There is No “Indigenous COP” Without Affirming the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Across All COP30 Decisions.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Belém, Brazil - Friday, November 21, 2025
Indigenous Peoples will hold a Press Conference November 21, 2025 at 4:30pm - 5:00pm, Press Conference Room 2, Blue Zone, COP30.
The International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change: There is No “Indigenous COP” Without Affirming the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Across All COP30 Decisions.
COP30 has been named the “Indigenous COP” yet our voices have not been heard.
The rights of Indigenous Peoples are non-negotiable. They are enshrined in numerous legally binding human rights instruments, Indigenous Peoples are therefore not asking for anything new. COP30, the so-called “Indigenous COP”, needs to affirm and operationalize our rights in all outcomes and recognize our solutions and contributions to climate action. We came to Belém from all the seven socio-cultural regions of the world and we refuse to leave with weak agreements that do not reflect the full extent of our rights and our leading role in climate action.
We therefore demand that the COP30 Presidency and State Parties include Indigenous Peoples’ rights and priorities for a positive and ambitious outcome from COP30:
The Global Mutirão Text Should Be More Ambitious on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights
We recognize the good intentions in the first paragraph of the document. However, using symbolic references to Indigenous Peoples merely in the preambular paragraphs rather than incorporating our proposals in operative text is unacceptable.
Failing to include affirmative text in the operative paragraphs reduces the document to yet another tokenist failure. We call on states and the COP Presidency to:
Fully operationalize the inherent and collective rights of Indigenous Peoples, including our rights to lands, territories and resources, Self-determination, Free, Prior and Informed Consent, and full and effective participation in decision-making.
Recognize our contributions and Knowledge Systems as a solution to the climate crisis
Ensure protection of Indigenous Peoples’ environmental and land defenders and Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation and Initial Contact
Agree on a just, equitable, and rights-based roadmap to phase out fossil fuels and a roadmap to halt and reverse deforestation, which uphold our rights to lands, territories and resources, Self-determination, and ensure protection of Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation and Initial Contact.
In light of attempts by some states to block a COP decision to phase out fossil fuels, we commend and support a growing number of state parties taking leadership by advancing the BELEM DECLARATION ON THE TRANSITION AWAY FROM FOSSIL FUELS. We remind states that their commitment to phasing out fossil fuels must uphold the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Just Transition Work Programme - No Justice without Indigenous Peoples
A just transition must fully respect and protect Indigenous Peoples’ rights and include mechanisms to ensure accountability. We therefore call for Parties and the COP Presidency to:
Retain the paragraph 12(i) in its current formulation
Restore references to the risks and impacts of mining for transition or “critical” minerals and include safeguards for the protection of human rights and the rights of Indigenous Peoples, including those in Voluntary Isolation and Initial Contact
Develop a new global just transition mechanism grounded in accountability to human rights including the rights of Indigenous Peoples to Self-determination and to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent , and full and effective participation in decision making
Retain paragraph 18 in its current formulation
Adaptation with the Knowledge of Indigenous Peoples
The Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) draft dangerously conflates Indigenous Peoples, and local communities in references to rights and to knowledge systems. Parties must standardize deconflated terminology, ensuring all references to Indigenous Peoples and the knowledge of Indigenous Peoples are separate from those of local communities. The distinct and collective rights of Indigenous Peoples are paramount to effective adaptation action. We call for:
Clear differentiation between Indigenous Peoples and ‘local communities’ with, at minimum, a comma.
Consistent reference to the ‘knowledge of Indigenous Peoples’ throughout the text using: ‘traditional knowledge and the knowledge of Indigenous Peoples”
Direct and Equitable Access to Climate Finance
Indigenous Peoples continue to face some of the most profound impacts of climate change, but lack access to funding. We urge increased transparency, justice and balance in climate finance, including transparency around where it is going and who it is benefitting.
COP30 was a missed opportunity to adopt a decision to operationalize dedicated funding arrangements with direct and equitable access to funding for all Indigenous Peoples, especially in the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damages (FRDL) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF).
Article 6/CDM
Parties keep betting on carbon markets and offsets as a climate solution, putting Indigenous territories at greater risk of land grabs, bad projects and new waves of climate injustice. The latest Article 6.4 draft adds language on improved access for Indigenous Peoples but extends the deadline for transitioning old CDM projects, opening the door to a flood of low integrity credits that will drive more pressure on Indigenous lands and territories. Without strong safeguards and transparency, carbon markets will shift even more risk and responsibility onto Indigenous Peoples who did least to cause this crisis.
Climate action that sacrifices Indigenous Peoples is not just or effective. Protecting our rights, our territories, and our Peoples will enable transformational climate action. If this is truly the “Indigenous COP”, let that be reflected in the decisions and outcomes of COP 30 - for all People and for our planet.
