Climate change is no longer a distant concern; it is a lived reality. Across Canada, Indigenous communities are on the frontlines of its impacts: flooding threatens homes and infrastructure, wildfires scorch traditional territories, permafrost thaw destabilizes land and water systems and shifting animal and plant populations disrupt food security and cultural practices.
These challenges are profound, but they are not insurmountable. Indigenous Peoples have always been innovators, responding to changing environments with creativity, resilience, and solutions rooted in deep relationships to land and life. Today, as technology becomes an increasingly important tool for mitigating climate risk and adapting to it, Indigenous innovation is showing a powerful way forward.
Technology for Climate Awareness on Indigenous Lands
Across First Nations, Métis, and Inuit territories, technology is being leveraged to monitor and respond to environmental changes in real-time. Remote sensing tools, such as drones and satellite imaging, are now being utilized by Indigenous guardians to monitor deforestation, changes in water levels, and coastal erosion. These technologies provide visual and data-based evidence of changes that many Elders and knowledge keepers have already observed, creating powerful bridges between traditional knowledge and scientific monitoring.
Communities are also building networks of environmental sensors that measure air quality, water purity, soil health, and temperature fluctuations. In northern regions, sensors tracking permafrost thaw provide essential data to anticipate landslides, flooding, and infrastructure risks. In coastal territories, water sensors alert communities to rising salinity levels, pollution, and erosion. These tools enable communities to act quickly and decisively in protecting their lands and waters.
Mobile applications and AI-driven platforms further expand this capacity. For example, Inuit hunters have used apps that track ice thickness and weather patterns, providing life-saving information when travelling across shifting sea ice. Similar innovations are being developed in wildfire-prone areas, where apps give communities early warnings and suggest evacuation routes. These technologies do not replace Indigenous knowledge; they amplify it, ensuring that guardians of the land are equipped with every possible tool to respond to ecological challenges.
New Fields of Expertise for Indigenous Climate Leadership
The accelerating climate crisis demands new areas of expertise, and Indigenous Peoples must be represented in these fields. Climate science and environmental engineering, for example, are crucial disciplines for developing mitigation strategies. When Indigenous youth and professionals enter these areas, they bring unique worldviews that prioritize balance and reciprocity over profit and exploitation. This shifts the very foundation of how climate solutions are designed and implemented.
Renewable energy is another vital frontier. Indigenous-led solar, wind, hydrokinetic, and geothermal projects are not only reducing reliance on fossil fuels but also fostering energy sovereignty. Communities that generate their clean energy are less vulnerable to external market fluctuations and government control, thereby creating resilience alongside environmental benefits.
Equally important is the field of data science and artificial intelligence. When Indigenous professionals lead in this space, they ensure that climate modelling reflects Indigenous priorities and the lived realities of specific territories. For example, climate adaptation plans that integrate Indigenous knowledge alongside AI-driven predictions can yield more accurate and culturally grounded outcomes.
Ecological restoration, land-based healing, and regenerative design are also emerging as critical fields. Indigenous professionals are combining traditional ecological knowledge with advanced methods to rewild landscapes, restore wetlands, and revitalize food systems. These efforts are not just about survival but about strengthening life systems for future generations. Alongside this, policy and governance expertise is needed to shape laws and systems that respect Indigenous ecological sovereignty and embed Indigenous leadership at the center of climate decision-making.
Funding Indigenous Innovation: Closing the Gaps
Despite the promise of Indigenous innovation, one of the most significant barriers remains a lack of sustained funding. Too often, Indigenous communities are asked to do more with less and are expected to adapt to climate change without the resources to lead solutions. National and regional governments must commit to scaling Indigenous-led climate programs and ensuring that innovation is not just supported but prioritized.
Scholarships and mentorship programs for Indigenous students entering fields such as climate sciences, engineering, or data science are essential to building long-term capacity. Funding for community-based innovation hubs, where Indigenous knowledge keepers, youth, and scientists can collaborate, is another necessary step. These hubs would enable communities to develop solutions tailored to their specific territories, rather than relying on external models that often fall short.
Moreover, Indigenous start-ups and entrepreneurs in clean technology and ecological restoration need access to capital. Many Indigenous businesses face barriers to financing, which stifles innovation. By investing in these ventures, Canada could support Indigenous climate innovators while also advancing national and global climate goals. Finally, training opportunities should be developed for non-Indigenous professionals to ensure that climate fields incorporate Indigenous governance and ecological worldviews into their everyday practice, thereby building mutual capacity and respect.
Technology as a Tool for Healing, Not Exploiting
The risk of technology is that it can become another means of exploitation, extracting resources more efficiently or creating profit-driven systems that accelerate ecological collapse. To avoid repeating colonial patterns, climate innovation must be guided by Indigenous philosophies that frame technology as a tool for healing.
