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Dubai, UAE — The outcomes of the UNFCCC 28th Conference of Parties has left Indigenous Peoples and frontline communities across the world sitting in disappointment as world leaders put forward watered-down climate commitments and text that continue to compromise our future.
The biggest takeaway from this year’s climate summit is the grotesque depth of greed and disregard for humanity as a whole. There was a huge missed opportunity to implement real climate solutions, but bullies from the Global North reaffirmed their false solutions to maintain their extractive economies, and so, lined their pockets with their reinforcement of settler-colonialism and imperial dominance over the Global South.
These false solutions, such as carbon markets, carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, nuclear energy, and climate geoengineering are fast-tracking a death sentence for Mother Earth and Indigenous Peoples who are on the frontlines of the climate crisis. These false solutions are nothing short of dangerous distractions, and are unproven techno-fixes that commodify Mother Earth – a violation of the sacred.
Moreover, this COP had an overwhelming, disproportionate and record-breaking number of fossil fuel lobbyists, over 2,400, which outnumbered Indigenous delegates 7 times over. Nation-states and the UNFCCC have made one thing ultimately clear – our lives, communities, lands, and futures do not matter to them. The only negotiations that took place at COP, were that climate criminals negotiated away our collective, livable future.
“The UN climate change conference has failed humanity and Mother Earth. We watched firsthand as the fossil fuel polluters and wealthy governments manipulated developing countries to undermine real action on climate change. Indigenous leadership, Indigenous knowledge holders, and youth spoke with one voice demanding a rapid transition for a phase out of fossil fuels at source. Our strong messages of fossil fuel phase out fell on deaf ears and instead, more false solutions will accelerate climate change and deforestation with a push for carbon capture and storage, nature based solutions, hydrogen and nuclear power in the Global Stocktake and carbon markets, offsets and private sector finance in Article 6”.- Tom BK Goldtooth (Diné/ Dakota), Executive Director, the Indigenous Environmental Network.
Despite world leaders lacking the necessary courage to make the historical and necessary climate action to meet the 1.5 degree celsius warming target, Indigenous Peoples and those in our network will continue to fight for environmental and climate justice. We are not defeated, as we have a long line of ancestors fueling our resistance, resilience, and determination, to protect the sacredness of Mother Earth and Father Sky. We will not sit idly by, we will continue to implement our own climate solutions, rooted in our worldviews, values, Traditional Indigenous Knowledge, exercising our inherent responsibilities and internationally-affirmed collective rights, and work towards an Indigenous Just Transition.
Today we mourn, tomorrow we continue the fight.
DUBAI — Climate justice leaders from organizations representing impacted frontline communities will be sending a delegation to the 2023 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 28th session of the Conference of Parties, commonly referred to as the UNFCCC COP28.
The frontline delegation calls upon world leaders to pass and adhere to binding agreements, including the immediate phase out of dirty energy, and to commit to meaningful climate reparations for communities that are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis.
WHO: Indigenous Environmental Network,
Climate Justice Alliance,
Indigenous Climate Action
WHAT: United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28)
WHEN: November 30, 2023 — December 12, 2023
WHERE: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
The delegation leaders reject market-based schemes and techno-fixes that are designed to prolong the lifespan of the dirty fossil fuel industry, and put communities at risk.
“The climate crisis demands a rapid just transition for a binding global phase out of fossil fuels and all extraction and production at source. With the risks and uncertainties of carbon capture and storage and carbon dioxide removal technologies, the world does not need more climate false solutions that divert attention away from the crucial work of stopping the ongoing colonial and capitalist frameworks that are consistently adopted by the UNFCCC,” said Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network. “The carbon markets of Article 6, the bogus safeguard language which has no legal protections for Indigenous Peoples, geoengineering techno-fixes, and the lack of fossil fuel phase out language are all connected. The longer the UN sanctions the climate disinformation embedded in Article 6, the deeper and stronger the impacts of climate change will be.”
The delegation is clear that to truly tackle the climate crisis, its root causes have to be addressed.
