Inuit org demands climate change aid money

The Inuit Circumpolar Council demanded this week that Inuit and other indigenous peoples living in developed countries get money from a proposed international fund aimed at helping poor countries cope with climate change.

The ICC, whose officials visited Cancun, Mexico this week for the 16th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, downplayed the needs of poor, small island nation states whose existence is threatened by rising sea levels.

“There are some states that are vulnerable as a whole, such as small island nation states. But in general, people experience climate change impacts at the local and regional level, and this is where adaptation assistance should be made available,” Aqqaluk Lynge, the chair of the ICC, said in a news release dated Dec. 1 but not released until Dec. 3.

At the COP15 climate change conference held in Copenhagen about a year ago, developed nations agreed in principle to the creation of a $100 billion fund to help less developed states adapt to climate change.

But the ICC said this week that any future international agreement on such funding should also include the word “peoples,” and reduce its focus on nation states, “since vulnerability to climate change is regional and local in nature.”

Kirt Ejesiak, the vice president of ICC Canada, visited Cancun this week “voice Inuit concerns and work with other affected regions and peoples,” the press release said.

“We welcome partnerships and opportunities to share best practices on mitigation and adaptation so that we can support our communities in their efforts to adapt to change,” Ejesiak said in the news release.

ICC also repeated demands for strict, binding reductions in the emission of the greenhouse gases that are responsible for global warming.

The COP16 gathering in Cancun began Nov. 29 and will continue until Dec. 10.