For example, regenerative technologies can restore ecosystems instead of depleting them. Wetland restoration projects, powered by renewable energy and supported by advanced water management systems, can help revive critical habitats while also mitigating the impact of floods. AI-assisted monitoring of endangered species can support efforts to protect the kinship networks of animals, insects, and plants that are essential to biodiversity. Precision harvesting technologies can allow communities to gather resources sustainably, ensuring that plants and animals regenerate in healthy cycles.
Technology can also be used to strengthen local food and water security. Renewable-powered greenhouses and hydroponic systems can extend growing seasons in northern communities. Water purification systems designed for remote locations can ensure safe, accessible drinking water without reliance on external supply chains. When designed through Indigenous leadership, these technologies shift from tools of exploitation to instruments of healing and regeneration.
The Power of Human Ingenuity for Good
The story of climate change is often framed as one of despair and inevitability. But it is equally a story of the possibility of human ingenuity, creativity, and our collective ability to reimagine how we live with the Earth. For Indigenous Peoples, innovation has always been about adaptation and resilience. Climate change is not the first crisis Indigenous Nations have faced, and it will not be the last. Yet time and again, Indigenous Peoples have shown that survival is not only possible but can give rise to renewal.
What is needed now is a recognition that Indigenous ingenuity must be at the center of climate solutions. A future dependent on the extraction of finite resources will only deepen the crisis. A future built on innovation, guided by Indigenous ecological knowledge and fueled by regenerative technologies, offers something radically different: sustainability, balance, and thriving homelands for generations to come.
Indigenous innovation in climate governance, technology, and ecological restoration is not simply a contribution; it is essential. It is the compass pointing toward a climate future defined not by loss and collapse, but by renewal, balance, and hope.
Blog by Rye Karonhiowanen Barberstock
Image Credit: Tandem X Visuals, Unsplash
The post Indigenous Innovation and Climate Solutions: Building a Future of Balance appeared first on Indigenous Climate Hub.
Indigenous Innovation and Climate Solutions: Building a Future of Balance
Delegates will soon gather in the Turkish resort city of Antalya for UN climate negotiations, against a backdrop of war, energy crisis and climate extremes.
At COP31, nations will try to find agreement on various issues, including climate finance for developing countries and a global “just transition” towards a cleaner economy.
This summit is unusual due to its joint presidency, which means that Australia is leading the negotiations while Turkey hosts the conference.
Outside the formal negotiations, Turkey is also pushing its own priorities as part of a wider “action agenda”, including electrification, oceans and “green industrialisation”.
In order to track parties’ positions on key negotiating points and wider issues at COP31, Carbon Brief has analysed around 100 documents and captured them in the interactive table below.
The first column shows the countries and UN negotiating blocs, the second shows the topics up for debate and the third indicates specific issues within those topics.
The final column indicates the positions that the parties have expressed on each topic. These range from “priority” – meaning the party is likely to be pushing the issue – to “oppose”, meaning it is likely to push against it.
This is a “living document” that will be updated over the course of COP31.
Please get in touch if you would like to offer additions by emailing policy@carbonbrief.org.
Brief explanations of the key issues and jargon-filled language that permeate the talks can be found below the interactive table.
Just transition
At COP30 in Brazil in 2025, nations agreed to establish a practical mechanism to help drive a “just transition” to a low-carbon economy.
Key aspects of this “Belém-Antalya mechanism” (BAM) – often referred to as the “just transition mechanism” (JTM) – were agreed during the June climate negotiations this year, but many details are missing and dividing lines remain between parties.
Parties have disagreed about the scope of the mechanism and whether it should be tied to the provision of finance.
Nevertheless, following progress in June within the “just transition work programme” (JTWP), civil society groups highlighted that getting the mechanism up and running is a “key expected outcome” from COP31.
Climate finance
Climate finance is always a highly contested issue at UN climate negotiations.
Developing countries have successfully pushed for a “work programme” on climate finance to feature on the conference agenda.
These parties see this programme as a way to pressure developed countries into providing more funding from their public coffers, specifically under Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement. Some are even proposing a “burden sharing” arrangement for climate-finance provision.
This comes against a backdrop of major donors cutting their aid budgets and the Trump administration in the US pressuring multilateral development banks (MDBs) to drop their climate objectives.
Developed countries, which have traditionally been responsible for providing finance, would prefer to keep a broader focus on issues such as improving access to existing finance and broadening the range of donors. Some developing countries, such as small-island states, also support these goals.
Nations have also been discussing Article 2.1c of the Paris Agreement under the “Veredas dialogue”. This focuses on making all global “financial flows” consistent with climate action.
Countries have different views about what this involves, with developing countries again hoping to keep the focus on developed countries’ responsibilities to financially support them.
