The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change guides global thought and action on climate change, bridging research, science, policy, and politics.
Yet, as we argue in a newly-published paper in Nature Climate Change, Indigenous voices, issues, and perspectives have been under-represented, leading to disparities in representation and gaps in policy and recommendations. We argue that the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) needs to better incorporate Indigenous leadership, knowledge, and ways of knowing in order to provide a more accurate and robust representation of climate change, mitigation, and adaptation.
Abstract
The IPCC is the leading international body for the assessment of climate change, forming the interface between science, policy and global politics. Indigenous issues have been under-represented in previous IPCC assessments. In this Perspective, we analyse how indigenous content is covered and framed in the Working Group II (WGII) portion of the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5). We find that although there is reference to indigenous content in WGII, which increased from the Fourth Assessment Report, the coverage is general in scope and limited in length, there is little critical engagement with indigenous knowledge systems, and the historical and contextual complexities of indigenous experiences are largely overlooked. The development of culturally relevant and appropriate adaptation policies requires more robust, nuanced and appropriate inclusion and framing of indigenous issues in future assessment reports, and we outline how this can be achieved.
Ashlee Cunsolo, PhD 