Key note address – Laurent Stefanini
Check against delivery
Mr Chairman,
Mr and Mrs ministers,
Commissioner,
Mrs Vice-president of the European Parliament
Excellencies,
As French ambassador for the environment, I am very happy to be with you today to
take part in this conference addressing the international commitment required –in
particular from the European Union- to tackle the challenges faced by the arctic region. I
would like first to thank the Swedish presidency of the Nordic council for its initiative as
well as the Greenland authorities for their warm welcome.
As the title of the meeting suggests (“Common concern for the Arctic”), what we clearly
need is a shared vision of the issues at stake and of the policies to face them, in a region
which is particularly sensitive to the impact of man’s influence on his environment, first
of all on account of the climate change.
Our meeting brings together members of government, experts, scientists and
representatives of indigenous populations. These shared vision which will be at the heart
of our meeting’s agenda is crucial in allowing us to better measure and analyse the
environmental, economic and social changes at stake. Of course, the people of
Greenland is directly experiencing these changes and is adapting to them daily. But we
are all aware that what is happening in the Arctic region is a matter which concerns the
whole humanity, as suggested by the IPCC report, and that the action to be taken is
necessarily global.
For this reason climate change is one of the top priority of the French presidency of the
EU. The French Minister, Mr Borloo is personally directly committed to this issue. He has
been particularly sensitive to the invitation of the Nordic council of ministers and of
Greenland, which he visited one year ago. He was not able to be among us today
because of his European and parliamentary commitments but he asked me to deliver to
you a message on solidarity and international cooperation which are crucial to face
these challenges and their consequences.
My presence among you, as France is presiding over the council of the European Union,
is also a demonstration that the EU feels directly concerned and wishes to be involved
in the debate. Arctic is fully part of the Nordic dimension of the EU joint foreign and
security policy and you can rely on our determination to push forward this priority. EU
has an “arctic window” and even more…According to me it’s an “arctic door”.
Climate change is a primary concern of the EU, with the crucial milestone of post-2012
negotiations on an ambitious follow-up to the Kyoto protocol. The French presidency
with its EU partners is putting all its energy in order to reach an agreement during the
Copenhagen conference in 2009. I would like to stress the excellent spirit of cooperation
with our Danish an our Swedish colleagues who will be in the frontline during this
important event.
To better achieve this aim, the European Union is working on the drafting of the rules for
the implementation of its commitment, in term of greenhouse gases emission, i.e a 20%
reduction by 2020 in its emissions compared to 1990 and a 30% reduction in the event
of a post-2012 agreement. We have to show our determination and willingness to
contribute to an international agreement where all countries, according to their
capabilities, along the principle of “shared but differentiated responsibilities” must play
their role to insure that the increase in global temperature does not exceed the
irreversible threshold of 2 degrees.
In this the European Union is acting to avoid
irreparable and quicker than expected damages, some of which we are beginning to see
in the Arctic today. In order to be effective, this commitment must be worldwide and
cannot be limited to a single region, nor to neighbouring countries.
Together, we will need to act on the causes so as to limit the effects, but we also have
to work for a better understanding of the phenomena which affect the region’s
environment. From this point of view too, the European Union is committed. The
countries member of the Nordic council – i.e the three Nordic member states of the EU –
Denmark, Finland and Sweden- and the two associated members of the EU –Iceland and
Norway-, are on the frontline in term of scientific research, but many other member
states of the EU are committed to arctic research as well. They have scaled up their
efforts as part of the international polar year and by implementing active partnerships
with Canada, Russia, United States, among others. The role of the arctic council is
important in this regard and its decisions taken here in Ilulissat, specially regarding the
implementation of the UNCLOS is important.
The DAMOCLES programme funded by the European Commission is a fine example of
this collaboration. The European environment Agency’s monitoring work also meets a
basic requirement to support political decision-making. French an German joint work on
the Svalbard are among other examples of close cooperation. Let me name also the
work of the Paul Emile Victor institute in Greenland, which has a long record of research
in this area - Port-Victor, French base founded more than fifty years ago is close to us.
A lot remains still to be done in order to gain access to reliable, multidisciplinary
information which can be analysed over the long term so as to better understand the
effects of climate change. It is for this reason that the French Presidency of the EU is
joining with the principality of Monaco in organising a ministerial conference on
November 9th an 10th 2008 in Monaco on the theme “the Arctic, a unique observatory of
the global environment”.
This ministerial conference has a three-fold ambition :
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to raise public awareness as to the urgency of taking action to protect the Arctic
from damage caused by the degradation of the global environment
to allow scientists and personalities committed to these themes to share their
observations and concerns
to express political will to intensify research beyond the International Polar Year.
In particular, it will provide the opportunity to build upon the work done by SAON
and Europolar on the networking of arctic monitoring stations.
I would like as many of you as possible to be present at this meeting so that we can
continue with the discussions embarked upon in Ilulissat.