Filipino climate commissioner at Arctic sea ice edge to appeal for global climate action

By GREENPEACE
September 11, 2014

LONGYEARBYEN, Norway – As the Arctic sea ice reaches its lowest extent of the year, Filipino climate commissioner Naderev “Yeb” Saño is at the ice edge with Greenpeace to demand that world leaders take action on climate change at the upcoming summit in New York.

“I was born over 8500 kilometers from the North Pole, and yet I have come to realize that my future, and the future of my country, is tied to the fate of the melting Arctic,” said Saño, speaking from the ice edge north of Svalbard. “The science is clear that climate change could mean more frequent and more intense extreme weather. It is countries like the Philippines that feel the immediate effects of climate change. I appeal to the world's leaders at the climate summit in New York to take actions to protect the Arctic, and cut fossil fuel emissions that are driving climate change,” said Yeb Saño.

Yeb Saño is a climate change commissioner and negotiator for the Philippines at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Saño caught global attention after an emotional speech at the UN's climate meeting in Warsaw in November 2013, during typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. Overnight, he became a voice for climate-impacted nations on the urgent need to address climate change.

“What I am seeing here in the Arctic is something that is in danger of being lost forever. It is quite clear that burning fossil fuels is the chief cause of climate change, and the Arctic is at the very center of this man-made crisis. If the world wishes to avert the most catastrophic impacts of climate change, we must rapidly transition to a clean energy future, and abandon crazy projects like oil drilling in the Arctic,” said Yeb Saño.

The seven summers with the lowest minimum sea ice extents have all occurred in the last seven years. Current ice conditions suggest that this year is highly unlikely to match the record low level of sea ice extent we saw in the Arctic in 2012. However, the level is likely to be considerably below the long term average, and is consistent with a dramatic collapse in ice extent that has been witnessed in recent years. The sea ice is expected to reach its yearly minimum in the coming weeks.