Host Organisation
Indigenous Peoples Rights International (IPRI)
Outline
Background and Context At COP30, Parties reached a critical milestone by deciding to develop a Just Transition Mechanism (JTM) under the Just Transition Work Programme (JTWP). As the global community shifts from design to implementation, COP31 in Antalya represents a pivotal moment to ensure this mechanism avoids replicating top-down governance models. Recent climate disasters, such as the catastrophic monsoonal flooding in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, highlight that Indigenous communities are disproportionately vulnerable to climate hazards. Current trends, including unsustainable resource extraction and biodiversity loss, amplify these risks, demonstrating that "Just Transition" policies must look beyond simple energy capacity. While the JTM holds the potential to facilitate a fair energy transition, Indigenous Peoples remain concerned that these policies could be co-opted to justify land-grabbing for "critical mineral" extraction or large-scale energy projects that recreate patterns of sacrifice zones and ignore Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). A recent global spatial assessment led by the Land Matrix Initiative, LandMark and supported by a large number of knowledge partners of the International Land Coalition (ILC) gathered around a Knowledge Alliance on Land has led to identifying what constitutes the "energyscape" of the transition. This mapping effort of over 150,000 renewable energy installations and 17,000 critical mineral extraction sites allows evaluating the cumulative territorial footprint of decarbonization. This analysis reveals how structural and cumulative pressures are transforming landscapes at an unprecedented scale and the analysis exposes critical risks for customary and Indigenous territories that remain invisible in statutory cadastral registries, leaving them acutely vulnerable to expropriation under green narratives. By combining global spatial datasets with local experiences from over 20 countries, this body of knowledge underlines the mounting competition over land, rising risks to land rights, escalating conflict, and the loss of critical ecosystems. Without robust rights-based safeguards, clear governance, and accountability, the JTM risks marginalizing the very stewards who have protected the world’s biodiversity for millennia. Addressing these systemic risks requires moving beyond theoretical design toward concrete, rights-based implementation. Objectives To operationalize the protection of Indigenous rights within the JTM, this side event aims to: • Showcase the latest knowledge on the territorial scale and magnitude of the energy transition to identify urgent priorities for rights-focused investment. • Establish clear pathways for applying strict human rights and environmental protections to prevent harm to Indigenous lands and livelihoods. • Advance proposals for a governance structure where Indigenous Peoples hold direct, institutionalized roles in decision-making and oversight. • Discuss mechanisms to channel direct, non-debt-burdening support to Indigenous-led renewable energy and sustainable territorial management projects.
Speakers
Joan Carling, Indigenous Peoples Rights International (IPRI), Land Matrix, and other partners
Languages
EN SP