UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples calls for moratorium on carbon markets

Francisco Calí Tzay was speaking at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York.

The 23rd session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) is currently taking place in New York. At meeting yesterday, Francisco Calí Tzay, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples called for a moratorium on carbon markets.

“Of course I am worried,” Tzay said, “of the problem of the carbon market.” He added that there are some issues that have to be addressed to stop human rights abuses related to carbon trading.

“My recommendation on this is very clear,” Tzay said. “I believe that a permanent moratorium, or at least a moratorium, can be a solution for stopping human rights abuses of Indigenous Peoples’ rights in these carbon markets.”

Indigenous Environmental Network calls for a permanent end to carbon markets

Last week, the Indigenous Environmental Network called for a permanent end to carbon markets and other false solutions to the climate crisis. At an event at the UNPFII, Tom Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network said,

“Our network has complied over 20 years undeniable evidence showing how carbon markets, pricing, and carbon offset mechanisms do not reduce emissions at source.

“Carbon markets provide the loophole the fossil fuel industry needs to continue extraction, combustion, and with a fossil extractive economy that is wrecking the harmony of Mother Earth and Father Sky.

“We are long overdue for demanding a permanent moratorium on false solutions being negotiated in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.”

Tamra Gilbertson is the climate justice programme coordinator at the Indigenous Environmental Network. She told Grist that,

“Carbon markets have been set up by the polluting industries. The premise of carbon markets as a good mitigation outcome or a good mitigation programme for the UNFCCC is in and of itself a flawed concept. And we know that because of who’s put it together.”

Gilbertson explains that if carbon markets are included in Article 6 “we are in a whole new era of linked-up global carbon markets like we’ve never seen before. And then we’re stuck with it.”

Indigenous rights and carbon markets?

Also at this years UNPFII the UN Development Programme, Climate Focus, Forest Peoples Programme, Rainforest Foundation US, and UN-REDD teamed up for an event titled “Respecting Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in Carbon Markets”. The event was funded by the UK government.

Forest Peoples Programme explains that,

Ensuring integrity in carbon credits generated from Indigenous peoples territories means respecting their internationally recognized human rights. Indigenous Peoples’ experiences to date with carbon credits and climate finance point to several necessary measures for this to be realised.

In September 2023, Forest Peoples Programme put out a report for Indigenous Peoples and local communities titled, “Carbon Markets, Forests and Rights”. The report highlights the risks that carbon markets raise for communities but states that,

Carbon credit projects or programmes can generate money and other benefits, that – if certain conditions and standards are met – could support communities to pursue priorities that they have for their own livelihoods and futures.

Panganga Pungowiyi is an Indigenous mother from Sivungaq, located in the so-called Bering Strait. In her presentation at the Indigenous Environmental Network event last week, Pungowiyi responded to this sort of argument. She said that,

In these spaces, I have observed the proposed narrative that engaging in carbon markets is an exercise of tribal sovereignty. But in the spirit of free, prior and informed consent I wonder if Indigenous Peoples would exercise the right if they were truly informed about the detrimental impacts of those practices. If tribes were made aware of just how much lung disease, cancer, birth defects, missing and murdered Indigenous persons, they were agreeing to place on Indigenous Peoples in other places by signing over lands to offset emissions. Would they still agree to it for any sum of money?

This is one of the fundamental problems with carbon markets. Big Polluters buy carbon credits in order to continue extractivism and profiting from burning fossil fuels. And the extraction, refining, and burning of fossil fuels has serious impacts on the communities living where these industrial processes take place.

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