Bringing carbon down to earth

When it comes to climate change, we don’t all have the same experiences—especially in Canada.

Thawing permafrost, biodiversity loss, wildfires, droughts, and floods threaten food security, economies, human health, and community well-being. As the climate crisis deepens, many Indigenous Peoples are disproportionately affected due to the remote location of many of their communities and their reliance on the land.

Deloitte initiated the research that became this report, Bringing carbon down to earth: Indigenous leadership in nature-based climate solutions, in January 2023. We worked with Indigenous leaders and representatives across Canada to explore ways of advancing Indigenous-led climate action through carbon projects, and hosted a forum in Vancouver in May to discuss existing challenges and opportunities for accelerating Indigenous-led project development, with a focus on carbon projects.

What we heard

Throughout the forum, participants explored a range of pathways to expand and enable Indigenous leadership in carbon projects. At the forefront was the need to recognize Indigenous land and title rights, which directly impact a First Nation’s ability to develop projects and claim ownership of carbon rights within its own territories. Another significant challenge is that corporate, government, and non-governmental organization (NGO) partners lack understanding of Indigenous worldviews and the importance of Indigenous laws.
 

The challenges Indigenous peoples are facing

Policy and jurisdiction

Carbon rights and land ownership are among the most pressing challenges for First Nations and other Indigenous governments as they work to advance NBS via carbon markets. Addressing these issues requires action from corporate Canada, from provincial, territorial, and federal governments, and from NGOs to support and accelerate the Indigenous leadership that is already growing in the space. Forum participants highlighted that jurisdiction is an essential pathway for enabling First Nations and other Indigenous governments to make decisions about their territories, establish carbon rights and land ownership, and advance carbon projects. Many treaties signed between the Crown and First Nations across Canada were agreements to share the decision-making and benefits of the lands for as long as “the sun shines, grass grows, and rivers flow.” Unfortunately, this commitment has not always been upheld, as evidenced by a lawsuit launched by Treaty 9 leaders earlier this year alleging the Ontario and federal governments have made unilateral decisions about Treaty 9 territory.

Protocols and carbon markets

Canadian compliance carbon markets for nature-based carbon projects have been either slow to develop or do not enable project opportunities on Indigenous territories. Significant delays in compliance protocol development have led to a lack of up-to-date systems that are usable by Indigenous projects on non-private land. Where governments are acting on compliance markets and protocol development, timelines have not kept up with changing market conditions and buyer needs—such as increased demand for carbon removals. In short, the demand for NBS projects that can help meet Canada’s global climate commitments is not being met by current enabling policies. In many cases, First Nations are ready and willing to advance nature-based carbon projects. When such projects are led by Indigenous Peoples, they have more valuable co-benefits, making them much more desirable to voluntary buyers.

Economic empowerment and sovereignty

Many First Nations and other Indigenous governments believe that carbon projects will support their goals in land management, economic independence, sovereignty, and environmental justice. This approach is connected to a community’s aspirations for improved livelihoods, health, food security, education, and infrastructure—while also protecting the community’s land, culture, spiritual values, and biodiversity.

Supporting community aspirations for economic independence includes ensuring First Nations and other Indigenous governments can maximize the benefits from carbon projects. Benefits are derived from project revenues, but also from recognizing and delivering other long-term socioeconomic and cultural benefits that contribute to communities’ collective wellbeing, allowing them to flourish.

Climate action with a Seven Generations view

During the writing of this report, Canada battled spring wildfires that have spread from coast to coast to coast. In one of many profound moments during the Indigenous forum event, participants watched out the meeting room windows as smoke billowed down into Vancouver from the nearby North Shore Mountains. While urban areas are grappling with poor air quality, the communities at the origins of the wildfires suffer losses to forest ecosystems, key infrastructure and services, homes, personal items, animals, and livestock—along with disruptions due to evacuation. Indigenous communities are impacted even further by losses of cultural and ceremonial items and the destruction of traditional and sacred places.

In Indigenous cultures, decisions about the future are made based on relationships, reciprocity, and the impacts they will have on future generations. Called the “seven generations” perspective, it’s planning that considers the long-term consequences of the actions taken to address challenges of the day. As the impacts of the climate crisis continue to increase, governments, corporate Canada, and Indigenous Peoples need to collaborate more than ever to secure climate-safe and nature-positive relationships for generations to come.