\u201cFor decades, we have witnessed the direct impacts of a changing climate in our homeland and have consistently advocated for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to prevent these changes from becoming a global norm,\u201d said the position paper, released Monday in advance of the 28th Conference of Parties for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP 28<\/a>. The conference got underway this week in Dubai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Inuit Circumpolar Council includes representatives in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Russia. It is one of the six international Indigenous organizations that have decision-making power at the eight-nation Arctic Council. The Inuit Circumpolar Council has a COP 28 delegation, to include Alaska members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One key issue highlighted in the position paper is the Loss and Damage Fund<\/a> that was created at last year\u2019s COP 27 held in Egypt. As it is structured now, the fund is focused on helping poorer nations in the global south address the impacts of climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That leaves a big gap, said Inuit Circumpolar Chair<\/a> Sara Olsvig of Greenland.<\/p>\n\n\n \u201cThis means that as it is structured now, Inuit and other Arctic Indigenous Peoples will not have access to the fund, although we are among those most impacted by climate change,\u201d Olsvig said by email. Given the rapid rate of Arctic warming and associated effects, \u201cthe inclusion of Inuit in any policy and decision-making is of great importance,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She noted that the area within the planet\u2019s Arctic Circle has warmed about four times<\/a> as fast as the global average, according to recent measurements. In Alaska, which has warmed two to three times as fast<\/a> as the U.S. average, warming has caused erosion rates of about 1.4 meters (4.6 feet) a year along the northern coast, with some sections eroding as much as 20 meters (66 feet) a year, Olsvig said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Alaska, numerous coastal villages<\/a> are facing expensive damages from coastal erosion, flooding, ground sinking and other effects of sea-ice loss, permafrost thaw and extreme weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An early result from COP 28 was an agreement on money flowing into the Loss and Damage Fund. Nations have pledged a combined $400 million<\/a>, including $100 million each<\/a> from the governments of the United Arab Emirates and Germany, according to the U.N.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the Inuit Circumpolar Council, another priority is achieving a change in the way decisions are made and research is conducted in the Arctic. The organization\u2019s position paper calls for work to be guided by a set of protocols for ethical engagement<\/a> that the Inuit Circumpolar Council published last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That includes respect for and use of Indigenous knowledge, the position paper says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIndigenous Knowledge is a systematic way of thinking that goes across biological, physical, cultural, and spiritual systems, and it provides insights different from conventional scientific knowledge regimes. Therefore, ICC is continuously advocating for the full and equal inclusion of Indigenous Knowledge in any development or decision-making related to the Arctic and Inuit homelands and lives,\u201d Olsvig said by email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are past examples in which Indigenous knowledge has been successfully incorporated into international agreements and policy decisions, Olsvig said. Some are sweeping agreements, like the 2015 Paris Agreement, which includes a program<\/a> for Indigenous information exchanges. Some are more regionally focused, like the Central Arctic Ocean fisheries agreement<\/a>, \u201cwhere Indigenous Knowledge is an integral part of the scientific regime, and where Inuit from Alaska, Canada and Greenland also participate,\u201d Olsvig said. That agreement, which came into effect in 2021, puts a moratorium on any commercial fishing in the international waters of the Arctic Ocean.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Inuit people of the Arctic, facing some of the most dramatic effects of climate change, are seeking a bigger voice in any international action taken to address it. In a position paper issued just before the start of a major international…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-habitat"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1117"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1119,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117\/revisions\/1119"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Ice-rich](\"https:\/\/alaskabeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/12116729705_3c9397568f_o.jpg\")