{"id":7068,"date":"2022-11-23T16:57:51","date_gmt":"2022-11-23T21:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/?p=7068"},"modified":"2026-02-09T15:04:43","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T20:04:43","slug":"icc-press-release-post-cop27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/press-releases\/icc-press-release-post-cop27\/","title":{"rendered":"ICC Press Release Post-COP27<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back \u2013 Gains and losses at COP 27<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took nearly two extra days, but this year\u2019s UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, were saved by a landmark agreement to establish a Loss and Damage fund that will see the world\u2019s most vulnerable peoples compensated for their losses due to climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Loss and Damage fund is a first step to ensuring climate justice. In the further development of the fund, we will work hard to ensure that Inuit, who have been on the front lines of climate changes for decades, will have equitable access to the fund,\u201d said Sara Olsvig, ICC\u2019s International Chair. \u201cDespite the severe urgency of climate change and the increased extreme weather events, parties failed to agree on adding strong language to phase out fossil fuels.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOther concerns for Inuit in the Sharm El-Sheikh final agreement include the fact that there are fewer references to Indigenous Peoples and human rights than in the 2021 COP26 statement in Glasgow\u201d, she said, \u201cor the kinds of emissions reduction commitments needed to keep the target of holding global average temperature increases to 1.5C or less.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe lack of human rights language is also a major concern.\u201d said Lisa Koperqualuk, President of ICC Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLanguage on human rights was on and off the table during the COP27, and the end result is a step back as the language included last year in the Glasgow Pact is now gone, which shows that human rights are not seen as fundamental principles by states, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one step forward, two steps back,\u201d Koperqualuk added. \u201cBut we don\u2019t give up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Olsvig and Koperqualuk pointed to a number of positive outcomes for the Inuit delegation this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur message and recommendations were heard everywhere,\u201d said Olsvig. \u201cOur delegates spoke on many platforms and interacted with many world leaders, other Indigenous Peoples and government delegations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For COP 27, Inuit produced a strong position paper with five clear recommendations that highlighted Inuit requests to international leaders, the science community, private industry and others (see annex below).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A number of high-level meetings took place including with Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change of Canada and Canada's Ambassador for Climate Change, Catherine Stewart. National Inuit Youth Council President, Brian Pottle, met with the President of Brazil, Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, together with Indigenous representatives from the other regions of the world. ICC International Chair Sara Olsvig took part in a roundtable with US Special Presidential Envoy on Climate Change John Kerry and met the Danish Minister for Climate Dan J\u00f8rgensen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ICC participated in numerous side events and co-organized events together with the Saami Council on Arctic Governance and Climate Change and the Quaker UN Office on Arctic Climate Justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inuit worked with the Arctic Caucus as well as with the larger Indigenous Peoples Caucus and were involved in the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform Facilitative Working Group knowledge sharing events with elders and youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to commend our youth and elder delegates at the COP27,\u201d said ICC Chair Sara Olsvig. \u201cThey all provided important insights to our reality as an Arctic Indigenous People, and their participation was extremely valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-30-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tukumminnguaq Olsen \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Melodie Lavall\u00e9e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Eilene Adams<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ICC (Greenland and Chairs office)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0ICC (Canada)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0ICC (Alaska)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

tukumminnguaq@inuit.org<\/a>                         mlavallee@inuitcircumpolar.com<\/a>          eilene@iccalaska.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

_____________________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founded in 1977 by the late Eben Hopson of Sr. of Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska, the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) has flourished and grown into a major international non-governmental organization representing approximately 180,000 Inuit of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Chukotka (Russia). ICC works to promote Inuit rights, safeguard the Arctic environment, and protect and promote the Inuit way of life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-117","category-press-releases"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7068"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":987515733,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7068\/revisions\/987515733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}