ICC links climate change to human rights

Sheila Watt-Cloutier, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, made a final plea last week in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the United Nations’ annual climate change convention meeting to acknowledge the impact global warming is having in the Arctic.
Speaking at a side event at the UN meeting, the Conference of Parties, Watt-Cloutier called the destruction of the Inuit way of life “a violation of the human rights of Inuit.” She said ICC plans to petition the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for a declaration to this effect.

“I call upon states, particularly those vulnerable to climate change, and non-governmental organizations, to support us in our petition,” she said.

Watt-Cloutier invited other regions affected by climate change, such as the Pacific Island states, to join with Inuit and other Arctic peoples in a “strategic alliance” to work on lowering the emissions of greenhouse gases.

She also said the climate change convention should be amended to recognize the Arctic as a region “particularly vulnerable to climate change” and called for the creation of a circumpolar monitoring system.

“I call upon states, particularly those vulnerable to climate change, and non-governmental organizations, to support us in our petition.”
– Sheila Watt-Cloutier

The UN meeting in Buenos Aires, which drew 6,000 participants from 200 nations, wrapped up last weekend. It was the last international meeting on climate change before the Kyoto Protocol goes into effect on Feb. 16 — and it didn’t manage to bring the United States on board.

The U.S., which produces 25 per cent of the world’s emissions of greenhouse gases, has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol or embrace the idea of any mandatory scheme to cut emissions, saying this would cost the U.S. too many jobs.

Under to the Kyoto Protocol, 30 of the world’s most countries have agreed to cut their emissions of heat-trapping gases below 1990 levels by 2012. Next year, negotiations were to start up for a deal that would lower emissions even more after 2012 and also involve developing nations.

The head of the U.S. delegation to the Buenos Aires meeting, Paula Dobriansky, who was also at November’s Arctic Council meeting in Iceland, said once again that the U.S. has “a common goal and a common commitment” to curb climate change. The U.S. says it will limit the output of emissions by investing in cleaner energy sources.

The Arab oil-producing nations also oppose any moves that would affect their sales of oil and gas.

During recent meeting, Denmark’s environment Minister Connie Hedegaard invited environment ministers from China, India and other developing nations to visit Greenland’s ice-cap next summer and, at the same time, participate in a climate change conference.

The hope is the ministers would see the melting polar ice caps first-hand and speak with hunters whose livelihoods have been affected by global warming.