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Climate Change
ICCs Executive Council, with the strong leadership of its Chair, made considerable efforts and significant gains in advancing the interests of Inuit with respect to climate change in 2002 2006. This was one of ICCs principle initiatives and it undertook many climate change activities including communicating its Arctic manifestations to the world, working with those that hope to mitigate the current and future impacts of climate change, and supporting initiatives that aim to hold those responsible for climate change accountable to Inuit and others that are and will be affected.
ICC participated very actively in the preparation from 2002 to 2004 of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) by the Arctic Council. Further, ICC drafted climate change policy recommendations in cooperation with all six permanent participants to the Arctic Council. These recommendations were approved by Arctic Council ministers in November 2004 on behalf of all 6 indigenous peoples organizations who have permanent participant standing in the Council. ICC urged effective follow-up measures by each of the Arctic Council's working groups. ICC participated in Conferences of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Milan, Buenos Aires, and Montreal during 2002 2006. ICC then supported the ICC Chair and 60 other Inuit from Alaska and Canada in mounting a path-breaking climate change-based petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
The ACIA bears special mention. A team of more than 300 leading Arctic researchers, indigenous representatives, mainly through the six Permanent Participants, and other experts from 15 nations participated in the work on the ACIA. They distilled and synthesized available scientific information, traditional knowledge, and indigenous perceptions in order to examine how climate and ultraviolet radiation have changed in the Arctic, how they are projected to change in the future, and what the consequences of these changes will be for the Arctic and the world. Delivered to the ministers of the Arctic Council Member States in November 2004 the ACIA provided the foundation for a broad range of policy recommendations in the field of climate change pertaining to mitigation, adaptation, as well as research, observations, monitoring, modeling and outreach. ICC was active within each of the ACIA activities.
Special climate change projects were also initiated within each of the ICC regions. One such project is the Sila-Inuk project. As an outgrowth of ICCs international work on this matter, Greenlands Hunters and Fishermens Organization, KNAPK, jointly with ICC are leading this multi-year project. Sila-Inuks main objectives are to collect climate change observations first hand from those most closely connected to the land, sea, and ice. National Greenland radio and other broadcast media will be used significantly in the project.
A full-scale communications initiative was undertaken on the climate change issues. Speeches were delivered to audiences worldwide, including the Senate of the United States and the Clinton Global Initiative to bring Arctic and Inuit perspectives on climate change to the attention of decision-makers. In addition, the Office of the Chair undertook much media work to bring Inuit and Arctic perspectives on climate change to global audiences, and to convince foundations to look to the Arctic as a venue for activities and support. As further mandated by the delegates in Kuujjuaq, ICC protected the interest of Inuit initiatives in international forums such as the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), which was held in Johannesburg, South Africa.