“The UNFCCC continues to prioritize false solutions and so-called climate policies that only serve corporations, ongoing colonialism and predatory capitalism.” said Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action “Our solutions expose the fallacy of colonial logic that consistently seeks to reduce the climate crisis to an economic crisis. By taking up space, calling out false solutions, and demanding the reinstitution of our legal rights as Indigenous peoples we are working towards a decolonial and climate-just future for all.”
The groups are also aware of the limitations within formal United Nations spaces.
“In order to achieve the policy shifts we need, even the best inside strategies at COP28 won’t be strong enough if we don’t organize powerful, grassroots pressure on the outside as well.” said Bineshi Albert, Co-Executive Director of Climate Justice Alliance. “True climate solutions are coming not from a formal UN negotiation process, but from the growing pressure and power of our collective struggle.We are in unity with blossoming social movements across the globe, led by the people most impacted by the climate crisis. We are pressuring governments to be responsive to the needs of our communities, and for more meaningful action, while implementing our own real solutions on the ground and planning for how vulnerable communities can best survive severe impacts of climate change.”
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The Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) is an international alliance of Indigenous Peoples whose mission it is to protect the sacredness of Mother Earth from contamination and exploitation by strengthening, maintaining, and respecting Indigenous teachings and natural laws.
Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) formed in 2013 to create a new center of gravity in the climate movement by uniting frontline communities and organizations into a formidable force.
Indigenous Climate Action (ICA) is an Indigenous-led organization guided by a diverse group of Indigenous knowledge keepers, water protectors and land defenders from communities and regions across so-called Canada.
Members of the Indigenous Environmental Network’s COP28 delegation that participated in the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform 10th meeting of the Facilitative Working Group in Dubai, UAE.
Tuesday, November 28, 2023, concluded the fourth and final day of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform (LCIPP) 10th meeting of the Facilitative Working Group in Dubai, UAE. The Facilitative Working Group (FWG) of the LCIPP is a constituted body that was developed at COP24 in 2018 to further operationalize the platform and facilitate the implementation of its three functions which include knowledge, capacity for engagement, and climate change policies and actions.
The FWG has 14 members, half of which are parties (nation states) and half Indigenous representatives from the seven UN Indigenous sociocultural regions of the world. During the #FWG10, a variety of items were discussed including: the review of the progress of the FWG9 decisions; LCIPP regional gatherings report backs; a discussion on the second three-year workplan, regions met and developed a draft of the third three-year workplan, and other relevant bodies shared updates, aspirations and report backs; and more.
Members of our IEN COP28 delegation participated in the FWG10 meeting, with active participation in the North America, Latin America, and Pacific breakout discussions. Our delegation emphasized the importance of instituting an Ethical Protocol for the Protection and Use of Traditional Indigenous Knowledge. Our delegation underscored that our Indigenous Knowledge shall be in an equitable position in relation to Eurocentric science. We provided tangible ethical guidelines for how UNFCCC processes can safeguard and protect the use of Traditional Indigenous Knowledge! Read more about IEN’s official submission regarding Ethical Protocol to the UNFCCC Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform’s Facilitative Working Group. If the FWG agrees to include the ethical protocol in its third three-year workplan, upon implementation, it would then be elevated to the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA). Upon SBSTA’s acceptance, it would be elevated to the Conference of Parties States.
IEN’s Indigenous Sovereignty Advocate, Michael Lane (Menominee) shared, “IEN is advocating for the Ethical Protocol on the Protection and Use of Traditional Indigenous Knowledge because for far too long our knowledge has been extracted and used by non Indigenous interests in their frameworks. Traditional Indigenous Knowledge needs to stand in an equitable way with Eurocentric science with the same status, and the Knowledge Holders need to be able to carry it forward through the UN processes.”
In the days ahead, the LCIPP will be hosting its Third Annual Gathering of Knowledge Holders – an exchange amongst [Indigenous] Knowledge Holders which two esteemed members of the Indigenous Environmental Network delegation will participate in: IEN [and IITC] Board member Faith Gemmill (Neets’aii Gwich’in, Pit River and Wintu) and long-time network member, Great Grandmother Mary Lyons (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe).
