Witness to Climate Change: Learning from Older People's Experience

Climate change and ageing are two of the biggest issues facing humanity this century, yet explicit links between the two are rarely made.

As world leaders prepare to negotiate a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol in Copenhagen, HelpAge International is calling for the voices of older people in developing countries to be heard.

This paper looks at older people's experience of climate change, their awareness of it and how it makes them vulnerable. It highlights older people's exclusion from climate change debates, identifies opportunities for influencing policy-making at the national level and makes recommendations for including older people's perspectives in discussions and adaptation strategies.