Kerry visiting climate change “front line” in the north

John KerryU.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. REUTERS/Saul Loeb/Pool

US Secretary of State John Kerry has set aside all of  Thursday for a visit to Svalbard when he comes to Norway next week.

Climate change, oceans and marine environment are on the agenda when Kerry  goes to Svalbard with our own Foreign Minister Brende (H).
Kerry has himself called the Arctic a “thermostat”  in which you can already see the profound impact that global warming will have on the planet.  Global warming is happening twice as fast in the Arctic as in the rest of the world, with Svalbard as one of the front lines.
– In Svalbard we already see the effects of climate change in the Arctic. We see that glaciers are retreating, we see that the natural ecosystems are under pressure, says Brende.

Concerned about the fishery
According to Brende, Kerry expressed a strong desire to be informed about climate change in the north.
Meanwhile, the marine environment and fisheries will be discussed during the visit.
– Kerry is very interested in preserving global wild fish species, and he also wants to be informed about the positive results listening to scientific advice when it comes to fisheries bring. We know that there are almost no cod left on the Canadian part of the Atlantic, due to strong overfishing for years,  Brende says.
Norway, however, has managed to preserve the stocks in the Barents Sea, precisely because politicians have listened to the advice of scientists,  he maintains.

Security policy                                                                                                                                                                            At the visit in Oslo the day before, a quite different issue, security policy, will dominate the agenda.
Kerry will attend the Oslo Forum, a closed peace conference which takes place at the Losby Gods. In addition, he meets Prime Minister Erna Solberg (H) for talks on the same day.
The topics that the two of them will discuss include: the civil war in Syria, the fight against the extremist group IS, security in northern areas and defense cooperation between the US and Norway.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today