These annual gatherings of the LCIPP bring together Knowledge Holders to share and promote adaptation actions that are based on and guided by the best available science, including Traditional Knowledge, knowledge of Indigenous Peoples, and local knowledge systems in accordance with Article 7 of the Paris Agreement. This year’s thematic focus for the Third Annual Gathering of Knowledge Holders will be on the nexus of water, energy, and food.
Follow IEN’s social media to stay up to date on what is happening on the ground in Dubai during the UNFCCC COP28 on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube
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#COP28UAE #UNFCCC #LCIPP #ProtectTraditionalIndigenousKnowledge #EthicalProtocol
Indigenous Environmental Network Executive Director Tom Goldtooth is leading a 28-member delegation of organizational staff and leadership and Indigenous frontline community representatives dealing with a plethora of environmental issues to the city of Dubai on the Persian Gulf Coast for the 28th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties (UNFCC COP28) taking place from November 30 to December 12, 2023.
Under the international legally binding Paris Agreement made in 2015 at COP21 in Paris, France, 196 nations pledged efforts to limit global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, and, if possible, pursue efforts to cap warming at 1.5C. A 2C degree rise in global temperatures increases the risks of worldwide catastrophes of extreme weather phenomena including drought, heat waves, violent storms, and possible shortages of food and freshwater.
Indigenous communities, especially in the global south, are increasingly under environmental distress. IEN believes it has a duty to Mother Earth and Indigenous communities on the frontlines of oil and gas, hydrogen, CO2 pipeline infrastructure buildout, and other false solutions to climate chaos, to have the voices of those most affected heard at this crucial time in COP history.
“I truly respect their decisions. But, IEN, over the years of its participation in these international venues, has held the line, has maintained the strongest voice calling for the phase out of fossil fuels and the protection of all life on Mother Earth,” he explained. “We are at a crucial time with this COP, and I have spoken with my network of advisers, including our relatives in the south. They support us in our efforts to have Indigenous voices perspectives heard.”
eeting at COP28“Trying to understand the foundation, the security of our knowledge as not too long again, we were silenced from our traditions to convert to a colonial lifestyle, now less than 75 years, our knowledge is being asked of, once silenced to now, as an elder, I am concerned.”
Humanity and Nature go hand in hand, we are at a crossroads, so therefore;
We declare a climate emergency in all lands!
Accountability is in question,
Implementation is in question,
Research is far from being valid,
Best Practices within the health world has fallen short!
To include the world’s population voices of concern, one must examine the truths of each territories and not only the rights of the people, but the rights of nature.
To sit with the Justice Systems throughout the globe, one must understand the meaning of “ONE PLATE, ONE TABLE”.
To understand finance, one must detach themselves from greed and profit and sit in the circles of wellness.
To educate the population that one serves, one must sit amongst the weakest and understand what made them weak.
Climate Finance, and Carbon Trading, Offsets and Carbon Pricing in Article 6, the majority of the global population have very little understanding to what this really means and have limited knowledge of how it harms them.
Wisdom and vulnerability is the base of what knowledge exists from, so, how do we all move forward with universal understanding?
So, we continuously ask ourselves;
What are some of the pressing responses we all would love to hear?
What are the roots of systemic water, air and earth violence?
We all can respond to this, as we stand in the homeland gardens we are to nourish from. We all know who entered our living rooms without being invited in.
We all know the impacts of historical and inter-generational trauma.
What is today’s common addiction that ripples throughout all communities rather it be wealthy or poor?
No matter what the interpretation is, the final results all add up to a global climate chaos and no one, no matter how wealthy or how financially limited they are, they cannot escape the impacts. The global platform will face the disruption in the quality of air, water, fire and earth, we are in now!
