Are the rights and knowledge of indigenous peoples and local communities being attended to by climate framework laws?

Climate change has become a central concern on the international political agenda, challenging the decision-making of different levels of administration and types of actors. Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC) have been recognized as relevant actors in climate matters, given their knowledge about territory, biodiversity, and their harmonious practices towards nature. With the evolution of knowledge on climate change, an increasing number of countries have developed climate laws. Given the provisions of the Paris Agreement to consider IPLC and their knowledge for climate action, it is relevant to assess how the contents of these types of laws pursue such ambition. By describing and categorizing the contents of climate laws, this article develops evidence-based research about how IPLC are attended to in climate framework laws of different countries. It examines whether the related contents of these laws align with the recommendation of the Paris Agreement regarding the need to consider traditional, indigenous, and local knowledge in the design of adaptation measures. The results show that only one-third of the identified climate laws refer to IPLC. Within these laws, those communities and their knowledge are scarcely attended to. However, a few climate laws develop relevant elements about these communities. The most common element relates to the participation of IPLC in deliberative bodies or climate decisions. In contrast, the least common element relates to the involvement of relevant communities in climate research. Notably, the climate laws of Finland (Europe) and Peru (South America) emerge as more comprehensive in addressing the IPLC and their knowledge than what is found in other countries. Despite the recognized relevance of IPLC and their traditional knowledge for climate change adaptation, the use of climate framework laws to formally foster such recognition is still lacking. Setting up a scheme to monitor how the translation of the Paris Agreement is being undertaken into subsequent legislative processes is desirable. Such a scheme may clarify how IPLC and their traditional knowledge are effectively being considered as initially expected.International climate policy is increasingly recognizing the rights of IPLC.As a guiding policy and legal instrument at the national level, emerging climate framework laws may usefully protect and engage with these rights to strengthen policy outcomes.By establishing general principles and obligations for national climate policy, climate framework laws can develop mechanisms to address the rights of IPLC and include them in subsequent climate plans and programmes.Climate framework laws can also usefully create mechanisms to monitor the public policy instruments following these laws, contributing to the implementation of climate treaties regarding the rights of IPLC.