The word "failure" has already been used by activist Greta Thunberg to describe the first week of the 26th U.N. Climate Change Conference underway in Glasgow, Scotland. 

Three of the world's leading polluting parties, China, Russia, and Brazil, are no-shows.  Meanwhile, long lines have kept other delegations from even getting in the door.  As for all the pledges being made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally - it's becoming clear that these commitments don't even come close to responding to the apocalyptic warning that is climate change.  

The U.N.'s October 2021 Emissions Gap report shows how simplistic the problem and solutions are.  Almost all that wealthy nations do leaves a more cumbersome carbon footprint, accounting for 15 percent of greenhouse gases.  That's more than double the share of the bottom 50 percent of the world population including Indigenous communities.  A ready fix would be for rich countries to follow through on old promises to pay $100 billion a year into the Green Climate Fund in support of the poor. 

There's also the option to just stop emitting.

Among the dozens of Indigenous delegations to turn up in Glasgow, the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) is calling the climate talks a forum of "false solutions."

Executive Director of IEN, Tom Goldtooth (Diné), criticized President Joe Biden for promoting his $1.75 trillion social policy and climate package known as the Build Back Better plan at COP26.  "In his run for presidency, he said he’s going to uphold the treaties of our Indigenous Nations and stop leasing public lands to the fossil fuel polluters. Instead, he has failed to stop the Dakota Access pipeline.  He’s failed to stop the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline," Goldtooth told Democracy Now!

On Nov. 17, the Interior Department will host an oil and gas lease sale on the Gulf Coast of Mexico, the largest offshore auction ever.  These sales were part of a five-year program issued under the Obama administration.  The Interior says it has to move forward to comply with a court order.  Meanwhile, an oil and gas auction for Alaska's Cook Inlet is also in the cards, though has yet to be scheduled.

"This has to stop," said Goldtooth. "The frontlines to Washington, to Glasgow, we’re telling Biden to reject Big Oil lies, ban federal oil and gas leasing, and stop the federal climate catastrophe."

While the climate crisis is bigger than any of us, and incredibly complex, there are gains being made in these climate talks including those that are reversing historic exclusion and silence of Indigenous people.  

The biggest celebration of these strides lies in the U.N. Framework's adoption of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform (LCIPP) and its Formal Working Group (FWG) that I wrote about a few newsletters ago.  These non-voting entities at COP, more than anything, represent formal inclusion when before there was none.  

For the first time ever on Saturday, a group of traditional knowledge keepers from across seven of the world's Indigenous regions gathered at the conference to share their ways and adaptations of confronting a planet in crisis.  The gathering was kinda a big deal, though few took notice.

Dr. Pasang Dolma Sherpa, a member of the LCIPP FWG and Director of the Center for Indigenous Peoples' Research and Development, echoed what Indigenous representatives have been saying for decades: "We need to acknowledge and appreciate Indigenous Peoples and local communities as actors in addressing climate change."

The LCIPP will host a second gathering with knowledge holders on Monday to share these ways of knowing with party delegates working to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.  You can tune in, here, Nov. 8, 10-1 PM, Glasgow time.

Top of mind for Indigenous delegates at COP26 is to ensure that Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which finalizes rules on how countries can reduce their emissions using international carbon markets, can  address Indigenous rights.  At a minimum, these concerns include human rights safeguards; free, prior and informed consent; and inserting redress mechanisms for remedies.

Tackling Article 6, overall, is a tough task because if negotiated poorly, it could actually increase emissions and work against the goals of the Paris Agreement to keep the world to 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming.

• Here's India Logan-Riley's inspirational speech on how Indigenous perspectives hold the key to meeting these goals
• I also came across this pollution map from ProPublica detailing deadly pockets of cancer-causing air
• And a fun quiz to determine where your climate views fall on the spectrum of Global Warming's Six Americas
• Oh - and Berta Cáceres is with Indigenous activists in Glasgow, in spirt... ❤️

“A rich vein of history-everyone's.”

John, Washington D.C.