Aging During Environmental Crisis: Extreme Weather Vulnerability, the Age-Friendly City Framework, and Intergenerational Environmental Justice in Chicago

A growing body of research demonstrates that individuals aged 65 years and older are disproportionately impacted by climate change, yet there are few policies that provide specialized support for older people in times of environmental crisis. Using data from interviews with aging advocates, planners, policymakers, and researchers and drawing on analysis of policy documents from local, state, and international levels, this project identifies opportunities for improving support for rapidly aging populations experiencing climate change. This paper proposes an additional domain to the World Health Organization's Age-Friendly Cities (AFC) framework: Climate Resilience. Integrating climate change into this framework centers its impact on older populations not only within age-friendly discourse, but also in the environmental justice (EJ) movement, where age is not yet acknowledged as an intersectional social identity related to environmental inequity. The intended result is an intergenerational climate movement strengthened by the voices and lived experiences of older people.