Address by Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of the international expert meeting: Climate change and sustainable development of the Arctic region scientific, social, cultural and educational challenges Monaco, 3 March 2009 Your Serene Highness, Professor Jean Malaurie, Eminent experts, Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen, It is an immense privilege for UNESCO to be holding this important meeting on climate change and sustainable development of the Arctic region: scientific, social, cultural and educational challenges. I should like to thank most sincerely His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco for his invaluable support for this event. His personal commitment and his action to promote the polar regions in particular are a model and source of inspiration to the international community. I therefore welcome the opportunity given to UNESCO to consider with the Principality of Monaco the prospects for joint action. I should also like to pay a heartfelt personal tribute here to Professor Jean Malaurie, who is now UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Arctic polar issues and who has dedicated his life to studying and improving knowledge about the polar world, including the traditions of the indigenous circumpolar peoples. I should also like to welcome Mr Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), who will be joining us this afternoon. By focusing its work on the four issues of mitigation, adaptation, science and communication, UNEP now plays a key role in reflection on climate change. UNESCO, for its part, shall not fail to strengthen its close cooperation with UNEP in these fields. DG/2009/021 Original: French
I welcome, too, Mr Stein Rosenberg, representative of the Arctic Council. The Council, together with UNEP, also plays a leading role in the international coordination of action for the Arctic. The importance of the various partners here cannot be over-emphasized. UNESCO has accordingly been very actively involved in the events marking International Polar Year (2007-2009), together with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the International Council for Science (ICSU), the lead agencies for the Year. Lastly, it is a great pleasure for me to welcome the experts, some of whom have made the long journey from the Arctic to attend this meeting. Ladies and gentlemen, The Secretary-General of the United Nations has described climate change as the defining challenge of our era. Understanding and responding to such a fundamental issue calls for concerted efforts by the scientific community, civil society, governments and national and international organizations worldwide. Today, it is universally recognized that humanity has brought about climate change. It is now certain knowledge that the world s climate will undergo major change. Adaptation to climate change and a response involving appropriate adaptation strategies now constitute a shared imperative, shared also by the United Nations system. Such strategies entail a largely interdisciplinary response. They must be based on thorough knowledge of climate science and must take into account the many emerging social, economic and cultural issues. UNESCO is aware of these global challenges. For 30 years now it has been working to build a base of general knowledge about climate change, particularly in the fields of oceanography, hydrology, ecological sciences and earth sciences. It has now been assigned, together with the Word Meteorological Organization (WMO), the role of coordinating scientific analysis, evaluation, monitoring and early warning in the field of climate change. DG/2009/021 page 2
However, UNESCO is also aware of the need for an interdisciplinary approach which will make it possible to take up three major challenges that have arisen: the environmental, cultural and social, and educational challenges. First, the environment. To respond to questions relating to the physical environment we act to ensure that the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) will play a growing role in the production of reliable scientific and technical information on global climate observation and prediction systems. IOC can thus encourage international cooperation in the study of the oceans, determining climatic factors. Working hand in hand with WMO, it now coordinates an operational ocean observing system, which backs up the Global Ocean Observing System and the Global Climate Observing System. We also gain a better understanding of the biological environment. That is the objective of UNESCO s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme, which has a world network of biosphere reserves comprising 531 reserves in 105 countries, including five in the Arctic region, namely North-East Greenland in Denmark, Laplandskiy and Taimyrsky in the Russian Federation, Lake Torne Area in Sweden and Noatak in the United States of America. These reserves are important laboratories where the effects of climate change on biodiversity and on ecosystems services can be studied in the context of genuinely sustainable development. Likewise, and with regard to the natural environment, the concerns raised by climate change have been included in the various safeguarding mechanisms and operational processes of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. I therefore note with great satisfaction that no less than six sites in the Arctic region are on the World Heritage List: in Greenland (Denmark), the Russian Federation, Norway, Canada and one transboundary property in the United States of America and Canada. In October 2007, the General Assembly of States Parties to the World Heritage Convention adopted a text entitled Policy Document on the Impacts of Climate Change on World Heritage Properties, in which the utilization of World Heritage sites as laboratories for monitoring the long-term effects of climate change and testing innovative adaptation measures is considered. It was against this background that UNESCO held an international expert meeting on the world DG/2009/021 page 3
