Alaskan lands in Dubai as local representative at annual UN climate … – Alaska's News Source

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – An Alaskan on a mission to bring attention to some of the needs of Alaska and the Indigenous peoples of the Arctic – as northerly regions experience a drastically-changing climate – is in Dubai this week, attending the United Nations’ climate change conference as a delegate from the state.

Jackie Qataliña Schaeffer landed in the Middle East on Wednesday ahead of the United Arab Emirates-hosted United Nations Climate Change Conference, or Conference of the Parties, kicking off its 2023 edition.

“It’s about making sure we elevate the importance of Indigenous knowledge,” Schaeffer explained of her role in Dubai this week. “Our Indigenous populations have lived in the same areas for thousands and thousands of years. They’ve adapted, they’re resilient; so how can we look at those threads of strength, and make them global?”

Schaeffer, who also serves as the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium Director for Climate Initiatives, was nominated by the Inuit Circumpolar Council to attend the conference on behalf of the organization, which represents people from across the Arctic. Representatives, including government leaders and other officials from around the world, hail from 200 different countries, and 70,000 people are expected to attend the two-week gathering in one fashion or another.

As these groups discuss climate change and a path forward, however, Schaeffer said in an interview from Dubai that she wants to specifically help address the changes Indigenous communities are seeing and experiencing first-hand – particularly those in rural parts of Alaska, who are being affected in multiple ways.

“Everything from housing to energy to public health and sanitation and now climate change,” she explained. “And really, climate change impacts everything. It impacts health, it impacts people, it impacts infrastructure, it impacts traditional ways of living, it impacts our food sovereignty and access to food. And what we’re seeing is significant changes in a short amount of time.”

Inuit Circumpolar Council International Chair Sara Olsvig said in a prepared statement Wednesday that Indigenous voices at global events such as COP28 are about “justice in a broader sense,” and the recognition of Indigenous peoples as fellow humans with inherent rights, to include being able to live with dignity and with identities and cultures intact.

“[W]e have much to fight for, and we know from the 46 years ICC has existed, that we ourselves must bring our concerns directly to the world leaders, and insist on taking part in decision-making, as no one else will do that for us,” she wrote. “The Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the world, and our traditional livelihoods and ways of life are deeply affected … Much too often, climate change adaptation measures and mitigation initiatives fail to include Indigenous Peoples or to respect our rights. Any development in our homeland must to be based on our own decisions, as we have the right to freely determine our own future, and economic, social, and cultural development.”

The framework for the conference overall, according to the United Nations, is based on identifying solutions to be implemented worldwide that will limit the global temperature increase and implement processes to further progress in going green.

“To put it simply, the COP is where the world comes together to agree on ways to address the climate crisis, such as limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, helping vulnerable communities adapt to the effects of climate change, and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050,” according to the UN COP28 website. “UN Climate Change conferences (or COPs) take place every year, and are the world’s only multilateral decision-making forum on climate change with almost complete membership of every country in the world.”

The conference saw some controversy before it officially started, with claims made against the United Arab Emirates alleging it was using the gathering as an opportunity for backdoor deals related to oil and gas. A UAE conference leader has continued to deny that is the case.

The conference is slated to go through Dec. 12, 2023. You can learn more about it by clicking here.

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