Indigenous peoples had a clear vision for Cop26, but it has not been delivered
Indigenous peoples came to Cop26 in Glasgow with clear goals that we wanted to see reflected in the final results. Now it is over, we don’t see the path forward we were hoping for. There is still too much wrangling between the developed and the developing countries, with the developed nations blocking much-needed agreements on rights and funding. And overall progress towards implementing the commitments made in the Paris agreement is too slow.
We wanted to ensure that the decisions included the need to respect human rights, including indigenous peoples’ rights, in undertaking adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage measures to deal with the immediate effects of the climate crisis.
We also wanted Cop26 to adopt the local communities and indigenous peoples platform, as agreed by the facilitative working group, an initiative that would ensure indigenous peoples and their knowledge would be included in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process.
It is vital that indigenous peoples are able to directly access finance, so that when they undertake actions on the climate crisis it is from a position of strength, and they are ensured the protection of rights to own, control and manage territories, especially their forests.
It was also our view that article 6 of the Paris agreement on market and non-market mechanisms for emissions trading and offsets should include us when these are designed and implemented, and our rights should be protected. Also that an international grievance mechanism be established which we can use in case our rights are violated in the implementation of article 6.
I am happy to see the preamble of the Cop26 cover decision states that parties “respect, promote and consider their respective obligations on human rights, the right to health, the rights of indigenous peoples”. This decision also recognises and acknowledges the important role of stakeholders, including indigenous peoples, in “averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change”.
The decision also recognises the “importance of protecting, conserving and restoring ecosystems to deliver crucial services, including acting as net carbon sinks, reducing vulnerability to climate change impacts and supporting sustainable livelihoods, including for indigenous peoples and local communities”.
When several countries and philanthropic donors committed $1.7bn to indigenous peoples to protect their forests, I voiced my hope that these resources would be effectively and directly accessed by indigenous peoples and not go through intermediaries such as states or the big conservation organisations.
A protocol was adopted, which if effectively implemented, means indigenous peoples and local communities will be able to further develop
and strengthen the use of their traditional knowledge, practices and innovation on climate-change mitigation and adaptation. That decision emphasised “the important role of indigenous peoples and local communities’ culture and knowledge in effective action on climate change”, urging parties “to actively involve indigenous peoples and local communities”.
Article 6 on market and non-market based mechanisms for mitigation mentions the need to respect indigenous peoples’ rights but does not mention the need to obtain our free, prior and informed consent. We hoped for an international grievance mechanism but that was downgraded.
So some good was done, but there were many inadequacies, such as the agreement to “phase down” rather than “phase out” coal production, even if it was an advance to see coal mentioned for the first time in a Cop decision.
The biggest coal producers and users, such as China, the US, Australia and India, also did not sign on to anearlier pledge to end the use of coal power. With this, it is difficult to imagine that the 1.5C goal will be achieved. What we need is for countries who are contributing most to greenhouse gas emissions to be serious in cutting back on fossil fuel production.
For us in developing countries, the capacity of our governments to adapt and mitigate is directly dependent on the provision of finance from the rich world. And yet, the commitment to deliver $100bn every year from 2020 was not reaffirmed.
We indigenous peoples will continue to do our duties and fulfil our obligations to Mother Earth and to our future generations. But we will be able to do these better if our collective rights to our lands, territories and resources, to culture and to our traditional knowledge, practices and innovations are respected and protected.
Many lives of indigenous leaders and activists have been sacrificed nurturing the ecosystem the world needs.Cop26 didn’t do enough to set us on a clear path to 1.5C, or to allow vulnerable countries and people to adapt to the ongoing crisis.
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz is the director of Tebtebba Foundation (Indigenous Peoples’ International Centre for Policy Research and Education) in the Philippines