ECO is happy to share this part of our publication with the Indigenous Peoples Caucus(IPO) to help amplify their voice. This article reflects the views of the IPO.
As we wrap up week one, the Indigneous Peoples’ Caucus held a press conference to highlight the outcomes of the lackluster negotiations. The impassioned speakers laid out the concerns, updates, and calls to action from our caucus. It’s become clear the objections to Loss & Damage, climate finance, and Article 6 are becoming illusions. The negotiations have become a battle of rights-based approaches versus market-based approaches. If we continue down this path, then who are we even trying to save the planet for?
Our rights and knowledge continue to be sidelined and left out of the global stocktake, climate finance, and Article 6 negotiations. This has enabled big polluters to dominate the discussions. When we start to look at the composition of the largest ‘delegation’ in the hallways and buzzing in the ears of state nationals, it’s big oil and gas. At COP26 they were the largest delegation, but that wasn’t enough – this year they decided they needed to increase their representation by another 25%! These busybodies are out here greenwashing, and promoting false solutions geared towards allowing big polluters to continue business as usual – pillaging Indigenous lands and waterways, all while making record-breaking profits off the genocide of our peoples and lands.
Despite the myriad of ways we experience Loss & Damage, there are no indicators for restitution regarding our rights, cultural, and past damages. When it comes to the commitments from the Glasgow Pact and climate finance, the target of US$100Billion is nowhere to be seen, let alone the smaller pledges of $1.7Bn for Indigenous Peoples. So where is this money? What does climate finance even mean anymore? Apparently it’s just becoming another subsidy for oil and gas companies and means nothing for our peoples.
As the negotiations on Article 6 continue like a bad soap opera, we are witnessing the disjointed and ill-framed positions that do nothing to actually substantively uphold human and Indigenous rights, defining non-market solutions, and leaving too much room for interpretation. It’s clear state nationals are not ready to put forward real commitments, processes or mechanisms for Indigneous peoples, and are trying to rush through. In turn this is creating an exponential risk for our rights.
What we need are resources, political will, and to place Indigenous rights at the centre of the negotiations. Furthermore, there continues to be a real need to further energize and empower our youth in these spaces to show that we have a voice. The louder and more collective we become, the harder it is to silence us.
After all, we are the stewards of 80% of the world’s biodiversity and continue to demonstrate some of the best low carbon lifestyles. It’s high time we allow our people to be decision makers. Next week will determine whether or not states will follow through with their commitments to Indigenous peoples, but one thing is certain: Indigneous peoples will continue to be there advancing our issues, our rights, and our way of life.