27 October 2026 — Against the backdrop of the 81st United Nations General Assembly and New York Climate Week, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Nations and Nationalities from North America, Africa and South America supporting the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative have formally published their political positioning entitled “From Indigenous territories to the global process: participating, not just observing”, through which they establish themselves as a fully-fledged active political bloc within the process of developing the terms of the future Treaty.

In multilateral forums, Indigenous Peoples have for decades been demanding to participate as Nations, on an equal footing with States, rather than as non-governmental organisations with no real decision-making power, limited to observing and lobbying whilst it is the States that take the final decisions. The Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative seeks to take a first step towards breaking this pattern by including Indigenous Peoples in the very negotiation and drafting of the future Treaty, rather than only once the instrument and its mechanisms have already been agreed and defined.

The position of the Indigenous Peoples’ bloc in favour of a treaty draws on the 13 principles for a just transition agreed in Santa Marta in April 2026, during the First International Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels. It is grounded in the political work carried out within the autonomous space of the Indigenous Peoples at that historic conference, where they reaffirmed their right to self-determination, to free, prior and informed consent, and to full and effective participation in the just transition away from fossil fuels.

It is these principles that the signatories are now bringing forward, as a bloc, to the Second International Conference on a Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels, to be co-organised by Tuvalu and Ireland in the Pacific in July 2027, where efforts will be made to secure a negotiating mandate for the development of a Fossil Fuel Treaty.

Hours later, at an official side event of the General Assembly, Indigenous representatives presented the position paper directly to the Heads of State of Tuvalu and Ireland. With this gesture, they sealed their commitment to participate – and not merely observe – as an Indigenous bloc on the path towards the Conference and the drafting of the future Treaty.

Casey Camp-Horinek, environmental ambassador for the Ponca Nation, stated: “The adoption of this positioning fills us with strength, even if it is only a starting point for our process: today, as the Ponca Nation and an Indigenous People of the Global North, we join our brothers and sisters in the South to build a collective political force and ensure that Indigenous Peoples participate from the outset in the drafting of the future Fossil Fuel Treaty.”

Ginny Alba, Operational Secretary of the National Commission on Human Rights for Indigenous Peoples of Colombia, National Organisation of Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon (OPIAC), stated: “The First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in Santa Marta, Colombia, opened up a space for Indigenous Peoples to organise ourselves politically. In Puyo, this coordination took the form of a collective political stance by Indigenous Peoples in support of the Initiative for a Fossil Fuel Treaty. In New York, we brought that stance from our territories to the global stage, as a growing Indigenous bloc determined to play a part in shaping the future Treaty.”

The statement has been signed by Indigenous Peoples, Nations and Nationalities from three different continents: the Waorani Nationality of Ecuador (NAWE), the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampis Nation, the Federation of the Achuar Nationality of Peru (FENAP), the Shiwiar Nationality of Ecuador (NASHIE), the Ponca Nation, the Regional Co-ordinating Body of Indigenous Peoples (CORPI-SL), the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Chapra Nation, the Maasai Indigenous Community of Kajiado County and the National Organisation of Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon (OPIAC).