Declare Arctic 'vulnerable,' aborginal leaders urge

An international aboriginal group is calling for the Arctic to be designated as "vulnerable" under a United Nations treaty on climate change.

The Inuit Circumpolar Conference said the Arctic should be listed, in the same way some Pacific islands are, as threatened by the warming of the planet, under the terms of the framework convention on climate change.

The convention, signed in 1992 by more than 180 countries, led to the Kyoto Protocol.

ICC chair Sheila Watt-Cloutier said it's clear the Arctic is now considered vulnerable to climate change. When the convention was being prepared 15 years ago, only a few locations were given the status.

The ICC chair said having the vast area of the Arctic designated as "vulnerable" would put more pressure on the rest of the world to take action on climate change.

"It would mean opening up the whole convention again and having the world try to address this issue to include Arctic in there," she said.

Various aboriginal groups, including the Council of Yukon First Nations, support the concept. "We are already feeling the impacts so there's a strong case to be made for that change," said Robert Van Dijken.

Federal Environment Minister Stephane Dion said opening up the convention to include the Arctic would be like opening up the Canadian Constitution, an action he feels would do more harm than good.

"It would take years with a really uncertain outcome," Dion said.

Instead, Dion says Canada is working on a type of declaration he hopes the eight Arctic countries, including the United States, will adopt.

"What Canada is working on at present, I will push that, is a kind of a declaration by the Arctic countries that recognize ... this very fragile ecosystem that is a barometer for the planet," he says. "Something doable, not to re-open a nightmare that would be the convention as such."

That way, Dion said, the same goals could be accomplished without having to get almost 200 countries to agree first.

Inuit Circumpolar Conference said it will continue to pursue the issue.