOs as members but also community groups so Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) would be welcome to join and any other groups.  We need to have disabled activists round the table when we are devising policy proposals and campaigns. 

It’s no good having someone as effective as Susie, at Inclusion Scotland, having to spend her time undoing poor policy once it gets to the stage of a government  consultation. We need her in the room as we design our campaigns and policy proposals.

Also, and this goes without saying – there should be people with lived experience of disability in senior decision making positions throughout society.  

And change is in the air.

Disabled activists have been working to be recognised as a formal constituency of COP for a number of years and this may be the year that it happens. This would recognise the particular vulnerability of people with disabilities to climate and also the crucial importance of hearing their voice within the formal UNFCCC processes. There is much that the Scottish disability movement can contribute to this and I really hope to see that we at SCCS can link closer with disability groups to join up our movements, and also to make better policy proposals to make those rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented changes that we need to stay below 1.5 degrees in a just way.