We are at a crossroads of vulnerability on both sides, but here is the statement that must stand strong;
In closing;
It is my hope that the Ethical Protocol for the Protection and Use of Traditional Indigenous Knowledge will be utilized before our Knowledge is passed on to the UNFCCC bodies including the SBSTA and the CMA. I do not want to see what I share here as being interpreted by other People and have it possibly distorted or misused.
Chii Megwetch, thank you,
December 4, 2023
Dubai, UAE, UNFCCC COP28
Written by: Tom BK Goldtooth (Diné/Dakota), Executive Director, Indigenous Environmental Network
The climate crisis demands a rapid transition for a binding global phaseout of fossil fuels and all extraction and production at source. Climate change is a matter of life and death for us, as Indigenous Peoples – in all regions of Mother Earth.
A fast, fair, and funded fossil fuel phaseout must prioritize a just transition for impacted communities on the frontlines where fossil fuel financing continues to exacerbate inequalities and result in human rights abuses, particularly in the lands and territories of our Indigenous Peoples – from the South to the North. Indigenous Peoples impacted by climate change require direct Indigenous-led funding.
As a coalition of six other organizations, we released the April 2023 Banking on Climate Chaos report with findings that fossil fuel financing from the world’s 60 largest banks has reached USD $5.5 trillion in the seven years since the Paris Agreement, with $669 billion in fossil fuel financing in 2022 alone. We have to stop business-as-usual.
I cannot talk about the fossil fuel phaseout without talking about the UN, the World Bank and other multilateral development banks being colonial institutions whose work reproduces colonial legacies of dispossession and inequality. The relationship here is still one of extraction – institutions engaging in climate finance, mitigation, adaptation finance, loss and damage and the banks choose projects based on their ability to generate profit and maximize private sector involvement. Climate change is simply treated as the newest arena for capitalism, financial expansion and development, once again entrenching the dynamic of exploitation and violence from the Global North under the guise of helping the Global South and developing countries. This is history repeating itself – it is the same development paradigm that contributed to the climate crisis in the first place, this time with even less accountability but a greener image.
Climate finance and funding mechanisms do nothing to address the root cause of climate change. They do not reduce emissions at source nor keep fossil fuels in the ground. There is no accountability mechanism led by Indigenous Peoples and other local and frontline communities to ensure that projects in fact address climate change.
Our fight for dignity demands these mitigation issues couched within Article 6 of the Paris Agreement to be looked at from an environmental, economic and social justice perspective and rights-based approach, not perpetuating false solutions like “abated” fossil fuels, carbon markets, offsets, carbon pricing, carbon dioxide removals, carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, nuclear or many other misguided and dangerous geoengineering technologies such as the emerging push for solar radiation modification.
With the risks and uncertainties of carbon capture and storage and carbon dioxide removal technologies, and the privatization and commodification of carbon trading regimes, Mother Earth and Father Sky do not need more climate false solutions that divert attention away from the crucial work of stopping the ongoing colonial and capitalist frameworks that are embedded within the UNFCCC. We only have one Mother Earth, let’s protect her.
by Tamra Gilbertson
After a week of negotiations at COP 28 SBSTA (Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice) meetings it is clear that there are different meanings to the substantial concepts in Article 6. Parties debate items that have different meanings to different parties. A lot of what has been discussed this last week was to define concepts like Cooperative Approach, needing more guidance on what a carbon dioxide removal would consist of, what emissions avoidance means and what really is a non-market based approach and readiness programs. As parties push and pull to define key elements that will have serious consequences to Indigenous Peoples and local communities, here is the round up on Article 6.
The 6th informal consultation on SBSTA 13(a) met to build up guidance on cooperative approaches. The key issues debated were going back to define what Cooperative Approaches means. There was an effort to discuss if the registry database will only be a type of registration database to report greenhouse gas emissions to meet country Nationally Determined Contribution (NDCs) or if it will act as an internal trading platform. Many of the developing countries want it to be a shared platform registry for countries’ to track and trade emissions as Internationally Tradable Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs) because many developing countries do not have emissions trading systems (ETSs). There is continued debate on whether the registry database will only register emissions, include national existing databases, and/or act as a global stock exchange for greenhouse gas emissions.
