Talking Points for Indigenous Environmental Network and other Indigenous delegations participating in Paris, France at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference on Parties 21 (COP21).
Talking Points
OUR DEMANDS
- Establish mandatory–not voluntary–emissions cuts at the source.
In order to keep the average global temperature from rising further, we must significantly decrease greenhouse gas emissions at their source.
- The United Nations must establish a mandatory, legally-binding agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions at the source. This is called a supply-side approach to dealing with climate change. Corporations and nation-states must be held accountable to their contributions to climate change.
- Leave Fossil Fuels In The Ground.
We call for a moratorium on any new fossil fuel development.
- Give Mother Earth a rest by making binding commitments to leave more than 80% of known fossil fuel reserves in the ground and the ocean floor. Stop the escalation and expansion of fossil-fuel development, i.e. oil, uranium tar sands, fracking, shale oil and shale gas, offshore drilling, coal, power plants, and transportation systems – pipelines, trains, tankers, etc.
- No False Solutions – Just Transition.
Calling global attention to the FALSE SOLUTIONS being negotiated within the UN climate negotiations, COP21. These false solutions privatize Father Sky and Mother Earth and continue the colonization of Indigenous peoples, land, water, and resources.
- These false solutions are market-based mechanisms, such as: Carbon markets, carbon trading and carbon offsets (such as REDD – Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation).
- These false solutions are: natural gas, fracking, and nuclear.
- We reject these false solutions and unite for a Just Transition away from the extractive economy of fossil fuels and other dirty and dangerous industries, towards new community-rooted economic models for clean energy and healthy communities that work for people and the planet.
4. Inclusion of the the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Recognition of the Rights of Mother Earth
The United Nations agreement to address climate change MUST include the recognition of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
- Indigenous people are on the frontlines of extractive development AND climate change.
- As nations and communities that feel the effects of climate change first and most direct, Indigenous Peoples must be informed and consulted on any proposed mechanisms to respond. Rights as Indigenous Peoples must be recognized in the treaty agreement text.
INDIGENOUS RISING | OUR MESSAGE for events at and surrounding the UNFCCC COP 20 in Lima, Peru Dec. 2014 from Indigenous Environmental Network on Vimeo.