SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt — First Nations leaders from British Columbia are taking their environment and climate policy pitch on to the international stage at a United Nations climate conference in Africa in an try to set a tone for domestic climate policy.
Leaders of the First Nations Climate Initiative, made up of 4 B.C. First Nations, say they’ll leverage their invitation to COP27 to reiterate the climate motion plan it presented to the provincial and federal governments in September.
Alex Grzybowski, a facilitator for the First Nations Climate Initiative, said certainly one of their key goals amongst seven policy proposals is to scale back poverty in First Nations communities by implementing revolutionary climate policies.
“There’s a unprecedented opportunity to attain reconciliation objectives, as we decarbonize,” Grzybowski said. “Decarbonization and decolonization are part and parcel of the identical thing.”
First Nations want a chance to be a part of that rebuilding to satisfy climate change goals, he said.
“If we were to decarbonize and (nations) were still marginalized, it could be just recolonization.”
He said it’s now not enough to have Indigenous representation in decision-making. As a substitute, he said, policy ideas from Indigenous communities ought to be “fundamental” to all resource and energy decisions.
Greater than 120 world leaders are expected to attend the two-week Conference of Parties 27, or COP27, starting Sunday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
A spotlight will probably be cutting greenhouse gas emissions and boosting financial aid for poor countries battling the impacts of climate change.
Grzybowski said the group had not initially set its sights on presenting on the worldwide stage but it surely is sensible because they’re all trying to attain the identical objective.
“It’s about working collaboratively with jurisdictions all over the world, (and) with Indigenous people all over the world, to attempt to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and recovering the climate. That’s the principle purpose of being here.”
The conference’s objective is for countries to barter global goals for tackling climate change, present their individual plans for contributing to those goals and report on their progress.
Grzybowski said he hopes to network and collaborate with other political and Indigenous leaders in the course of the event to search out revolutionary solutions to the crisis.
“We’ve to think globally in addition to locally, and we have now to act globally in addition to locally,” he said.
“(First) Nations need to develop relationships with other countries. You’re not going to develop those relationships if you happen to’re not on the market meeting people.”
Candice Wilson, environmental manager for the Haisla Nation, agreed, saying her important goal of attending the conference is to “information share” with political and Indigenous leaders from all over the world.
“It will give us the chance to showcase the work that we’re doing in our traditional territories and the way ecosystem restoration is our key driver in collaborating in nature-based solutions projects.”
The First Nations Climate Initiative was chosen by the federal government to affix its delegation on the conference.
It’s scheduled to make a 45-minute presentation on the Canadian Pavilion on Tuesday that Grzybowski said will deal with three key areas: nature-based climate solutions, recent energy systems and the importance of Indigenous leadership.
This 12 months marks the twenty seventh Conference of the Parties. The parties are the 198 nations, including Canada, that agreed to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The aim of the convention is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations and the United Nations says the onus rests on industrialized countries because they’re the source of most greenhouse gas emissions.
Under the convention, developed countries conform to share technology and support climate change activities in developing countries by providing financial support for motion on climate change.
© 2022 The Canadian Press