Regarding Article 6.4, many organizations advocated for the SBSTA to send the carbon dioxide removals text back to the Supervisory Body. However, removals are in the final SBSTA document that will go to the CMA and will be debated in the coming days.
There was more discussion on whether or not to include emissions avoidance in article 6.4, with the Philippines still strongly advocating for it and the majority of Parties arguing that it should either not be included or if avoidance was already inadvertently understood to be included in the removals document.
There are still plans to launch the Article 6.4 mechanism database by 2025 but questions remain around what would even be included and many key procedural questions. Many have begun to argue for a concrete Appeal and Grievance process before any such trading platform would be operational. The Appeal and Grievance process is put on hold until 2024 for more negotiations in the Supervisory Body and SBSTA. Getting the Appeals and Grievances pushed back for further negotiations allows more time to organize against what will be the biggest carbon offsets platform ever attempted.
Earlier in the week there was a consultation session with article 6.8 negotiators and stakeholders. Presentations from the GEF, World Bank, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and other International Finance Institutions (IFIs) raised important questions in the session about how these IFIs planned to commodify and financialize the supposed Non-Market Approach into a market-based system. There was significant push back from Bolivia to remove any text that would marketize article 6.8. Representatives from the International Indigenous Peoples Platform that forms the Indigenous Peoples constituency group provided clear examples of what real non-market traditional Indigenous practices really look like from seed exchange, traditional agriculture systems and more. The work to keep article 6.8, non-market approaches, continues and is a key area because the plan is to launch the website at the end of January. However, whether it is a market-based system or not, serious concerns continue because the private sector is involved, some projects are already underway in countries, and environmental services function like offsets in some countries.
Finally, there is contention on how to spend the 60 million in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) account. The CDM under the Kyoto Protocol should be dismantled but as Article 6 is still being developed, the CDM continues to issue credits and new projects. Frustrating discussions continue around how and when the CDM will be shut down and where that 60 million will go. The African Group of Nations (AGN) negotiating block argues that the money should go to the Adaptation Fund, while other countries including the European Union argue that the money should go to Article 6 bodies to build up the new system.
These questions and more will be negotiated starting Friday, December 8 when the COP28 negotiating sessions begin.
At the launch of these negotiations, Bolivia called for a moratorium on carbon markets in Articles 6.2 and 6.4 in this morning’s A6.4 negotiations where rules, modalities and procedures for the mechanism established by Article 6, paragraph 4, of the Paris Agreement was discussed amongst Parties.
Bolivia has stated it has turned against the possibility of carbon markets and is calling for a cease of market functions under the Article 6.2 and 6.4 mechanism, and proposed a list of options of how to end them!
by Brenna Two Bears
In Dubai, the smog is thick in the air and lungs. The first thing you see is the world’s biggest natural gas power generating facility. But it’s the cries of Indigenous People you hear in the venue, our songs and stories fill this place up. It’s a familiar fight, and we are ready to take it on.
Before COP28 even began, the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change met for a full week to strategize. one of the outcomes was a formal opening plenary statement, read by Pemo Wangmo Lama Mugum on November 30th. In it, we stated “Real solutions require drastic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions based on the equitable phase out of fossil fuels.” Not “carbon markets and offsets, geoengineering…’net-zero’ frameworks and ‘Nature Based Solutions’”. We as Indigenous People made very clear our stance on how to address the climate crisis, despite the efforts of several nation-states and thousands of fossil fuels lobbyists. These false solutions are a dangerous technology, and extractive systems cannot be perpetuated in our next steps.
This years COP had a record-breaking amount of fossil fuel lobbyists. They outnumber Indigenous delegates 7 times over. What’s more, they have the ear of those nation-states in attendance as well. We can see this in the words of Al Jaber, COP28’s president, when he said the phaseout of fossil fuels “would take the world back into caves” and that there was “no science” behind this (during an online event with Mary Robinson on November 21st). In response, the UN Secretary General said “The science is clear: The 1.5C limit is only possible if we ultimately stop burning all fossil fuels. Not reduce, not abate. Phase out, with a clear timeframe.” (to COP28 delegates on December 1st).
