Indigenous peoples in carbon pricing policymaking

Abstract

The article contributes new thinking on the exclusion and inclusion of Indigenous Peoples in carbon pricing policymaking. Using a Canadian case to draw broader lessons for other countries and make a conceptual contribution, we ask and answer five questions: (1) who is excluded; (2) why does exclusion happen; (3) how does exclusion happen; (4) what does exclusion cause; and (5) how could policymakers enhance inclusion? To inform and answer these questions, we construct a decolonial theoretical framework and use it to guide qualitative analysis and doctrinal legal analysis of original data, including 34 semi-structured interviews and few court decisions, to enhance thinking on exclusion and how to enhance inclusion in carbon pricing policymaking. The thesis is that Indigenous Peoples are externally and internally excluded because of legal and practical problems in policymaking, and this impacts legitimacy, transparency, justice, policy effectiveness and indigenous reconciliation, and should be mitigated by enhancing transparency measures, prioritizing the value of legitimacy over cost efficiency, and, overall, transformationally rethinking policymaking processes. Altogether, our theory-grounded empirical sociolegal study demonstrates key concepts for thinking about Indigenous inclusion and exclusion, extending the extant public participation literature as applicable to climate, natural resource, and environmental law and governance, and other relevant legal and social science fields.