ICA Attending Climate Week NY to Name Root Cause of Climate Crisis and Push Back Against False Solutions
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 14, 2023
Lenapehoking | New York City — Indigenous Climate Action (ICA) will be on the ground for Climate Week NYC from September 17-21, 2023 to continue naming colonialism as the root cause of climate change and pushing back against false solutions and the further commodification of the climate crisis. The New York Climate Week gathering will host world leaders who will determine negotiation for COP28 held in Dubai, UAE later this year. Despite the recent 16th anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples (UNDRIP), Indigenous peoples continue to be left out of major decisions that ultimately affect Indigenous rights and livelihoods.
“Now more than ever we need to reconcile with the fact that colonialism – including systems of patriarchy, capitalism, white supremacy, and extractivism—are the cause of climate change,” states Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, Executive Director, Indigenous Climate Action. “Until we begin to collectively remove these harmful structures we risk replicating and maintaining these systems of harm. Indigenous communities have been calling attention to solutions driven by our ancestral wisdom and relationships with our traditional lands and waterways. Our solutions expose the fallacy of colonial logic that consistently seeks to reduce the climate crisis to an economic crisis that corporations and colonial governments benefit from.”
Indigenous communities in so-called Canada continue to deal with some of the most jarring impacts of the climate crisis, including moving through the worst wildfire season on record. Meanwhile, colonial governments and corporate industry will convene once again to discuss solutions that will only continue business as usual while doing little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) or address the root cause of the climate crisis. Carbon market mechanisms, emissions trading systems, bioengineering, quick fix and untested technologies and other false solutions only further delay effective action. In many cases, these false solutions only create loopholes and systems that allow fossil fuel extraction and consumption to continue unabated.
“Centering Indigenous leadership and sovereignty is essential otherwise climate solutions will continue to fail. Indigenous peoples know that true climate solutions are found in our communities and with the relationships we steward with the land. It is long overdue for our people to be making the decisions about the solutions we need to mitigate, transition and survive extreme climate events.” shares Jamie Bourque-Blyan, Engagement Manager, with Indigenous Climate Action.
Indigenous knowledge systems and ways of being are known to be viable and effective solutions to the climate crisis, not the least of which relate to the capacities for reviving and stewarding ecosystem health and biodiversity. Meanwhile, the decision makers within the systems that created climate change have not taken any substantive action on climate or started to build the necessary steps to end dirty fossil fuel development, extraction and consumption. Recent IPCC reports stress the urgency for real action not more empty promises and false solutions.
“Real climate action upholds human rights including the inherent rights and sovereignty of Indigenous peoples globally.” comments Sheila Muxlow, Associate Director with Indigenous Climate Action. “Real solutions are place-based, empower localized decision making, and react to the needs and experiences of local community members, not the shareholders of corporations or the insatiable greed of colonial empires.”
To hear more from ICA and connect with our delegation at one of these Climate Week events and keep track of our events, statements, and other activities on our Climate Week page.