By Bryan Ludeña
Our Alliance will participate in Climate Week NYC 2026 to advance a vision of transition built from the territories: Zones of Life, Indigenous self-determination, territories free from extractivism, regenerative economies, food sovereignty, and financing for solutions led directly from the territories..
From September 20 to 27, New York will once again become one of the world’s leading stages for debate and action on the climate crisis with Climate Week NYC 2026, organized by Climate Group and held alongside the United Nations General Assembly. This year’s edition is framed by the call “Energy. Impact. Action.” and brings together more than one thousand events focused on energy, environmental justice, finance, nature, food systems, governance, and other critical areas for accelerating climate action.
In this international arena, our Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance will bring a clear position: there can be no meaningful discussion of solutions to the climate crisis without guaranteeing the protection of the Amazon, collective rights, and the self-determination of the Indigenous Peoples who live in and protect it.
We work to permanently protect more than 35 million hectares of Amazon rainforest, defend collective rights, and advance socio-ecological alternatives and transitions from within the Amazon. Our vision is also reflected in the Bioregional Plan 2030, developed from Indigenous Peoples’ Life Plans and a collective vision for the future of the region.
From Threatened Territories to Life Zones
During Climate Week NYC 2026, we will seek to place a fundamental principle at the heart of the debate: the Amazon can no longer be understood solely as a reserve of resources available for extraction, nor simply as a carbon sink serving the planet. The Amazon is territory, culture, knowledge, water, biodiversity, spirituality, food, rights, and life.
From this perspective, Life Zones articulates a vision that recognizes territories where nature conservation is deeply connected to the self-determination of Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous governance, the strengthening of their economies, food sovereignty, and the protection of our knowledge systems.
In the face of pressures from extractive industries, deforestation, the expansion of new production frontiers, and the increasingly evident impacts of climate change, we propose strengthening territories where life can be sustained and regenerated.
This vision directly connects with some of the major discussions taking place at Climate Week NYC 2026, including Environmental Justice; Finance and Clean Growth; Food and Agriculture; Nature, Land and Oceans; and Policy, Governance and Leadership. The official agenda also recognizes adaptation, resilience, youth leadership, and a just transition as cross-cutting priorities for climate action.
A Transition That Does Not Reproduce Extractivism
The energy transition cannot simply replace one form of extractivism with another.
For this reason, we promote the declaration of territories free from fossil fuels and extractive activities that threaten the continuity of life, alongside economic and energy alternatives that are compatible with the decisions, needs, and ways of life of the Peoples who inhabit these territories.
From Advocacy to Action
Our participation in Climate Week NYC will be centered around proposals that the Alliance has been advancing from the territories.
These include Indigenous self-determination and governance as fundamental conditions for protecting the Amazon; the establishment of territories free from extractivism; strengthening food sovereignty and ancestral production systems; promoting regenerative economies compatible with the forest; developing new generations of Indigenous leadership; and mobilizing financing for solutions designed, developed, and governed directly from the territories themselves.
These actions are part of a broader vision for transformation.
From the Amazon to the World
Our presence at Climate Week NYC 2026 will also provide an opportunity to build alliances and strengthen relationships with Indigenous organizations, civil society, international cooperation partners, philanthropic institutions, financial institutions, and international actors committed to a just climate transition.
Above all, however, it will be an opportunity to bring a voice built from Amazonian territories to one of the world’s most important global climate stages.
Photo: Lorena Mendoza