A/HRC/54/31 10. At the twenty-sixth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2021, parties acknowledged the important role of Indigenous Peoples and their scientific knowledge for mitigating the crises of global climate change and biodiversity loss. Indigenous Peoples contribute little to greenhouse gas emissions and maintain some of the largest carbon stores within their lands. Their role in protecting biodiverse environments, maintaining healthy forests and mitigating climate change through their scientific knowledge has been widely documented by the mandate and many other sources.8 Scientific evidence supports the need to engage Indigenous Peoples in the planning and implementation of green development projects that affect their territories. The scientists on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have also acknowledged that “supporting Indigenous self-determination, recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ rights and supporting Indigenous knowledge-based adaptation are critical to reducing climate change risks and effective adaptation”.9 11. Climate finance and official development aid for climate-related issues have so far failed to direct sufficient funding to support initiatives led by Indigenous Peoples, advance recognition of their collective land rights, preserve their lifestyle that allows nature to thrive and balance out the carbon-emitting activities of the rest of the world, and protect them from encroachment, attacks and other violence by third parties. Similarly, international financial institutions are struggling to consider Indigenous Peoples as rights holders, rather than vulnerable affected peoples, and fail to consistently apply safeguarding policies, leading to violations of Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Typical human rights risks in the context of green financing include forced evictions and resettlement, lack of consultation regarding land use and decision-making, environmental degradation, limited information provided on the governance of natural resources and inadequate environmental and social impact assessments. 12. The twenty-sixth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change saw Governments and philanthropic organizations pledge $1.7 billion to advance the tenure rights and tropical forest guardianship of Indigenous Peoples. Similarly, in December 2022 the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was adopted, explicitly recognizing the rights of Indigenous Peoples, including the distinct nature of their lands, territories and resources and the need to include their full and equitable decision-making for implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity. However, a lack of transparency, reporting and monitoring mechanisms will make it challenging to assess whether these commitments to support Indigenous Peoples under the two conventions will be met. Investors’ current funding practices must change to adopt a human rights-based approach and redress the current gap in funding for Indigenous Peoples and their own renewable energy, climate action and conservation projects.10 C. Financial actors 13. Green finance consists of two interplaying driving forces: global efforts to comply with international commitments for climate change mitigation and biodiversity loss, and financial imperatives to rapidly place and deliver funding or investment. Green funds and financing are controlled and administered by international development finance institutions, 11 development banks, 12 United Nations specialized agencies, 13 international climate and 8 9 10 11 12 13 4 See, for example, A/HRC/36/46 and A/HRC/33/42. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGII_TechnicalSummary.pdf. Rainforest Foundation Norway, “Falling short: donor funding for Indigenous Peoples and local communities to secure tenure rights and manage forests in tropical countries (2011–2020)” (2021), p. 4; and Charapa Consult, Directing Funds to Rights. Principles, Standards and Modalities for Supporting Indigenous Peoples’ Tenure Rights and Forest Guardianship (November 2022). The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation. The Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and African Development Bank. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), United Nations Development Programme and UNEP. GE.23-13366