Indigenous Peoples' rights and the politics of climate change

Despite a growing body of work that signals that Indigenous Peoples (IPs) should be meaningfully included in climate change governance, IPs have historically been marginalised from decision-making across different geographic scales. Within this chapter, I delineate the ways in which Indigenous movements have engaged with the legal rights-based framework to lobby for a greater voice within international climate change fora, as well as moving beyond the language of liberal ‘rights’ and ownership to exercise subaltern forms of agency aimed towards alternative - and often decolonial - agendas around Indigenous self-determination, politico-territorial autonomy and nationhood. Specifically, I set out a research agenda that calls for greater attention to dynamics of what I call ‘Indigenous climate sovereignty’; a political agenda aimed at shifting climate change politics to serve the interests of long-standing Indigenous sovereignty demands and practices.