Global Humanitarian Forum hears the human face of climate change

"My friend went out hunting but never returned. He never returned because he fell through thin ice, ice that should never have been thin at that time of year," said Jesse Mike, a native Inuk from Baffin Island, Canada. "This is how my people show their anger," said James Bing, 18, from the Marshall Islands, located between Australia and Hawaii, performing a war dance on stage. "That is how angry I am right now," he said finishing to loud applause. Scientists have said his islands are threatened by rising sea levels and the land mass was shrinking. "My ancestors ate food they grew themselves. I am eating American canned food as we have no soil. I want my soil back," he said. Bing and Mike were the human face of climate change - the theme of the forum conference. "What is absolutely crucial is that we and people around the world measure and weigh the impact of climate change not just in scientific terms but by its social, economic and humanitarian implications," said Forum founder and President Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general. The humanitarian impact of climate change was the chosen theme and "the single most destructive force" confronting humankind, said Annan. "We must have climate justice. As an international community we must recognize that the polluter must pay," he added. Former Irish president and ex-UN high commissioner for human rights Mary Robinson told the conference justice had to be at the centre of any debate on climate change. The debate was ever more urgent said Annan as world leaders are to gather next year in Copenhagen to thrash out a new global climate agreement for beyond the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012.

"We must recognize that the polluter must pay, and not the poor and vulnerable," Annan said at the first high-level meeting of the new humanitarian organization he heads.

"We must have climate justice," the former U.N. secretary-general told the Global Humanitarian Forum.

"If you run a dirty business — an airline business, a shipping business, ... coal business, you should pay for the privilege because you are doing damage," Branson said.

In the aftermath of Myanmar’s Cyclone Nargis and in view of the ongoing global food crisis, the Forum’s President Kofi Annan has called together 300 leaders from all sectors of society worldwide to urgently address what he calls “the human face of climate change”: the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations affected by ever violent storms, drought and floods.

The Annual Meeting 2008 will pool the expertise and experience of an uncommon combination of leading people from across sectors. They will work to develop creative solutions and boost action to meet the urgent needs of those worst affected by climate change.

In solidarity with the world’s most vulnerable, the Meeting will place climate justice high on the agenda as the guiding principle in the international response to climate change and as the basis for any future global climate agreement.