While the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) recognizes the inherent collective right of Indigenous Peoples to self-determination, we continue to face enduring barriers that hinder meaningful participation and consultation within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). 

In response to this exclusion, Indigenous Peoples have seized the opportunity to form the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC). This forum acts as a mechanism for developing positions, implementing effective strategies, and engaging in advocacy during and between UNFCCC meetings and sessions. These efforts have ultimately led to creating and operationalizing the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform (LCIPP), challenging UNFCCC rules and procedures.

Established by the Parties in 2015, the LCIPP aims to ‘strengthen the knowledge, technologies, practices, and efforts of local communities and [I]ndigenous [P]eoples related to addressing and responding to climate change (Decision 2/CP.23 para. 5 of 2017).’ 

The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), a global human rights organisation dedicated to advocating for and defending the rights of Indigenous Peoples’, has recently published a report offering insight and analysis into the emergence of the Local and Indigenous Peoples Platform (LCIPP). 

The report highlights the LCIPP's role in consolidating the rights of Indigenous Peoples in climate governance, sheds light on ongoing barriers that hinder the meaningful participation of Indigenous Peoples within the UNFCCC,  and seeks to identify the impacts of the Platform, which include:

1. Increased awareness and visibility of Indigenous Peoples’ climate leadership and crucial role in climate governance;

2. The emergence of new partnerships at the international level, and;

3. The slow yet gradual recognition of Indigenous Peoples in national climate plans, policies and mechanisms.

“The platform serves as an interface between Indigenous Peoples, Parties, and constituted bodies, paving the way for Indigenous recognition in climate governance (IWGIA, 2023, page 5).”

The Report also provides nine recommendations to the UNFCCC, State Parties and other stakeholders alike: 

1. Recognise Indigenous Peoples as right holders; 

2. Respect the right to self-determination at all levels; 

3. Operationalise the Platform as an enabler to strengthen climate action and governance that will pave the way for transformative structural change; 

4. Engage with LCIPP workplans to strengthen climate policy coherence; 

5. Increase support for Indigenous-led climate action through partnership with Indigenous Peoples that recognises contributions by Indigenous elders, women and youth;

6. Generate spaces for partnership in climate governance by creating regional, national and local platforms; 

7. Build intercultural competencies within national governments through partnerships with Indigenous Peoples; 

8. Strengthen climate policy coherence regarding Indigenous Peoples’ recognition by aligning global and national agendas; and

9. Centre Indigenous Peoples in the discussions of all UNFCCC mechanisms and processes

As articulated in the report, IWGIA hope that these recommendations “will contribute to reversing the historical exclusion Indigenous Peoples have suffered in climate governance at international, regional, national and sub-national levels, engage Parties effectively in the LCIPP process, and promote the structural transformations urgently needed to respond to the climate crisis through a just, inclusive and rights-based approach. (IWGIA, 2023, page 8).”

To learn more about the LCIPP, read Consolidating the rights of Indigenous Peoples in climate governance through the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform