UN climate summit sells off indigenous lands to ‘save the planet’

As delegates from around the world gather in Baku, Azerbaijan, for the 29th annual United Nations Climate Summitalso known as COP29, one of the most controversial debates centers on carbon trading – a mechanism touted as the next big ‘climate solution’ that will allow countries and companies to offset their emissions by investing in carbon-reducing projects elsewhere. According to many indigenous leaders participating in the so-called “financial COP,” carbon trading is a path fraught with risks, especially regarding the rights and sovereignty of indigenous peoples who have since time immemorial cared for and protected the lands used in this trade. .

With the lands of indigenous peoples often focused on these CO2 compensation projectsmany worry that carbon markets could lead to further rights abuses and land grabs under the guise of climate solutions, without grievance procedures or rights guarantees. “Indigenous Peoples have been raising the alarm for years about the dangers of carbon trading and its role in paving the way for international mechanisms that endanger the lives, lands, waters and rights of indigenous peoples. States are now trying to push through carbon trading articles without the necessary safeguards, transparency, accountability and respect for the rights of indigenous people. Once again, the economic interests of the states outweigh the high integrity processes that require a just and equitable future in which rights are not only recognized, but also protected and celebrated,” said Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action (Canada).

Tom Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous environmental networkshared similar concerns. “More than two decades of carbon markets have resulted in violations of indigenous peoples’ rights, land grabs and disproportionate impacts,” he stated.

The crux of the COP29 debate on carbon trading is Article 6 by Paris COP21 agreementwhich provides the framework for international cooperation through carbon markets. Article 6 allows countries to buy and sell “internationally transferred mitigation results”, effectively creating a global carbon market that is estimated to emerge north of the United States $1 trillion per year once launched. And the Global North has much to gain from encouraging a privatized market approach, rather than using government financing, to finance these carbon trading projects.

This year’s COP has shown a growing divide between the Global North, which favors carbon markets, and the Global South, which needs stable, predictable climate finance, untethered from tumultuous economic trends, to adapt to the consequences of the climate. While carbon markets can bring profits to richer countries, they do not guarantee the level of financing that indigenous peoples and Global South countries need to adapt.

“It’s like developing countries are asking for an ambulance, but the developed countries are offering roller skates and calling it aid,” explained Ghazali Ohorella, the Indigenous Peoples Caucus’ lead negotiator for Article 6. During a recent Article 6 Indigenous Peoples Caucus working group meeting, Ohorella put it clearly: “By promoting carbon markets as a way to ‘save the planet’, developed countries are setting aside public finances in favor of private investments, viewing them as innovation while limiting their own liabilities . This frees them from providing predictable, equitable financing, leaving Indigenous peoples and the Global South to bear the burden of unstable, market-driven solutions.”

More specifically, COP29’s focus on carbon trading risks overshadowing the urgent need for carbon new collective quantified climate finance targetwhich would ensure that countries and indigenous peoples most affected by climate change have access to adequate financing, mainly from the countries that have contributed most to climate change in the Global North.

One of the other core demands from indigenous representatives at COP29 is that all carbon market policies respect the principle free, prior and informed consentrecorded in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. “Indigenous peoples face harm from carbon capture and storage projects on their territories. My nation is one of them, in the Alberta tar sands. Free, prior and informed consent is crucial in these cases because it ensures that indigenous peoples have the right to make decisions about projects that affect their lands, resources and way of life,” said Crystal Lameman, government relations advisor and treaty coordinator for the Beaver Lake Cree Nation in Canada and a representative of the International Indian Treaty Council. “If these rights are not respected, it will lead to further displacement and loss of access to land and resources essential to traditional practices such as hunting and gathering, which are essential to the identity and survival of indigenous peoples.”

Indigenous leaders are meeting with country delegations at COP29, insisting that FPIC cannot be treated as a “checkbox” after a project is approved, but must be secured before any form of cooperation is allowed. They also call for an internationally standardized, mandatory process for approving carbon projects, rather than a country-by-country approach, ensuring transparency and protecting the rights of indigenous people, regardless of which country a project is located in.

An additional problem is the broad definition of “removals” in carbon markets, which could do so enable risky and little-studied technologies such as geoengineering to be classified as carbon offsets without clear safeguards. “Carbon market systems are just another attempt to monetize nature, perpetuating false solutions that capitalize on the exploitation and/or theft of indigenous lands and territories under the guise of carbon sequestration or geoengineering… Study after study has proven it demonstrated failure of carbon sequestration projects, while in the past year it has been shown that even natural carbon sinks cannot keep up with the pace of emissions. Every time countries make rash decisions based on market structures and analysis, human and indigenous rights are violated, the planet continues to be exploited, and we move further away from meaningful climate action,” said Janene Yazzie, Director of Policy and Advocacy bee NDN Collective. According to an anonymous member of COP29’s Indigenous Peoples Caucus, also known as the International Forum for Indigenous Peoples on Climate Changethe caucus plans to include language in its opening statement at this year’s climate summit on the harms of rushing such new technologies into carbon trading markets.

Over the next two weeks, indigenous delegates to COP29 will continue to meet with representatives of governments around the world, advocating as collective rights holders and not as passive subjects of external carbon credit projects. Given the life-and-death stakes for the health, safety, dignity and longevity of their ancient nations, they are not against climate action but demand a reasonable, rights-based approach to carbon markets to ensure their future generations can thrive . on their beloved homelands.