lang: en
Summary
This case study explores collaboration between climate and disability movements, drawing on a panel at the Progress 2026 conference in Melbourne, Australia. Speakers from Sweltering Cities and Activate Agency presented lessons on intersectional climate justice, highlighting that disabled people are among the most impacted by climate change. The session argued that actual climate justice requires disability justice, and that centering disabled leadership strengthens collective power for systemic change.
Background
The session at Progress 2026 addressed the need for collaboration between climate and disability movements, recognizing that disabled people are among those most impacted by climate change. Mainstream climate activism often excludes disabled people and targets symptoms rather than the systems causing climate harm. The goal was to explore how climate and disability movements can collaborate as equals, centering disabled people in designing climate justice solutions.
What happened
At the Progress 2026 conference on March 24-25 in Melbourne, a panel organized by El Gibbs featured Kera Sherwood-O’Regan and Jason Boberg from Activate Agency, and Emma Bacon from Sweltering Cities. [source: commons-library] Kera Sherwood-O’Regan presented on disability justice, noting its roots in the work of Sins Invalid and Alice Wong, and argued that actual climate justice requires disability justice because the same systems of oppression cause both climate change and harm to disabled communities [source: commons-library]. Emma Bacon presented findings from the Sweltering Cities Summer Survey, which showed that heat waves kill more people than floods, fires, and storms combined, and that disabled people face increased risks due to structural factors like housing systems focused on capital accumulation [source: commons-library]. Jason Boberg shared a case study of Activate Agency’s work with Auckland Council, including a baseline review of gaps in climate planning and a pilot program for community-led projects to design what disabled people need during climate disasters [source: commons-library]. The Q&A discussion highlighted strategies such as challenging eco-ableist climate strategies, using open letters to call out discrimination, and shifting narrative away from ‘climate vulnerable communities’ language [source: commons-library].
Key people & organizations
- El Gibbs
- Kera Sherwood-O’Regan
- Jason Boberg
- Emma Bacon
- Sins Invalid
- Alice Wong
- Sweltering Cities
- Activate Agency
- Australian Progress
- Auckland Council
- ARC Justice
Tactics used
The panel used coalition-building and narrative-shifting tactics to bring together climate and disability movements, emphasizing that disabled people have technical knowledge and community relationships to lead climate solutions. By framing climate justice as inherently requiring disability justice, they aimed to move beyond token inclusion toward genuine power-sharing. [source: commons-library]
Outcome
Verdict: unknown.
The outcome is unknown as the session was a conference presentation sharing lessons and case studies, not a campaign with a defined win or loss. The speakers advocated for systemic change and offered transferable principles, but no concrete policy or campaign result is reported in the source. [source: commons-library]
Lessons
- An effective climate movement requires intersectionality and disabled leadership, not token inclusion.
- Critical feedback should be treated as a gift to improve collaboration across movements.
- Choose targets for action with systemic change in mind, not just symptoms.
- Shift narrative away from ‘vulnerable’ language that obscures disabled people’s agency and power.
- Build relationships and coordinate across disability spaces to amplify collective power.
Sources
- commons-library —
[[commons-library]]
Disclaimer: Included as a teaching example of campaign craft, not as endorsement.
Sources & verification
commons-library— grounding: primary — license: link-only- Rewritten: 2026-06-25 via
worker_casestudies_v2.py