Grey and green: can the two walk together? Challenges to climate planning for an aging population: perspectives of Israeli policy stakeholders and planners.

BACKGROUND AND

OBJECTIVES

Climate change disproportionately affects older adults, yet age-friendly planning and climate adaptation remain disconnected in municipal implementation. This study examines barriers to integrating Age-Friendly Plans and Climate Adaptation Plans in Israeli municipalities, where both frameworks were recently introduced nationwide.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND

METHODS

We conducted semi-structured interviews with 39 policy stakeholders, planners, municipal administrators, and academics involved in age-friendly or climate adaptation initiatives. Interview transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis to identify barriers preventing integration.

RESULTS

4 interconnected barriers emerged, operating at macro and micro levels. At the macro level, knowledge gaps about climate-aging connections and resource constraints limit municipal capacity. At the micro level, narrow institutional framing that reduces aging to welfare concerns and fear-based avoidance of both aging and climate change impede implementation. These barriers function as a self-reinforcing system: structural knowledge gaps enable cognitive barriers, while fear-based avoidance influences institutional priorities and resource allocation.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Our two-level barrier model demonstrates how macro-level structural constraints and micro-level cognitive and psychological barriers reinforce one another, systematically maintaining policy separation despite clear resonances. Successful integration requires interprofessional collaboration, cognitive reframing, capacity-building, active local government leadership, sustained funding mechanisms, and proactive governance structures that support integration across policy domains.