Eriel Deranger’s Reflections on the Climate Breakthrough Award
When I was approached by a young recruiter for Climate Breakthrough at the Ted Summit in Detroit in 2022, I was confused and unsure what we were even talking about. I knew very little about Climate Breakthrough. When I learned what it was I was taken aback that I was being considered. I mean, I was just a scrappy Dënesųłiné woman running what felt like a small organization - Indigenous Climate Action - in the sea of organizations tackling the climate crisis.
I learned early on that my struggle at home challenging the Alberta Tar Sands was a drop in the bucket of out of control desecration of Indigenous homelands globally - lands and territories that hold 80% of the worlds biodiversity. My liberation wasn’t going to come from stopping one project, but it was going to be tied to the collective liberation of all Indigenous Peoples and our a restoration of our lands back. This core value took me to the UN Forum Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and into the spaces with the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC).
When I learned that Climate Breakthrough was historically given to those that could quantify a reduction of GHG emissions from their idea, I was convinced they were talking to the wrong person. I had intentionally stayed away from quantifying GHGs because I felt like it was a reductionist approach to the work. So naturally, my proposal to Climate Breakthrough was outside of the box of traditional GHG reducing quantifying projects. I wanted to propose something rooted in the UN Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007), and how Indigenous liberation and our struggle for Land Back wasn’t just a framework for stronger human rights, but has real potential impact on addressing the climate crisis.
For me, climate solutions aren’t valued by how much carbon is removed from the atmosphere but by the changes to the systems that have oppressed my people and sanctioned the very structures that have created the climate crisis - colonialism, capitalism, extractivism and white supremacy.
Indigenous peoples have been some of the most formidable advocates in advancing climate change as a global political issue. We have been calling for the most progressive targets, mitigation, and adaptation strategies in the world and our communities are responding to the climate crisis in ways that draw from our traditional knowledge systems to create effective climate solutions. It is about time that we receive this level of investment into Indigenous leadership in climate policy and solutions.
With this Climate Breakthrough award, along with the ongoing support of Indigenous Climate Action, I am going to be exploring the development of a globally coordinated effort that allows for effective and resourced participation of Indigenous peoples in bringing forward climate solutions at the local and international levels. By working with a global network of Indigenous leaders we will build out a global initiative to overcome key barriers to advancing Indigenous solutions, including enduring systems of colonization, inadequate funding, insufficient training opportunities led by and for Indigenous people, and a lack of direct information dissemination to communities. I want to develop processes that uphold the bare minimum of Indigenous rights, as outlined in the UNDRIP, and follow practices of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC).
Though it may be difficult to quantify the exact emissions reduction potential of this initiative with current knowledge, the transformative impact of a fully-resourced Indigenous movement that is guided by a global vision for climate stability is undeniable. This work promises to reshape the global climate movement, ensuring that Indigenous voices are not just included but are central to the fight for climate justice.
As we just wrapped up the 29th UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP) meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan I can’t help but feel defeated by the outcomes that lacked true consensus or reflection of a human rights based approach to the climate crisis. Despite the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples being adopted in 2007, Indigenous Peoples continue to be sidelined, underresourced, underrepresented and undervalued in these spaces and I truly want to change that.
I am so honored to have been given this opportunity to lean in, explore and learn about how to scale up and build something new. I am joined by three other winners this year - Alex Doukas, Kimiko Hirata, and Tero Mustonen - whose profiles and project descriptions are available here. I was lucky to meet these incredible climate leaders earlier this year and am so excited to work alongside them all in the coming years.
Please join me on this journey as I begin to unpack and explore what it means to scale up an Indigenous climate justice initiative that brings the collective voices, stories, solutions and vision of Indigenous Peoples to the forefronts of the climate solutions discourse. Together we can make a bold difference in how we are approaching and defining solutions for the future.
Learn more and see recent updates here.
