IWGIA’s reaction to the COP 29 outcome

IWGIA's reaction to the COP 29 outcome

Written on 27 November 2024. Posted in News

Left to right: IWGIA Climate Advisor, Stefan Thorsell; UCRT Executive Director, Paine Mako; Maasai Elder, Metui Ole Shaudo; and PINGO's Forum Climate Manager, Gideon Sanago

In the lead up to COP 29, and indeed throughout the conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, Indigenous Peoples from all seven socio-cultural regions engaged in active advocacy to ensure an ambitious and just outcome upholding the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

In the early hours of 24 November 2024, the conference concluded with an utterly controversial and disappointing outcome. The closing statement of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC) speaks for itself.

Hereby IWGIA's reaction to the COP 29 outcome.

Fossil fuels

The COP 29 outcome fails to reiterate the agreement of last year's COP to the "transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems". This is disappointing given that the burning of coal, oil and gas globally have not yet peakeddespite all the talk about a green transition.¹

While this leaves the 1.5-degree target a purely utopian and, at this point, frankly, a naïve target, Indigenous Peoples continue to bear the immediate brunt. Fossil fuel extraction on the lands and territories of Indigenous Peoples continue causing devastating environmental and health impacts on impacted communities.²

Adding to this, the insatiable demand for transition minerals for renewable energy leaves Indigenous Peoples' lands and territories under even more pressure for harmful extraction. The latter was recently highlighted at the Indigenous Summit on Just Transition.

A new collective quantified goal on climate finance

COP 29 agreed a new collective quantified goal on climate finance (NCQG) of USD 300 billion per year by 2035. This is much smaller than what is required for the global south to adapt to the impacts of climate change, respond to loss and damage, and transition away from fossil fuels.³

References to human rights and the rights of Indigenous Peoples were deleted from the final text of the NCQG. Instead, the agreement merely "urges Parties and other relevant actors to promote the inclusion and extension of benefits to […] Indigenous Peoples" (para. 26).⁴This is concerning given that many governments do not recognise the existence of Indigenous Peoples within their national borders. This lack of recognition of Indigenous Peoples as collective rights holders leaves them exposed for violations caused by top-down response measures facilitated by climate finance without their free, prior and informed consent. Also, despite Indigenous communities being among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, the lack of recognition risks leaving them excluded from benefiting from climate finance.

Carbon markets

Agreements at COP 29 related to Article 6.2⁵and 6.4⁶open a new era for carbon markets globally. While implementation will not happen all at once, these agreements can be seen as a game change in that they are expected to be the beginning of what eventually will release significant additional financial flows through carbon credits. This will inevitably create further pressures on Indigenous Peoples' lands and territories. Indeed, carbon markets have been around for decades in different shapes and forms and Indigenous Peoples, the world over, are concerned given that terrestrial carbon projects, in many cases, have led to evictions, dispossession of lands, and other rights violations, as well as environmental degradation.⁷In cases where carbon projects have been implemented through a rights-based approach, some have also benefitted.

That apart, carbon schemes have consistently failed to produce the expected climate outcomes. Last year, The Guardian concludedthat more than 90% of Verra's credits could be categorized as useless "phantom credits". This is significant given that Verra is the largest mechanism for voluntary carbon credits. In similar vein, timing wise rather paradoxically, during COP 29 a meta study in the academic journal Nature was published. It estimatesthat less than 16% of the carbon credits issued to the investigated projects constitute real emission reductions.

It is difficult to see how the COP 29 outcome will not leave consumers to believe they can continue their current lifestyles far beyond the planetary boundaries. Most studies point to the same that no such thing as carbon neutral consumption exists, and that paying off the global to take the responsibility for emissions equals human rights violations.

The Facilitative Working Group

Finally, COP 29 agreed to renew the mandate of the Facilitative Working Group (FWG) of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform (LCIPP).⁸The FWG thereby continues being a constituted body under the UNFCCC with equal membership between Indigenous Peoples and States.

In conclusion

Increasingly more critical voices ask the question if the annual COP process is becoming a false reinsurance that the climate crisis is in the safe hands of our politicians. They are right to ask so, especially given the presence in Baku of fossil fuel lobbyists may have been about ten times higher that of representatives of Indigenous Peoples.⁹As the COP process is increasingly criticized for green washing and white washing oil dependent, human rights violating political regimes, and for upholding mega-consumption through growth based economies, it is more than ever important to listen to alternative perspectives and worldviews.

Indigenous Peoples offer an urgent, alternative vision as to how to address the multiple crises facing the living world. As long as COPs continue being organised year-on-year, it is important that this voice is elevated beyond those of money and greed.

At COP 29, IWGIA supported the Indigenous Peoples' advocacy on the ground in Baku through engaging with policy makers, organising side events, travel support for Indigenous representatives, and supporting the meetings and pavilion of the IIPFCC. In partnership with our Indigenous partner organisations, IWGIA will continue to support this self-determined voice at territorial, national and international level.

For background on Indigenous Peoples' advocacy at the UNFCCC, read the dedicated chapter in The Indigenous World 2024. For more information about the FWG, read IWGIA's recent review of the LCIPP.

COP 29 side event organised by IWGIA and partners. From left to right: Co-chair of IIPFCC, Daria Egereva; Alternate board member of FRLD for Nepal, Maheshwar Dhakal; board member of FRLD for Canada, Laurence Ahoussou; Executive Director of the FRLD, Ibrahima Cheikh Diong; member of the Indigenous Peoples Advisory Group of the Green Climate Fund, Tunga Bhadra Rai; and Indigenous representative of the Santiago Network of Loss and Damage, Gideon Sanago

¹ See also: https://ourworldindata.org/energy-mix

² Amongst the cases documented by IWGIA, are: Oil, coal and natural gas exploitation in Africa documented by IWGIA and the Africa Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, Oil exploitation in the Amazon, Environmental remediation from oil spills in Loreto, Peru, Coal mining in Northern Colombia, Oil spills related to mineral extraction in Russia, Natural gas exploitation in Russia and Construction of oil and gas pipelines in the Arctic.

³ See for instance Care's analysis: https://www.care-international.org/stories/cop29-5-trillion-vs-1-trillion-demand

⁴ https://unfccc.int/documents/644460

⁵ https://unfccc.int/documents/643663

⁶ https://unfccc.int/documents/643666

⁷ See Explainer 3: https://www.forestpeoples.org/en/report/2023/carbon-markets-forests-rights-explainer

⁸ https://unfccc.int/documents/644354

⁹ Global Witness estimates that at least 1,773 fossil fuel lobbyists were granted access to COP 29. Against this figure, about 150 representatives of Indigenous Peoples participated at their preparatory caucus meeting with more arriving throughout the two weeks of COP in Baku.

Tags: Climate, Human rights

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