Climate Change and Mental Health of Older Persons: A Human Rights Imperative

Climate change threatens the basic prerequisites for wellbeing, including clean air and water, food supply and the adequacy and security of shelter. Climate change is a powerful and ongoing presence in the lives of older persons, both creating and exacerbating vulnerabilities. The absence of a legally binding international instrument specifically protecting the human rights of older persons and minimal references to older persons in key international climate instruments attest to the lack of attention to and visibility of older persons in national and international law. There is a need to integrate the areas of older people and environmental sustainability to ensure that the rights of older people are preserved especially now, as the effects of the climate change crisis become more pronounced.