QUNO, on behalf of the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC), offered this submission in response to a call for input the Article 6.4 Supervisory Board on how to meaningfully engage with Indigenous peoples and local communities. This submission calls for the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body to ground meangingful engagement with Indigenous peoples and local communities in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) AR6 Summary findings, approved by States in 2021, 2022, and 2023.

The Article 6.4 Supervisory Body is tasked with supervising and operationalizing the carbon crediting mechanism that was established by Article 6.4 of the UN Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty on climate change which encourages global action to help humanity and nature avert catastrophic temperature rise due to human activities. 

FWCC is an accredited observer of both the UNFCCC and IPCC, as well as an expert reviewer of IPCC Reports. In addition to FWCC expertise, the submission collated findings directly referenced from the IPCC AR6 Reports. We hope that this collation will help guide the Supervisory Board to ground its work in the best available scientific research, strengthening efforts to establish meaningful engagement with Indigenous Peoples and local communities. This is critical to avert exacerbating existing structural inequities, especially when considering land-based carbon credits in areas of Indigenous land tenure or where land tenure is insecure. This submission highlights IPCC findings that not only emphasize the risks associated with failing to engage meaningfully with Indigenous Peoples and local communities but also offer approaches to minimize such risks through monitoring and reporting; capacity-building; or incorporating Indigenous knowledges and human rights-based approaches

The Global Stocktake (GST) is used to monitor the implementation and evaluate the collective progress made in achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement. The FWCC has signed a joint submission on views on the approach to the consideration of output components of the GST. Read the submission to learn about the human rights outcomes that civil society organizations are calling for.

The climate negotiations under the UNFCCC are the main form of international climate action. Yet, there are many international and local initiatives outside of multilateral negotiations that push forward ambition and creativity on climate action. This 2-sider features a couple of these projects, offering insight into actions being taken below or beyond the state level by both state and non-state actors.

The different organizations and committees that make up the international human rights system work to promote and protect what individuals and communities need to be safe and well. This 2-sider explores how climate change is addressed within the human rights framework and how to get involved in advocating for climate action that addresses human rights and social inequality.

The following is QUNO’s submission to the United Nations Secretary General’s consultation on "Net Zero", with an emphasis on real transformation of root causes driving climate change, and avoidance of "greenwashing" under some ‘net zero’ approaches.  In particular, the need for rapid reduction and use of fossil fuels for a safer chance to remain within a 1.5C temperature rise limit. Along with highlighting the need for rapid reduction, the submission draws attention to threats in renewable energy investment being sidelined by investment into geo-engineering such as off-sets and carbon capture storage, the latter technology being expensive, not yet available to scale, prone to emission leakage and enabling ongoing fossil fuel extraction and burning activities. This submission draws attention to the actions we can take to achieve net zero emissions and emphasizes the importance of conserving and restoring ecosystems.