Inuit and Arctic Indigenous Peoples´ Day

DEAR Premiers, Presidents, dear Chairman of the Arctic Council, SISTERS AND BROTHERS, DEAR FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS OF ARCTIC INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS, Dear Friends, AND GOOD AFTERNOON TO ALL OF YOU.

First let me tell you how happy I am to stand in front of so many familiar, friendly faces. And let me also tell you what a privilege it is for me to be able to address you all at this Celebration of Inuit and Arctic Indigenous Peoples during what has now become the World Summit on Climate.

This is the first time since we inaugurated Self-Government in June of this year that I take part in a meeting dedicated specifically to an Arctic indigenous agenda.

To us Greenlanders, Self-government has meant a renewed orientation of the way we think – at the way we look at ourselves - at the world - as well as the way we look to the future. It also has had implications for our positions on climate change – this goes for our position on a global agreement, on a bilateral agreement between us and the Danish government as well as for the many local agreements and arrangements we are making and have to make at home. Therefore, my address will take its point of departure from our new Self-government status.

Self-government means an enhancement of the autonomy that we’ve enjoyed through the 30 years of Home Rule. In our self-government status there are four particularly important elements:

1. The Act on Self –government contains the recognition that the Greenlandic people have the right to self-determination in accordance with international law.
2. Our language kalaallisut/ Greenlandic is the official language of Greenland.
3. Self-government means that we can take over the competences of the oil-and mineral resources – meaning that the Greenland government alone has the ownership and control of the exploration and exploitation of these resources (and earns all the profits hereof). Another major area that we can take over is the entire justice sector. (Plus an additional 30 or so smaller competence areas).
4. The economic arrangement is based on an agreement that whenever the Greenland Government takes over a new competence area, then the Greenland government has to finance these new competence areas.

The latter is worth making note of as this gives us strong incentives or rather imperatives to develop our economy and to promote growth. As a government that is responsible for virtually all sectors in society – it is an imperative for my government to ensure that all citizens of Greenland are able to access and benefit from equitable public service provisions while they are being active drivers and participants of economic growth and innovation. We want to see new generations of healthy, well-educated, innovative and resourceful Greenlanders. Greenlanders who feel secure and well-rooted in their ancestry, whether it’s an inuit or one blended by other cultures, while they navigate confidently about, make new friends and finds new solutions for a sustainable living in a world that is becoming increasingly complex and globalised.

All of this requires that we are able to transform the material riches that we have in Greenland – living and non-living –into human well fare. This transformation will not come about unless, we harvest our living resources sustainably and utilize our non-newable resources by applying the very best environmental safety practices. The application of best environmental practices becomes even more relevant when we know, that the most potentially profitable means of income we have, lie in the exploitation of our oil and minerals’ resources.

Indeed, our challenges are daunting especially considering that we have to factor in our share of responsibility for delaying the warming of climate and the melting of ice.

In Greenland, we have since 1992 invested about 1 % of our GDP on renewable energy. Today about 43 % of Greenland’s electricity consumption is supplied by hydro power stations. We will continue to invest heavily in further developing this sector so that 60% of our electricity consumption will be covered by renewable energy by the year 2020.

In Greenland, we also have to make heavy investments, so that people affected by climate change, such as the hunters and some fishermen, get support to adapt to the shifting of available stocks and migration patterns. All of which requires support for either the refurbishment of their hunting and fisheries’ equipment and vessels, maybe combined with the need to move the hunting and fisheries dependant families to other towns and settlements in order to get to new hunting or fishing grounds. And in some cases, finding new occupations may be the only sensible choice.

My government has resolved that we refuse to watch idly by and allow our people to become more and more victimized by the changes in climate. For generations we have had to adapt to climate change. We will not only adapt – we will overcome – even now that the share of manmade climate changes is taking an increasingly larger share of the “natural” climate changes.

For us the best position on climate change is one that is guided by our belief in the need for a global mitigation strategy that is just, but also ambitious, while those who need support to adapt are given the necessary financial provisions.

As indigenous peoples we know that principles like “full and effective participation” and “free, prior, informed consent” need to be guiding the global agreements on climate change. And more importantly they must be the corner stones for the implementation at local levels if indigenous peoples are to stand a change for survival as peoples “post climate change”. But, we are also painfully aware – that our situations in relation to the recognition of our rights as indigenous peoples differ dramatically from country to country – even within the same county from one indigenous people to the other. This also applies to us as indigenous peoples in the Arctic.

Yet – there is one thing that we as Arctic indigenous peoples share that indigenous peoples of other regions do not have – and something that does give us an advantage. This “thing” is the Arctic Council. All though the Arctic Council is in essence, an intergovernmental forum between states – the status and role given to Arctic indigenous peoples’ organisations as Permanent Participants is one that is unprecedented in international multilateral cooperation and which gives indigenous peoples of the Arctic region a unique platform for influence and cooperation.

The next 48 hours in the Bellacenter here in Copenhagen will be crucial for outlining the future agreement for an effective and just global agreement on climate change. We know that the hopes for a binding legal agreement have been transferred to coming COP-meetings. I believe that we – as Arctic indigenous peoples - can make a difference not only for the longer term, but also for the next 48 hours. We can make this difference by joining hands and efforts with each other but also with the many friends that we have made - especially in context of our cooperation in the Arctic – to influence those who in these very hours are trying to find ways to align the many diverse interests and to ease the conflicts so that we can look forward to a global agreement on climate that will halt the climate changes while securing a global sustainable development.

Thank you for your attention and for joining me in keeping hopes high for a successful outcome of COP 15.

Qujanaq.