UN Secretary-General to visit Norwegian Arctic
The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will visit the the Arctic next week as part of a trip to Norway.
Ban Ki-moon leaves for the Oslo Summit on Education for Development on July 5.
He leaves for the Svalbard, the Norwegian Arctic archipelago, on July 7th where he will travel on the RV Lance, a Norwegian research vessel used mostly in the Arctic.
With the United Nations Climate Change Conference coming up in November, the UN’s top diplomat will talk to scientists about climate issues and the see how they are affecting the Arctic first hand, according to a UN press briefing.
On a previous trip to Svalbard in 2009, Ban said he was ‘alarmed’ at the effect global warming was having on the region’s glaciers.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Report spotlights rapid glacier melt in Canada and Alaska, Radio Canada International
Greenland: Field notes from Greenland – From the glacier to the sea, Blog by Mia Bennett
Russia: Arctic methane: time bomb or “boogeyman”?, Analysis from Deutsche Welle’s Iceblogger
Sweden: Swedish waters rising faster than global average, Radio Sweden
United States: Arctic Alaska coastal erosion rates among worst in U.S. : report, Alaska Dispatch News
