The report, overseen by the United Nations, brings together contributions from Indigenous leaders, researchers, and the World Health Organization (WHO), combining case studies, data, and lived experience from seven distinct regions of the world. These communities are too often excluded from climate solutions, displaced by them, and denied the resources to lead the way. “Although we are disproportionately affected by the climate crisis, Indigenous Peoples are not victims,” writes Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, in the report’s foreword. “We are custodians of the natural world who are committed to maintaining the natural equilibrium of the planet for the generations to come.”
• Green energy projects imposed without consent • Policies made without Indigenous voices
Examples include biofuel expansion, carbon offsetting schemes, and mineral extraction for clean energy technologies. In Africa, the report draws attention to how demand for minerals linked to the green energy transition — including lithium and cobalt — has led to extractive activities that proceed without free, prior, and informed consent. These projects often result in environmental degradation and displacement, echoing colonial patterns of land exploitation. “So-called green solutions often pose as much of a threat to Indigenous Peoples as the climate crisis itself,” writes Ms. Ibrahim. In several countries across the Americas, carbon offset projects tied to forest conservation have also been implemented without consultation — often on Indigenous lands — resulting in environmental degradation and exclusion from financial benefits. Throughout, the report warns that if climate actions continue to be designed and implemented without Indigenous Peoples at the centre, they risk replicating the extractive and exclusionary systems that fuelled the crisis in the first place. Climate change is a health crisis
The report also includes a chapter commissioned by WHO that details how climate-related health impacts intersect with the social, cultural, and spiritual lives of Indigenous communities. In the Arctic, changes in temperature, wildlife migration, and weather patterns are disrupting traditional practices like hunting and harvesting. These disruptions are causing stress and threatening food security. Indigenous women are particularly affected by the intersection of climate change and health. In East Africa, for example, women are more vulnerable to neglected tropical diseases such as schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, and soil-transmitted helminthiases. In the Amazon, climate-induced biodiversity loss has reduced access to traditional foods and medicinal plants, contributing to nutritional deficiencies among pregnant and nursing women, as well as broader community health vulnerabilities. Despite these challenges, the report emphasises resilience.
Communities are implementing locally rooted adaptation strategies, often led by women and elders. These include restoring traditional diets, strengthening intergenerational knowledge sharing, and adapting harvesting calendars to new ecological rhythms. Excluded from the table and the funds
Although Indigenous Peoples are increasingly acknowledged in global environmental frameworks, the report reveals that their role in shaping and implementing climate policy remains severely limited — both in terms of funding and governance. Indigenous communities continue to face structural barriers that prevent them from accessing international climate finance. The report calls for a fundamental shift: not just to increase funding, but to change who controls it.
Among its key recommendations are the creation of Indigenous-led financial mechanisms, formal recognition of Indigenous governance systems, and the protection of data sovereignty — ensuring communities control how knowledge about their lands and livelihoods is collected and used. Unless these systems are transformed, the report warns, climate action risks reproducing the same patterns of exclusion and dispossession that have long undermined both Indigenous rights and global environmental goals.
Examples of Indigenous-led Adaptation Strategies
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| Peru’s Quechua community | Revived water sowing and harvesting practices to adapt to shrinking glaciers and drought. |
| Costa Rica’s farmers | Adopted Quechua water sowing methods as a model of South-South climate cooperation.
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