The Outcome Statement sees climate change as the defining challenge of the 21st century embedded in every ways humans produce and use energy, manage landscapes and grow food. The effects of climate change impact every region and ecosystem around the globe, and therefore solutions also require common commitment from every nation.
Solving the challenge of climate change requires actions and dedication from governments, the private sector, and civil society, in addition to the scientific community. Managing and reducing the risks of climate change, policies must be fair and embrace the importance of history, capabilities, equitable financing, and the richness of human experience.
Besides the reduction of greenhouse cases by 40-70% below current levels by the 2020, the statement indicates the need for investments in mitigation and adaptation strategies, and thereby improved stewardship of the Earth. On the problems space, vulnerability and differentiated risks occur, with impacts on food and water security, human health and wellbeing, biodiversity and ecosystem services as well as economic activities and infrastrutures.
The CFCC15 conference was held in Paris, July 7– 10, 2015, being the largest international science conference before the Paris COP21. The main objective of COP21 in December 2015 is to produce a new climate governance regime and development model for addressing the challenges of climate change.
Under the auspices of EUPolar-Net, two parallel sessions were organised during the CFCC15 conference; one on "Arctic Climate Systems", and another on "Adapting to Arctic Climate Change", where Anders Oskal, the Director of International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry, gave a keynote speech. Therefore the session, co-led by Emilie Gauthier (University of Franche Comté) and Kirsi Latola (Director of UArctic Thematic Networks, Thule Institute, University of Oulu) had strong linkages both to UArctic and UArctic EALÁT Institute. For more information, see the blog post "How Can Arctic People Adapt to the Climate Change?" by Kirsi Latola from the EUPolar-Net blog page.