Quantcast
Northern leader says Inuit deserve share of cash to adapt to climate change – Metro US

Northern leader says Inuit deserve share of cash to adapt to climate change

The head of Canada’s main Inuit organization says her people deserve a share of any global fund created to help countries adapt to a warming planet.

Mary Simon, head of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and an adviser to Canada’s delegation at the Copenhagen climate change conference, says money should be available to populations at risk in both developing and developed countries.

“We live in a developed nation, but we live in a region that is still developing,” she said Tuesday.

“Even if it’s a domestic responsibility, in the long term it should be part of the international debate. Within developed nations, there are acute needs for intervention.”

Last month, Commonwealth countries, including Canada, backed the idea of a special fund to help vulnerable and poorer nations cope with the effects of a warming planet. The leaders signed a declaration committing them to financial support that would begin in 2010 and grow to $10 billion annually by 2012.

A similar fund is also part of discussions at the Copenhagen summit. UN climate chief Yvo do Boer has said rich countries must put at least $10 billion a year on the table right away. The creation of such a fund is seen as crucial to the success of the conference.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has backed the idea. Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown said his country would contribute $1.3 billion over three years.

Plans so far have focused on providing money to developing countries that face drought, flooding due to higher ocean levels and other effects of climate change.

But Simon said Inuit communities are already suffering.

“We have communities that need to be relocated,” she said. Salluit, on the northern tip of Quebec’s Ungava Peninsula, is already sinking into the melting permafrost.

Inuit in countries such as Alaska and the United States also want access to any international climate change fund, said Simon. The Inuit Circumpolar Congress has adopted that as its official position.

Simon acknowledges that the Inuit demand might put them at odds with developing nations, who may not appreciate more competition for the money, but pressing for their inclusion will be part of her role at the conference.

“Developing nations need to accept that there are regions in developed nations that require the same kind of attentions that they do. One is not more important than the other.”

She said it’s too early to suggest what percentage of any adaptation fund should go to Arctic people, although she added the proposed total of $10 billion should be at least doubled.

Aside from arguing for her people’s inclusion, Simon said she will try to put a human face on the effects of climate change. Inuit are already grappling with unpredictable weather, undependable sea ice and other environmental changes that threaten their way of life.

“(Southerners) don’t see what’s happening up North,” she said. “Climate change is more than just science. It is about people being affected.”