Arctic communities will need help to deal with climate change – CBC

Dec 15, 2015

‘We are basically developing communities same as those in third world countries,’ says Okalik Eegeesiak

Following the signing of a global pact to fight climate change over the weekend, Inuit leaders and Nunavut politicians are pointing out that Arctic communities, like developing countries, are going to need help to reduce their emissions and address the impacts of climate change.

Nearly 200 nations adopted the Paris Agreement on Saturday, resulting from the 21st meeting of the Conference of Parties, or COP21.

The agreement, which comes into effect in 2020, aims to keep warming from rising more than 2 C over pre-industrial levels, and eventually to limit that to 1.5 C. The signatories are asked to set national targets for reducing emissions and improve them regularly.