Indigenous groups get the spotlight at UN climate talks, but some say visibility isn't power

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Cline Jorge Chauca Lopez listens during a session on the Indigenous strategy for fires and droughts in the Amazon during the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 10, 2025, in Belem, Brazil. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

BELEM – Indigenous people are used to adapting, so when the power failed at their kickoff event at this year's United Nations climate talks , they rolled with it. Participants from around the world sweated through song, dance and prayers, improvising without microphones and cooling themselves with fans made of paper or leaves.

But the ill-timed blackout fed an undercurrent of skepticism that this year's summit — dubbed “the Indigenous peoples COP” — will deliver on organizers' promise to put them front an