Adaptation and mitigation
At negotiations in June, parties were unable to agree on the details of a “global goal on adaptation” (GGA), which is intended to drive climate adaptation worldwide.
Having agreed at COP30 on a list of 59 “indicators” – ways to assess progress towards the GGA – nations now need to refine these before COP32 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This is a highly technical process that involves a taskforce working out how to use and track these indicators.
Broadly, developing countries stress the importance of finance to fund adaptation efforts, rather than simply to track progress. They also want reassurances about a pledge made last year to “triple adaptation finance”.
At the June climate negotiations, negotiators also failed to make any progress when discussing the mitigation work programme (MWP) – the only formal agenda item that concerns cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Among other things, parties disagreed on whether the MWP should continue running over the next few years, or simply be brought to a close.
Global stocktake and NDCs
Back in 2023, the first “global stocktake” (GST) of the Paris Agreement set out the state of climate action and what needed to be done to set the world on course.
On mitigation, nations agreed to a package of measures, including “transitioning away from fossil fuels”, tripling renewable energy and “halting and reversing deforestation” by 2030.
Some of these outcomes remain contentious among certain parties, particularly large, developing countries and those with economies that rely on fossil-fuel exports.
Developing countries have persistently argued that they need more climate finance to implement the global stocktake outcomes.
Parties were meant to update their climate plans under the Paris Agreement, informed by the first global stocktake, by 2025. These plans, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), cover the period out to 2035.
So far, only 150 parties – responsible for three-quarters of global emissions – have submitted new NDCs.
Iran, Vietnam, Egypt and Argentina are among those without new NDCs – and the US has withdrawn its climate plan under the Trump administration.
Some parties, such as the EU, have stressed the need for countries to submit their new NDCs ahead of COP31 – and to ensure they are aligned with the 1.5C temperature limit.
COP31 will also see the launch of the second global stocktake, which will conclude in 2028.
Action agenda and other issues
Turkey will be pushing its “action agenda” priorities at COP31, including global targets for electrification, reducing waste and reducing building-sector emissions.
(The Australian “presidency of negotiations” is intending to pursue a “cover text” decision at COP31 that may capture some of these wider targets, such as the electrification goal.)
The action agenda is meant to provide a complementary track to the formal negotiations, where governments and non-state actors can advance specific, real-world solutions.
A new COP31 presidency effort dubbed the “climate implementation bridge” is also meant to complement these ambitions by turning NDC goals into an “investable project portfolio”
Some parties have explicitly signalled their support for various elements beyond the formal negotiations, in the run-up to COP31.
For example, a joint letter signed by 105 parties called for COP31 to “put the ocean at the heart of climate action” by embedding ocean-based climate action in the UNFCCC architecture.
The post Interactive: Who wants what at the COP31 climate change summit appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Interactive: Who wants what at the COP31 climate change summit
Prepared by a coalition of nine Western Australian union, industry, conservation, and community organisations—including UnionsWA, the Conservation Council WA, and the Smart Energy Council—the WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan provides a practical roadmap to transform Western Australia into a clean energy powerhouse while creating thousands of secure local jobs.
Western Australia stands at a pivotal crossroads: lead the global clean energy economy or watch investment, future industries, and secure jobs go elsewhere. The WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan outlines a transformative blueprint to harness the state’s world-class solar and wind resources. Discover how legislated renewable targets, green iron manufacturing, and a dedicated regional training strategy can generate tens of thousands of local jobs, lower household bills, and build a resilient, net-zero future for all Western Australians.
WA needs a clear and forward-thinking plan if it is going to become a competitive renewable energy powerhouse and maintain its economic strength through the energy transition.
“Western Australians know a faster renewable energy transition will lower their household expenses and prevent harmful climate pollution. But the community also needs clear direction to ensure this transition will create jobs, lower costs and not cause undue environmental harm.
“Here, sectors representing a broad range of interests have laid the groundwork for those outcomes, clearly outlining what is needed to create a future for WA that is good for the environment, for the climate, for workers and for the economy.
Summary
The WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan sets out a strategic roadmap to position Western Australia as a global clean energy superpower while creating thousands of secure local jobs.
The report establishes three overarching goals:
- Creating local employment.
- Maintaining industrial competitiveness.
- Lowering household energy costs
To realize this vision, the framework details actionable measures to follow on from the recent WA Government announcement of a 75% Renewable Energy Target by 2031 for the South West Interconnected System. This includes developing a statewide Renewable Energy Target, coordinating statewide workforce and training pipelines, strategically planning regional infrastructure to safeguard high-value biodiversity and cultural heritage, and ensuring equitable benefit-sharing through household electrification incentives and First Nations equity partnerships. Ultimately, the plan highlights that establishing clear policy and regulatory certainty will unlock lower energy bills, boost power reliability, and secure the state’s global competitiveness in emerging green commodity export markets.