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Paper short abstract:

Climate change is severely impacting Indigenous youth in Amazonia. Through a literature review of climate policies and empirical studies, we reflect on Indigenous 'climate vulnerability' through a decolonial lens and advocate for policies that promote just planetary health with/for Indigenous youth.

Paper long abstract:

This paper approaches climate change as a crisis that profoundly affects both the territory and well-being of Indigenous peoples, emphasising its intergenerational dimensions. It is based on a preliminary literature review conducted for a pilot project in the Brazilian and Peruvian Amazonia, drawing on analyses of climate and disaster policies in both countries, media coverage of extreme weather events, and empirical studies on the impacts of climate change on Indigenous children and adolescents. Adopting a decolonial perspective, we examine how territory and health are deeply interconnected for Indigenous Amazonian peoples, and how climate change disproportionately affects the well-being of youth.

Crisis management frameworks typically address ‘natural’ disasters as isolated environmental events. However, our review highlights persistent social struggles faced by Indigenous communities in the context of climate change—challenges rooted in a colonial history of environmental degradation, land dispossession, and socio-economic marginalization. We aim to demonstrate that current crisis management strategies often overlook the structural drivers of climate vulnerability.

This review contributes to the panel’s conceptualization of 'Just' Planetary Health by advocating for a paradigm shift that transcends short-term crisis response to embrace long-term accountability and sustainability. By centring the experiences of Indigenous youth, we call for policies that address the drivers of socio-environmental vulnerability, fostering a more comprehensive understanding of the complexities involved in achieving 'health' amid climate change.