A Dynamic Approach to Climate Resilience in Ageing

Climate resilience in ageing is a vastly underexplored matter. International policies, such as from WHO and the European Commission, mention climate resilience as well as healthy and active ageing, but not in an integrative way, missing out on opportunities to build synergies between these two strategic pathways. Chronic and acute climate changes impact on the mental wellbeing of ageing individuals. There is increasing demand to deal with climate disasters and/or ongoing experiences of environmental change. Psychologically, this may require dealing with trauma, it may lead to solastalgia or climate/ecological grief, and call for routine changes and flexible approaches to daily life. We propose that the learning on ageing well, which goes beyond healthy and active ageing, should be considered in climate resilience, leading to approaching this topic by valuing ageing as a dynamic life period, with transitions, and intra and inter-individual differences. The dynamic relationship of the individual with close and broad societal ties, as well as the physical and infrastructural context contribute to building or hindering resilience. Key to individual climate resilience is for society to tackle ageing-stereotypes within the climate change debate and to embrace the potential contribution of older people to climate mitigation and adaptation actions.