High road to Dubai COP28: Indigenous peoples demand say in decision-making on loss and damage at Bonn

Subject: Environment

Section: International convention

Context:

Indigenous peoples’ groups from around the world, including India, have called for representation on the Transitional Committee (TC) for the establishment of a Loss and Damage Fund (LDF) among other demands during the first week of the ongoing Subsidiary Bodies 58 (SB 58) conference in Bonn, Germany.

Details:

The committee is currently composed of 24 members, 10 of whom are from developed countries and 14 are from developing countries.
They want representation so that their views on losses and damages being suffered by their communities and their knowledge on addressing the loss and damage can be taken into account by the Transition Committee (TC).
It is crucial to have a holistic perspective of loss and damage to understand the impacts of climate crisis on indigenous peoples and local communities from different geographical areas — deserts, coasts and forests.
Indigenous groups currently fall under the observer constituency and are not full-fledged participants in the working of the TC.
At the conclusion of the Second Glasgow Dialogue on Loss and Damage, the representative of indigenous peoples’ groups called for the curbing of climate measures that perpetuate colonial practices.

Unrecognized losses to indigenous communities:

Loss of lives and homes due to extreme weather events.
Unseasonal rains caused by climate change as they destroy forest produce and agricultural crops.
Loss of livelihood due to forest fires
Non-economic losses and damages from climate change.
Remedy:
- The Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM) and the Santiago Network are responsible for assisting countries on the technical aspects of the losses and damages occurring from adverse impacts of climate change such as assessment of losses and damages, including non-economic losses such as loss of heritage and language and loss of mental health due to extreme weather events.