COP26 PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 29, 2021—This week Indigenous Climate Action’s (ICA) delegation of over 15 Indigenous change makers will travel to attend COP26, otherwise known as the Conference of Parties, held in Glasgow, United Kingdom. ICA is attending the conference to ensure that Indigenous peoples’ voices are heard and to advocate for the sovereignty and self-determination of Indigenous communities to be key decision makers and climate leaders in these spaces and in our own communities.
“Our identities as Indigenous peoples are inextricably tied to the lands, waters, and ecosystems we come from. As the climate crisis continues to worsen, our communities are experiencing increasingly dramatic changes that disrupt our life ways and our rights, despite the fact we are least responsible for it,” stated ICA Executive Director Eriel Tchekwie Deranger. “We are recognized as stewards of 80% of global biodiversity, yet we remain relegated on the sidelines of COP negotiations and in setting policy and climate action. Our delegation is here to join the global Indigenous movement to challenge false solutions, like carbon markets, that allow ongoing extractive capitalism and colonial narratives that continue to invisibilize us, erode our rights and do little to functionally address the climate crisis or reduce global emissions. We need real actions that address the root causes of the climate crisis and we need them now.”
ICA believes that participating in international climate discourse is vital for advancing the rights of Indigenous Peoples at home and abroad. The recent IPCC report made it evidently clear that climate change is worsening and action is needed now. ICA asserts that the current international climate negotiations and proposals lack real protection and recognition of human rights, including Indigenous rights and rights to the land. Further, false solutions that involve carbon trading and offsets could lead to ongoing Indigenous land theft, extractivism and colonial violence.
“Colonization caused climate change, Indigenous rights are the solution. Our lives and communities depend on climate policy led by us, as Indigenous peoples. However we are often barred from decision-making tables and instead marginalized into categories of stakeholders, if even that. We are here to demand not only a seat at the table, but for our values, cosmology and systems to be recognized and upheld in these negotiations. We don’t need to be translating ourselves through a colonial lens all the time. It’s time for our people to be heard and empowered to lead solutions to the climate crisis” stated Rebecca Sinclair, ICA Research and Climate Policy Analyst.
There are clear studies that support that Indigenous wisdom and leadership continue to pave the way for solutions that center ecosystems and biodiversity management that is critical to addressing the climate crisis. Indigenous frontline resistance has halted harmful extractive projects, protected wildlife and sacred lands and waters, while also ensuring over 6 billion tons of carbon are kept in the ground. In an era of devastating climate change, Indigenous voices and leadership are needed more than ever.
“We can’t continue to create solutions within the same systems that created the problem. We need transformative shifts that recenter Indigenous values and peoples. Solutions created without us will continue to oppress us. Now is the time to act,” concluded Sarah Hanson, ICA Decolonizing Climate Policy Youth Intern.
Quick Facts:
Indigenous Climate Action is the only Indigenous-led climate justice group north of the medicine line, in Canada.
Indigenous peoples groups were a critical voice in the drafting of the Universal Declaration for Rights of Mother Earth, which has become an aspirational template for climate justice.
Indigenous Climate Action recently produced a report ‘Decolonizing Climate Policy in Canada’ looking at how climate policy in Canada continues to undermine Indigenous rights and sovereignty. The same concerns regarding the tokenization of Indigenous knowledge while excluding Indigenous people in the decision making process can be generalized to the process within the UNFCCC.
For more information about ICA’s participation at COP26 visit: www.indigenousclimateaction.com/cop26
Media inquires:
Amber Bernard, External Media Coordinator
amber@indigenousclimateaction.com
Erin Blondeau, Communications Coordinator
erin@indigenousclimateaction.com