ABSTRACT
Global climate governance under the United Nations is said to be entering a new paradigm of better relations between Indigenous Peoples and nation states, one in which Indigenous Peoples have enhanced participation and collaboration within climate decision-making. However, this paper exposes and confronts the subtle ways colonial relationships continue to be maintained and reproduced within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Insights and arguments herein are drawn from ethnographic work over four years with the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform (LCIPP) – during COP24 and three Facilitative Work Group meetings since 2018. Drawing upon and contributing to recent literature on climate colonialism and coloniality, this paper exposes colonial spatial logics and practices of knowledge production that continue to structure an uneven and hostile global policy arena for Indigenous engagement. Moreover, this chapter attends to Indigenous-led, decolonial possibilities and visions that actively co-exist within, and disrupt, the coloniality of the dominant climate governance regime.
