Checking the Arctic barometer in Marrakesh

John Crump

By GRID-Arendal

November 17^th, 2016

The role of the Arctic in “sustaining global climate systems” needs to be recognized at the climate change negotiations now under way in Morocco, according to the organization that represents in the Inuit.

“Paris was a step forward but real change will come when governments implement the agreement they made one year ago,” Okalik Eegeesiak, Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC), said in a news release.

Last year, more than 20,000 people gathered in Paris to negotiate a climate change agreement that committed 197 countries to take action to limit the global average temperature increase to 2 degrees, and to aim for 1.5 degrees, above pre-industrial levels. The agreement, which is now in force following ratification by 100 countries, envisions a world where greenhouse gas emissions are kept below levels that would all temperatures to rise beyond 1.5 degrees and where resources are committed to support adaptation and finance low-carbon economic development.

“We must act for the Arctic, for Inuit, for peoples,” said Eegeesiak, whose home is in the Canadian Arctic. She pointed to information published by the World Meteorological Organization stating temperatures are already 1.2°C above pre-industrial levels and that 2016 will the hottest year on record to underscore her point.

Inuit and other Indigenous Peoples are on the frontlines of climate change and have taken part negotiations for many years, arguing that while their societies and cultures are particularly threatened, they have important knowledge to contribute to the discussions. The Inuit Circumpolar Council represents Inuit living in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Russia.

“The Arctic is the barometer of the world’s environmental health,” says a position paper released by Inuit at the Morocco negotiations. “Inuit health and wellbeing are inextricably tied to the environment. We are a global Indigenous people who depend on the land and sea to sustain our culture, identity, and to feed our families. …We implore global leaders to save our planet by taking immediate and equitable action to implement the Paris Agreement. Now is the time to be bold and build on the international momentum that has been created.”

Ban Ki-moon - Photo Credit: AFP Photo Fadel Senna

Okalik Eegeesiak - Photo Credit: Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada

The Inuit statement was released as international leaders arrived in Morocco. It calls for countries to recognize both “the role of the Arctic in sustaining global climate systems” and “the fundamental human right of Inuit to a safe and healthy environment.”

It also called “the integration of Inuit and Indigenous knowledge into regional and global climate action planning” and a commitment “to the equitable participation of Inuit in climate change-related processes and programs at local, regional, national and international levels.”

Finally, it says countries need to “support Inuit and Indigenous peoples with mitigation, adaption and sustainable technology development.”

The Inuit statement comes as negotiators in Marrakesh try to fathom the implications of the election of Donald Trump as the next President of the United States. Despite Trump having said the U.S. will abandon the Paris Agreement, there is a growing sense among other countries that climate change is too important to allow one country to derail the agreement.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the momentum towards dealing with climate change is “unstoppable” and called on Trump to change his position. Other leaders made similar statements.

One commentator referred to Trump’s name being “taboo” at the negotiations.

“For those people on the front lines of climate change, we are already not moving fast enough regardless of a Trump presidency,” Victoria Herrmann Managing Director of the Arctic Institute, wrote in the Scientific American blog.

Herrmann agrees with Eegeesiak: “We need to act. We need to do all that we can now - not just in Marrakesh at the climate summit but back at home too – to mitigate whatever disappointments may come. Because while climate advocacy from the White House may end come January, the impacts of climate change will not stop.”