As the U.N. biodiversity conference recently concluded with both historic achievements and disappointments for Indigenous leaders, delegates are now quickly shifting their attention to the other big conference: today’s U.N. climate gathering, or COP29. With about 40,000 people registered to attend the conference, Indigenous delegates spoke to Mongabay about their key priorities and list of outcome desires. These include, they said, pushing forward ambitious commitments on the loss and damage fund, access to direct financing, a just energy transition and regulation on carbon markets. They also seek to push the recognition of Indigenous rights and knowledge at the core of negotiations and forest conservation initiatives. The conference will take place Nov. 11-22 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Though COP29 will focus on financial matters, some Indigenous leaders said they anticipated more decisive commitments taking place the following year. According to Giuseppe Olo Villalaz, an Indigenous Guna leader from Panama, delegates don’t have any big hopes for climate action, given that the host country is tied to and economically dependent on the fossil fuel industry. U.S. elections concluding with Donald Trump as president also dampened their expectations of a big finance or climate action deal. However, the conference is an opportunity to prepare for next year’s climate gathering, COP30, said Villalaz, also a representative on the Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests (AMPB) board of directors. Indigenous representatives on the first day of COP29 on Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku. Image by Dean Calma / IAEA via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). Climate finance…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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