The steering group of the GOLTC Climate Change and Long-Term Care Interest Group would like to invite members and others who are interested to contribute papers to a thematic panel on “Climate change and long-term care: a perspective on human and social rights of people who receive and provide long-term care“.

Here is the text for the call for papers:

The United Nations Independent Expert on the Enjoyment of All Human Rights by Older Persons concluded that the climate change is a barrier to the fulfilment of older persons’ human rights. Further, UNHCR highlights that people with disabilities face heightened protection risks and barriers to inclusion due to a higher risk of forced displacement through an increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Climate change thus affects long-term care systems, both in the short run due to increased occurrence of acute extreme weather events, as well as in the long run due to the additional burden it creates for people who use and provide formal and informal care, for instance due to increased psychological stress. The COVID pandemic and recent heatwaves and climate events have shown that many people who rely on care from others live in accommodation that is particularly susceptible to climate events, for example old buildings used as residential care with poor ventilation and thermal properties.

At the same time, the long-term care sector contributes to the climate crisis itself, by adding to the global carbon footprint. Moreover, high consumption of pharmaceutical drugs and heavy reliance on health, social and long-term care services are heavy polluters of the environment. Questions around human rights and social rights for a good life of both caregivers and care recipients arise, as questions on how an eco-social transformation of the long-term care sector could look like.

This thematic panel invites contributions to the linkages between long-term care, climate change adaptation, climate change mitigation, human and social rights, focusing on (but not limited to) the following questions:

• How is caregiving in all sectors – formal and informal, community and residential – impacted by climate change? (e.g. in the context of heat waves or extreme weather events)
• Which consequences does climate change have on working conditions in the long-term care sector?
• What does climate-friendly long-term care provision mean?
• How can quality of care be reconciled with climate-friendly long-term care provision?
• Which trade-offs arise when creating ‘eco-social’ long-term care systems?
• What are possible policy instruments for ensuring resilience against the climate crisis?

The session welcomes qualitative and quantitative as well as literature-based conceptual contributions. Interdisciplinary contributions are highly encouraged. Contributions on all people with care needs (including people with disabilities) are welcome.

You can find information about how to submit papers and the conference here: Call for papers | Transforming Care Conference 2025 | University of Helsinki, please note that the deadline is the 30 January 2025.

You can get in touch with the GOLTC Climate Change and Long-Term Care Interest Group by emailing ilp-network@lse.ac.uk

Andrea E. Schmidt, Competence Centre for Climate and Health, Austrian National Public Health Institute

Adelina Comas-Herrera, Care Policy and Evaluation Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science

Liat Ayalon, Louis and Gabi Weisfeled School of Social Work, Bar Ilan University

Klara Lorenz-Dant, Institute of General Practice, University Hospital of Augsburg