-We hope that the Arctic will be highlighted by the UN as a special focal point, as it is there that the effects of climate change have been felt the earliest and are – at the moment – the most visible and most severe, Patricia Cochran, Chair of Inuit Circumpolar Council said on behalf of the two peoples.
The speech was presented at this week’s United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York.
-Already today, we see the effects of climate change everywhere, the representative of the two northern peoples underlined.
Among their concrete proposals to the UN is that each UN agency that works on climate change matters establishes a special Arctic focal point for climate change, and that All UN member states and agencies should include in their climate change strategies a screening mechanism that evaluates the impacts of mitigation measures themselves on indigenous peoples.
Read the whole speech here
