Indigenous Climate Action: Building climate justice by prioritizing Indigenous voices and solutions

March 2025

“We inherited this Earth, and now Indigenous youth are craving traditional knowledge from Elders and their community and asking how do we fix this?” says Angel Levac, who identifies as Cree and Mohawk. “How do we go back to decolonizing our way of living so we can exist without this fear of climate doom?”

Levac works as the Youth Engagement Lead at Indigenous Climate Action (ICA), and along with her colleagues, helps provide a supportive environment to uplift the voices of young Indigenous climate activists, enabling them to come together and collectively demand climate justice.

Founded in 2018, ICA is run by and for Indigenous Peoples. As part of its mission to promote Indigenous Peoples’ rights and knowledge systems in developing climate solutions, ICA prioritizes youth leadership opportunities through workshops, learning opportunities, and direct funding. In 2023, the Catherine Donnelly Foundation committed to three years of funding at $50,000 annually – its third grant to the organization that operates across the country.

“We’re in community, we’re building networks, and we’re very clear in what we want: a clean climate, decolonized climate policy and healing justice,” adds Levac of their youth initiatives. “It’s not so much ICA saying, ‘this is what we’re going to offer you, it’s more youth saying: ‘this is what we can offer you in terms of partnership and coming together with community.’”

“As young people, we’ve lived our lives with the effects of climate change and then failed to see the action needed,” says Carole Monture, Climate Leadership Coordinator Lead at ICA. “There’s so much passion and care that young people have, so we try to support that financially, but also by creating programming that meets people’s needs and makes them feel supported and wanting to stay engaged with ICA.”

The Youth Leadership Council ensures that ICA’s programs and policies reflect Indigenous youth voices. The five most recent council members represent different biomes – geographical regions with specific climates, vegetation, and animal life – and bring diverse expertise, from completing a master’s in environmental policy to coordinating youth programming work.

ICA’s Youth Solidarity Support Fund assists Indigenous youth to build resources and community. Recent CDF grants have supported Northern youth sovereignty initiatives, artist residencies, the creation of a multimedia platform to amplify frontline activists’ voices, and land-based training with the guidance of Elders and knowledge keepers.

Meanwhile, ICA’s Climate Leadership Program, requires that youth make up at least half of its approximately 20 participants, though youth engagement can be as high as 60 or 70 percent. In 2025, ICA plans to bring all past participants in one location for a ‘train-the-trainers’ session.

The long-term goal is to establish a network of Indigenous climate leaders who remain connected with ICA and receive ongoing support to share knowledge, provide mentorship, and mobilize resources within their regions.

ICA youth leaders actively participate in national and international events, including the Assembly of First Nations Climate gatherings as well as United Nations conferences like the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. ICA’s participation at the most recent United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan last November highlights their growing impact. ICA participated in multiple panels, collaborated on position papers with the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change, questioned Canada’s Environment Minister, Steven Guilbeault, about decolonizing climate policy, led interventions with Canadian negotiators as well as the COP Presidency, and were interviewed by many journalists including Forbes and Reuters.

“We are all a part of the land … and when I see youth come together [there’s a belief] that we need to get this done and we will find the resources,” says Levac. “The more you find like-minded youth who are passionate about saving Mother Earth, then the movement just gets bigger, the collective healing gets wider and the collective understanding gets deeper.”

To learn more about Indigenous Climate Action, visit their website here.