The Arctic comes to Africa
The Arctic Council will host a parallel event at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg on 30 August at 11.00-13.00. The venue is the Ubuntu Village Conference Centre, Dwarf Natal Plum Room. The overall theme is climate change in the Arctic region: “Early Warnings and Sustainable Solutions: Climate Change and the Arctic Council”.
Mr Jouni Backman, Minister of the Environment in Finland, the chair country of the Arctic Council, will host the event. Dr Robert Corell, American Meteorological Society Kennedy School, Harvard University, will present the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) and insights gained during the first two years of the assessment, particularly analyses of observed multi-decadal change and the concomitant observations of indigenous residents of the region. Furthermore, Ms Sheila Watt-Cloutier, the President of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference International, will speak as a representative of the indigenous people about the impacts of the climate change.
Both scientific data and observations by indigenous communities indicate that over the last 30 years, average temperatures in western parts of North America and in Siberia have been increasing, while temperatures in Hudson Bay and Greenland have decreased. In some parts of the Scandinavian region, no significant change has been observed. These analyses illustrate the complex nature of the response of the Arctic region to climate change. Effects on ice cover, sea currents and permafrost are expected to have global impacts. Thawing permafrost poses dangers to infrastructure and industries in many parts of the Arctic. Actions aimed at decelerating human contributions to climate change may help Arctic residents better adjust to coming alterations.
The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA), initiated in 2000 by the Ministers and Permanent Participants of the Arctic Council, is the most important single project of the Council. The ACIA is designed to evaluate and synthesize knowledge on climate variability, climate change, and increased ultraviolet (UV) radiation and their consequences across the entire Arctic region. The goal is to provide useful and reliable information for the governments, organizations, and resident communities of the Arctic to create the basis for more informed policy options to address such changes. Climate variability and change, and more recently, notable increases in UV radiation resulting from stratospheric ozone depletion, have become important issues in the Arctic over the past few decades.
The results of scientific research and indigenous knowledge have increasingly documented climatic changes that are more pronounced in the Arctic region than in other regions of the world or are critical to our understanding of global-scale climatic processes. Observations from indigenous cultures of the Arctic indicate that the physical environment, as well as the flora and fauna, has been rapidly changing on time-scales of a few years to decades. The ACIA is examining possible future impacts on and vulnerabilities in the environment and its living resources, on human well-being and health, and on buildings, roads and infrastructure. The ACIA is designed to develop fundamental and useful information, including policy recommendations, for the nations of the Arctic region, their economies, resources, and the communities and residents of the Arctic. The ACIA will be completed in the fall of 2004.
The Arctic Council is a unique forum for cooperation between national governments and indigenous peoples in the Arctic. The Council was established in 1996 by the eight Arctic countries: Canada, Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands), Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Russian Federation, Sweden and the United States. Six international organizations representing Arctic indigenous peoples have the status of Permanent Participants of the Arctic Council. The indigenous people of the Arctic are represented by: the Aleut International Association (AIA), the Arctic Athabascan Council, the Gwich’in Council International, the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC), the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON) and the Saami Council. The member states and indigenous organizations participate in the work on, de facto, equal footing. In its decision-making the Arctic Council pays great attention to the traditional knowledge of the indigenous peoples. Observers to the Arctic Council include European non-arctic countries as well as scientific institutions, international organizations and NGOs.
The mandate of the Council covers all aspects of sustainable development, including the ecological, cultural, social and economic dimensions of sustainability. There are five working groups and two programmes in the Arctic Council dealing with different aspects of the environment and sustainable development. The Arctic Council could be considered as a regional partnership for sustainable development. The Chairmanship of the Arctic Council rotates every two years among the eight member states. Finland has the Chairmanship until October 2002.
Further information: Ambassador Peter Stenlund, Chairman of the Senior Arctic Officials of the Arctic Council, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, tel. +358 9 160 56174, gsm +358 40 545 1295, e-mail: [email protected]
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