15 minutes to get the scoop on Article 6 & False Solutions to the Climate Crisis

Engaging with policy can be a painstaking process, but as the world leaders at COP26 in Glasgow are striving to create frameworks that privilege the status quo of powerful and wealthy elites, the team at ICA along with our sister organization Indigenous Environmental Network is motivated to keep them on watch.  For folks who are new to following the discussions at the global level, IEN has produced this incredibly valuable video to get you up to speed in less than 15 minutes. Watch it today! 

ICA’s Executive Director, Eriel Deranger, describes how agreements are being made to promote capitalist interests in IEN’s short documentary on Article 6

Article 6 is a policy framework that was established in 2015 with the Paris Agreement at COP21 to support the trading of carbon through market mechanisms.  

For more than two decades Indigenous activists and our allies have been speaking up against carbon markets and the myriad of terms that have been used to facilitate people with money to continue business as usual as long as they can pay for it.

Time and time again we have seen carbon market approaches undermine the ability of Indigenous communities to steward the lands and waters in a sustainable way that supports our inherent rights and responsibilities.  The majority of the earths’ remaining forests and biodiversity is protected by Indigenous peoples and corporations continue to look for a way to capitalize on that.  In 2007 the World Bank introduced the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDDs) program affording corporations the ability to purchase forests that were managed by Indigenous communities, not only undermining the freedom of Indigneous community members to utilize the land, but also supporting carbon offsetting to further mining and deforestation in other parts of the world.  This approach creates ongoing sacrifice zones to enable the status quo of a fossil fuel economy. 

IEN’s Executive Director, Tom Goldtooth, describing the failures of carbon market mechanisms in IEN’s short documentary on Article 6.

It is critical that more people understand the importance of creating climate solutions that address the root causes of the crisis we are in. We can not rely on the systems and institutions that created the chaos to come up with solutions for how to fix it. Real climate solutions center the knowledges, rights and values of Indigenous peoples and local peoples. Stay tuned to the social media from ICA and IEN for real time updates on the organizing around Article 6 at COP26 in Glasgow!