Enhancing Indigenous Peoples’ participation in climate policy processes

In 2015, the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with the aim of ending poverty in all its forms.Seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were underpinned by the pledge that "no one will be left behind".The achievement of many SDGs is dependent on the fostering of climate-resilient food, land and water systems, and by ensuring that sustainable development is equitable and inclusive 1.This particularly applies to Indigenous Peoples who continue to be the poorest among the poor irrespective of the poverty-line used 2.This in turn raises the issue of climate justice 3 and, as part of this, ensuring that Indigenous Peoples' right to full and effective participation in policy processes is upheld in climate change fora, especially the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 4.PLOS Climate has published several Opinion articles about Indigenous People's active participation in climate change processes e.g.567.We build on these by stressing the importance of a more granular approach to climate justice and Indigenous Peoples' participation in climate policy processes.We argue that a more explicit focus on and context-specific understanding of social equity allows for greater participation of the most vulnerable within Indigenous communities.This necessitates attention to historical and contemporary relations of power and oppression, ones that frame the lives of Indigenous Peoples worldwide.By implication, it mitigates the dangers of maladaptation within these communities and gives greater credence to the pledge to leave no one behind.The importance of social equity highlights a key research development and evidence gap ahead of the 2024 Conference of the Parties (COP) of the UNFCCC (COP29). Representation in previous climate change processesIndigenous Peoples have been portrayed as highly vulnerable to climate change while at the same time possessing skills and knowledge that are critical to the climate response.Indigenous Peoples' participation in environmental governance is one of several key pathways through which they actively engage "with management of and relationships to nature" 2.Indigenous Peoples' contributions, however, have been underrepresented in previous reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Nationally Determined Contributions 8, and in COPs.These processes are fundamental to the emergence of climate-resilient food, land and water systems.