An Ageing World on a Heating Planet: Why Older People Must Be Central to Climate Policy

By Hari Krishna Nibanupudi
HYDERABAD, India, Jul 31 2025 – I’ve just returned from the east coast of India, where I saw for myself the harsh challenges that older people in artisanal fishing communities confront daily. I saw how the community elders — the keepers of marine traditions and the coastal environment — are being forsaken by climate policy and their governments.

As their children head inland to find work, the ageing fishers are left behind with only their fading memories and a rising sea. Their survival hangs by a thread. The social pension for a couple is just over $50 a month, not enough to afford more than a single bowl of daily rice boiled in seasoned water. Tea has become a luxury. I met widows who, despite living in a fishing community, had not eaten fish in months, and older men who lie on mud floors to cool their blistering bodies down and pray for a gust of wind. Their stories are a stark reminder of the human toll of climate change.

Disregarding age in climate action is not just unfair. It is short-sighted. Older people could be more vulnerable to climate impacts if they are mobility-impaired, sick or socially isolated. But they are also keepers of knowledge, leadership and resistance. Age interacts powerfully with climate vulnerability, and failing to understand this interaction undermines both equity and efficacy

When they perish, they pass away silently, recorded as victims of “old age,” not heatstroke – even in 47°C heat waves. Cyclones might make them legible as statistics, but during heatwaves, they disappear, unnoticed. These are not isolated tragedies. This is global climate injustice at its most naked.

The International Court of Justice ruled on 23 July 2025 that the refusal to take climate protection measures is not only immoral and unjust but also unlawful under international law and a violation of the right to life.

As we confront the escalating climate crisis, with temperatures in 2025 set to surpass the record of 2024, the immediate impact on older people cannot be overstated. While cities in Pakistan sizzled at 50°C, hospitals in Japan and the UK were overwhelmed with older patients. In Europe, a 2023 summer heatwave claimed the lives of 2,305 people in 12 cities, with a staggering 88% of the victims aged over 75.

The Lancet’s 2023 Countdown on Health and Climate Change delivered a stark warning: deaths in people over 65 from heat spiked 85% between the decades 1991 and 2000 and 2013 and 2022. Yet these are the people whose voices remain largely absent from climate negotiations, national adaptation plans, and global media coverage. Why? Due to persistent and pervasive structural ageism.

Older people are often viewed as passive liabilities rather than as valuable resources. Take, for example, the contrast in the way the global media responded to Greta Thunberg’s bold confrontation of world leaders. She was deservedly celebrated across global platforms as the voice of youth rebelling against climate injustice.

Yet when a group of older Swiss women won a historic case at the European Court of Human Rights, forcing the Swiss government to align its climate action with international commitments, the global media response was muted, revealing the age bias at the heart of public discourse.

At HelpAge International, we are working to change this narrative. In this UN Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030), we are calling for older people to be recognised as a distinct constituency in global climate policy, just as youth, women, and Indigenous peoples are.

We are urging climate finance institutions—including the Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Fund, the Climate Investment Fund, and the Loss and Damage Fund—to establish dedicated windows to support older people-led adaptation and resilience initiatives.

As our planet ages and heats, it’s crucial to address the blind spot in climate action: the age bias towards older people. By 2030, there will be 1.4 billion people aged 60 and above, and this number is expected to rise to 2.1 billion by 2050, constituting one-fifth of the global population.

It’s high time that this demographic shift is considered in climate legislation, financial mechanisms, and data frameworks, which often fail to account for the unique vulnerabilities and contributions of older people.

Meanwhile, older people are not waiting to be included. They are actively leading community-based climate solutions worldwide.

For instance, older women in India’s Thar Desert are revitalising rain-fed agriculture and constructing earthen dams for future food and water security. In Southeast Asia, older people’s associations are producing bamboo biochar for carbon storage.

In Ethiopia and Thailand, established cooperatives of older people are developing climate-resilient value chains in honey, aloe vera, and agroforestry. These are not just experimental projects — they are proven, scalable models of resilience. However, they require institutional recognition and support to reach their full potential.

We advocate for the implementation of an age-inclusive heat resilience strategy, drawing on practical approaches from Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

These approaches include retrofitting homes with traditional cooling methods, such as mud floors, shaded courtyards, and reflective surfaces; designing infrastructure that is age-friendly, including covered walkways, shaded transport stops, and accessible water points; and creating green public spaces that promote intergenerational ties and serve as natural cooling areas.

These strategies are not just beneficial for older people, but for entire communities, making them a wise investment in our collective future.

Disregarding age in climate action is not just unfair. It is short-sighted. Older people could be more vulnerable to climate impacts if they are mobility-impaired, sick or socially isolated.

But they are also keepers of knowledge, leadership and resistance. Age interacts powerfully with climate vulnerability, and failing to understand this interaction undermines both equity and efficacy. It’s time to ensure that climate action is fair and just for all, regardless of age. There is no true climate justice without inclusion, and inclusion rings hollow when older people are excluded.

Hari Krishna Nibanupudi is a global climate change and ageing adviser with HelpAge International.