The Pearson Centre for Progressive Policy

Progressive Dialogue and Policy for a Better Canada

Climate justice frames INUIT PRIORITIES (Natan Obed)

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October 17, 2019

Climate justice frames INUIT PRIORITIES (Natan Obed)

By Natan Obed

The Pearson Centre has invited various leading thinkers to contribute their ideas towards the Progressive Platform to generate good ideas for debate in this general election. The views expressed here are those of the writer. We thank the writers for putting forward their ideas for this important project.
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Climate justice frames Inuit priorities for next government

By Natan Obed
(President of the ITK since 2015)

The world seems to have finally awoken to the global climate emergency Inuit have been warning about for more than three decades.
As early as 2005, the Inuit Circumpolar Council sued the U.S. government, the world’s largest climate polluter, seeking “relief from human rights violations resulting from the impacts of climate change” under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man.
It is therefore encouraging, nearly 15 years later, to see so many young people leading global climate strikes and demanding aggressive climate action from their leaders. An estimated 7.6 million people of all ages, including hundreds of thousands across Canada, took to the streets last month to demand global climate action centred on human rights, equity and justice — principles that are central to the National Inuit Climate Change Strategy released by ITK earlier this year.

The strategy calls for transformative action to address climate risks and inequities, grounded in Inuit science and rights. It outlines co-ordinated action with governments and organizations in five areas (knowledge and capacity building; health, well-being and the environment; food systems; infrastructure; and energy).

The global climate emergency is the defining issue of our time. Extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and intensity. According to the Centre of Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters’ 2018 Review of Disaster Events, climate related disasters were associated with over 5,500 deaths and disrupted the lives of over 58 million people last year. For other life on earth, a recent UN global biodiversity assessment warned that the rate of extinctions is unprecedented and accelerating. The choices nation states, including Canada’s next government, make now will have far-reaching and potentially irreversible impacts for humanity and indeed all life on planet Earth.

The risks to human and natural systems posed by climate change are most acute in Inuit Nunangat, our homeland in Canada, and our communities are subject to the compounding effects of Canada’s top climate risks. From the land to the oceans to the ice, Inuit Nunangat is experiencing the impacts of climate change at a scale and speed greater than any other region and that is exceeding troubling scientific predictions.

Inuit Nunangat encompasses the entirety of the Canadian Arctic coastline and significant offshore areas, including the Northwest Passage. Some models suggest that Inuit Nunangat may experience an ice free summer as early as 2036 if aggressive action isn’t taken to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The climate impacts our people are experiencing are likely to intensify as melting summer sea ice further opens our homelands to shipping, tourism, and extractive industries, potentially magnifying existing challenges caused by climate change. Yet the impoverished or nonexistent marine infrastructure in Inuit Nunangat (compared to other coastal regions in Canada) renders our communities dangerously ill-equipped to face these challenges and leaves the region vulnerable to shifting geopolitical interests.

The profound infrastructure gaps between Inuit Nunangat and most other regions of Canada are further magnified by the negative impacts of our rapidly warming planet making long-standing inequities worse. Coastal erosion threatens the very existence of some of our communities, degrading permafrost compromises built infrastructure, such as housing, while our communities already face a severe housing shortage. Changing temperatures and precipitation patterns endanger the water supply for our communities.

At a time of worsening climate crisis and surging international interest and activity in the circumpolar Arctic, it is imperative that the next federal government commit to eliminating the infrastructure deficit in Inuit Nunangat by 2030 as part of a larger nation building exercise to bring Inuit Nunangat into Canada.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects that global annual emissions must be halved by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050 to stem the devastating climate impacts Inuit Nunangat is already experiencing. The next federal government should address the global climate emergency by taking unprecedented aggressive action to mitigate Canada’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and by actively advocating for global climate action on the international stage.

Decarbonizing the energy system is a critical component of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
The diesel-dependent microgrids powering communities in Inuit Nunangat contribute less than a fraction of a percent to Canada’s annual GHG emissions. For Inuit, an energy system transition is more than fuel switching; our people seek energy security as well as an increasing role in the ownership and governance of energy systems in our communities.

Consistent with the Arctic and Northern Policy Framework, the next government should support Inuit self-determined pathways to energy security. It should do this through targeted investments in Inuit Nunangat that remedy barriers to the deployment of renewable energy technologies and support increased Inuit ownership and governance of energy systems.

Climate action in Inuit Nunangat must be framed though the lens of climate justice. The pervasive impacts of climate change on our social, cultural, ecological, and economic systems, as well as on the health and well-being of our people, are making long-standing inequities worse. Addressing social and economic inequities, both between Inuit Nunangat and within Inuit Nunangat itself, is a necessary pre-condition to the development of a healthy, resilient and secure Arctic.