As for the negotiations themselves, they are just as complex and dodgy when it comes to fossil fuels. As of today, Saudi Arabia refuses to agree to anything around phasing out fossil fuels. All it takes is one country to say no, and the negotiations will need to cut that part. Debates continue to heat up around nation states pushing for the language of “unabated fossil fuels” in the draft agreement. At the core this term means that fossil fuel projects can continue to operate, while employing false solutions like carbon capture and storage. Even if that were an option (which it’s not), reports are finding that the carbon released from the 17 fossil fuel projects the Biden Administration has approved would far outweigh any potential carbon offsets laid out in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
When it comes to the US, money is misplaced still: above the lives and wellbeing of Indigenous Peoples, and into more extractive systems. Since signing the Glasgow agreement at COP26, which pledged to phase out fossil fuel finance, the Biden Administration has wasted $800 million dollars on fossil fuel projects around the world. What’s more, they have contributed a mere $17 million to the loss and damage fund, intended to go to the most affected people and areas. This is a drop in the bucket when considering the output of carbon from the US will only build exponentially if these proposed projects are allowed to finish building.
In the middle of all this oil, gas, and coal there are high points. We are witnessing history in the making as Colombia, Samoa, and Palau join 8 other nation-states in their call for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. In their announcement, President Gustavo Petro said “Between fossil capital and life, we choose life.” Even as a country with a significant amount of coal and oil money, they understand that this path is inevitable. We can continue mistreating Mother Earth, or we can live.
I can’t help but think of my family back home, who are fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline. On the 8th year of fighting this project, we still hold the line as Indigenous People. I don’t need to tell you that we steward over 80% of the worlds biodiversity, because we live that every day. We gather our traditional medicines on our lands, we carry those stories passed down from our ancestors, and we stand up for Mother Earth. We go so far as operating within the colonizers system to protect the sacred waters in Lake Oahe, as the Standing Rock Nation petitioned and secured an extra 30 days for the public comment period on the long-awaited Environmental Impact Statement from the US Army Corps of Engineers.
This is our chance to make our voices heard, our right to say no to pipelines and yes to life. That is what the COP means to me, a Diné, Ho-Chunk, Standing Rock person. This is our chance to be heard, to hold the line. The People of the Big Voice, the Holy People, and the next Seven Generations stand behind me here. We will not let them down.
Panel hosted by: International Indian Treaty Council.
Featuring:
IEN delegate, Great Grandmother Mary Lyons (Leech Lake Ojibwe)
Financial strategies can be leveraged and innovated to either support environmental sustainability, or to empower false solutions. Speaking at #COP28 in Dubai, Raya Salter, Tom Goldtooth, and Dan Galpern take a hard look at where the money is flowing, whether it will really benefit the planet or not, and the legal action that can be taken when it is not working.
For more about Dan Galpern’s work https://cprclimate.org/ For more about Raya Salter’s work https://www.rayasalter.com/
Speakers:
Ribeiro, ETC Group
Eduardo Giesen, DCJ & Plataforma Latinoamericana y del Caribe por la justicia
Hwei Mian Lim, Women and Gender Constituency
Nnimmo Bassey, Health of Mother Earth Foundation
Panganga Pungowiyi, IEN Arctic Region
Moderated by: Tamra Gilbertson & Neth Dano
Across the world, military pollution and escalating wars are exacerbating violence in communities and the impacts of climate crisis. Climate justice requires demilitarization and centering feminist solutions. Hear from leaders on demilitarization and feminist visions of peace and climate justice.
Featured speakers are from Pueblo Action Alliance, FOE-Palestine, Indigenous Environmental Network, and Young Arab Feminists Collective.
Moderated by Climate Justice Alliance
LIVE from COP28 in Dubai – November 30, 2023
Note: press conference begins below at approx -27.10
Live from COP28 in Dubai – December 2, 2023
