What New York Climate Week taught me about who gets to shape climate action

New York Climate Week brought together world leaders, philanthropists, campaigners, and Indigenous leaders from across the world. But the conversations that stayed with Natalie Klepacova from Cool Earth were the ones about how power can be moved towards the people already leading change on the ground.

Climate Week is an extraordinary experience. For a few days, climate change becomes impossible to ignore. Every hotel lobby, office, and café seems to contain someone working on the future of our planet.

But amongst the noise, the one question that kept coming back to me was who gets to decide what climate action looks like?

At Cool Earth, I work on policy and advocacy, focusing on how climate finance and policy can better support Indigenous Peoples and local communities who protect the forests they live in and depend on. So I arrived in New York particularly interested in what I would hear about Indigenous leadership, climate finance, and the growing push to shift power.

I left convinced that there is real momentum behind all three.

The people closest to the problem are leading the way

One of the most powerful things about Climate Week was seeing Indigenous leadership woven through so many conversations.

The launch of Yanuni, a documentary about Indigenous activist Juma Xipaia, was a particular highlight. I was incredibly lucky to meet Juma during the week and hear from her firsthand. Her story is a powerful reminder that Indigenous people are not simply communities affected by climate change. They are organisers, campaigners, leaders, and defenders of some of the world’s most important ecosystems.

That message came through again and again. I met incredible Indigenous women leading climate action, spoke with organisations working alongside communities around the world, and was reminded that Indigenous rights, consent, and community decision-making must be at the heart of the response to climate change.

Importantly, these weren’t just conversations about what we should do for Indigenous communities; they were increasingly conversations about how power can be moved towards the people already leading change on the ground.

For too long, international climate action has been designed in conference rooms far away from the forests, rivers, and communities it is supposed to protect. Climate finance can pass through layers of institutions before it reaches the people closest to the problem. The growing recognition that this needs to change was one of the most encouraging things I saw in New York.

Momentum is not the same as change

Cool Earth co-hosted a session on unconditional cash for climate action, bringing together Indigenous leaders, climate finance experts, and organisations exploring how direct funding can support communities to make their own decisions.

For Cool Earth, this isn’t a new idea. We have been providing unconditional cash to rainforest communities for more than 20 years. So far, we have supported more than 100,000 people who collectively steward over 2 million acres of rainforest territory, with $49 million transferred directly to communities. The experience has shown the value of trusting communities with the resources and freedom to act on their own priorities.

What struck me in New York was how many people are now interested in this model.

There is growing interest in more flexible forms of climate finance and growing recognition of the role of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. But there is still a considerable gap between recognising this and changing the systems that govern climate finance.

That gap is where much of the work now needs to happen.

Changing who gets heard

As someone who works in advocacy and communications, I spend a lot of time thinking about whose voices are heard, who gets to tell a story, and how international issues are presented to audiences.

Some of the most important knowledge about protecting forests exists with the people who have lived in those forests for generations. If those voices are missing from decision-making spaces, we don’t just have a representation problem. We have a climate action problem.

The stories we tell shape who audiences see as experts, leaders, and agents of change. If Indigenous Peoples and local communities are consistently presented as passive recipients of aid or victims of environmental destruction, we reinforce a narrative that leaves their expertise and leadership out of the picture.

So what comes next?

I came home from New York feeling hopeful, but not complacent. There is clearly momentum behind putting Indigenous rights and leadership at the heart of climate action. There are people across governments, NGOs, philanthropy, and the private sector who genuinely want to see power and resources move closer to the communities doing the work.

The challenge now is turning that momentum into structural change.

That means climate finance reaching Indigenous Peoples and local communities more directly. It means giving communities a meaningful say over the decisions that affect them. And it means recognising Indigenous leadership not as an addition to climate policy, but as central to it.

Natalie Klepacova is Manager of Policy and Advocacy at Cool Earth, a rainforest charity working alongside Indigenous Peoples and local communities to protect tropical forests.