First Nations Climate Lens

In 2019, the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) Chiefs-in-Assembly declared a First Nations Climate Emergency and called for urgent and transformative climate action. In March 2020, First Nations came together at the AFN’s first National Climate Gathering.

Discussions emphasized the importance of finding multidimensional, interconnected, and interrelated solutions for climate change. This concept emphasizes the inseparability of the climate emergency from the daily and lived experiences of First Nations through the intersection of three concentric circles: context, impacts, and action.

The First Nations Climate Lens challenges the usual conceptualizations of First Nations as vulnerable people and passive recipients of climate impacts. Instead, it emphasizes how First Nations’ unique connections to the land, water, air, and non-human beings have enabled them to live reciprocally and in balance with all creation for thousands of years, conveying that First Nations are leaders and active drivers of positive change.

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