heritage and the Arctic in 2007, judiciously supported by Prince Albert II of the Monaco Foundation. Furthermore, renewed emphasis must be placed on the cultural and social challenges of climate change, which has a great impact on ways of life, and the exchange and sharing of knowledge. From this point of view, the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage is particularly relevant to the implementation of measures to safeguard the oral traditions, social practices, knowledge and skills of indigenous Arctic communities. This is especially evident with the tradition of the Olonkho, the first masterpiece of the intangible heritage from the Arctic region, which designates both the Yakut epic tradition and the tales of the epic itself which are still told in the Sakha Republic (Russian Federation). I note moreover with great satisfaction that countries such as Norway and Iceland have ratified the Convention and I urge the other States in the region to initiate the ratification process, too. We must all continue our efforts to implement such safeguarding policies. UNESCO s Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems, or LINKS Project, which enables the necessary emphasis to be laid on the key role of indigenous knowledge in understanding and anticipating the risks and changes caused by climate change on the organization of societies, also has this aim in view. Likewise, we must continue to observe more closely and understand the new social changes at work, notably in respect of the habitat, migration and the management of natural resources. That is the whole point of the Management of Social Transformations Programme (MOST). Lastly, the challenge of education is central to all sustainable development policies. I shall return to this aspect in a moment. Ladies and gentlemen, Despite extensive media coverage, for many of us climate change is but a far-off danger. In the Arctic, however, climate change is indeed a current reality. A dramatic indicator of the change is the accelerated melting of the Arctic ice cap. In 2007, the thickness of summer ice in the northern hemisphere reached an historic low. This is a trend that is destined to continue. During this time the geographical distribution of many biological species will spread northwards because of the average rise in temperatures. Animals such as the walrus and the polar bear DG/2009/021 page 4
are threatened by the deteriorating environmental conditions. Some Arctic and sub- Arctic peoples have had to change their hunting practices and their traditional itineraries. Conversely, as the ice shrinks, new areas are opening up for exploration and for the exploitation of natural resources, and greater use is being made of shipping lanes through the polar region. Industrial intensification will in turn have the effect of precipitating other major changes in the natural, social and cultural environment of the Arctic. Consequently, the Arctic is a key region for environmental and social changes linked to climate change. Such transformations will affect the entire planet. Changes recently observed in the Arctic are a warning about what could occur in other regions of the world as climate change takes hold. The lessons learnt to date from the Arctic model may then prove to be of capital importance to the world s other regions. Our meeting is being held in order to find responses to these challenges. Four working groups have therefore been established on themes we may consider to be priorities, namely the physical environment, biodiversity, social transformations and the priorities of the indigenous circumpolar peoples. I also note with satisfaction that four basic cross-cutting themes, namely education, environmental ethics, monitoring systems and world networks will be addressed in each working group. As I have already noted, I am most gratified by the importance ascribed here to educational matters. As so strongly stressed by the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) both formal and non-formal education systems must be mobilized in order to strengthen values and behaviour linked to sustainable development in the Arctic and sub-arctic regions more effectively. This commitment is of the essence, especially if we wish to identify education mechanisms that could help indigenous and local communities to maintain their knowledge, ways of life and languages. In that connection, I can only welcome the emphasis laid on improving education in the ethics of science, which is genuinely relevant in the context of climate change issues. UNESCO, through the World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST), will be mobilized in order to create conditions conducive to such a constructive debate. DG/2009/021 page 5
Ladies and gentlemen, For the next four days, I propose that you bear in mind three questions about climate change and sustainable development in the Arctic. Which gaps in science should be filled? How can these challenges be addressed under a holistic and interdisciplinary approach? What long-term concerted action strategies could we adopt? The recommendations adopted as the outcome of your meeting could guide UNESCO s future action and enable the Organization to contribute by complementing the action already taken by other stakeholders in order to meet the challenges facing the Arctic. I can assure you that I shall follow carefully the results of your meeting, for I know that they are of great importance. Thank you for your attention. DG/2009/021 page 6