For the attention of Ambassadors & Permanent Representatives  
of Small Island Developing States to the United Nations, New York 
 
 
June 9, 2020 
 
 
Your Excellency, 
 
We are writing to you ahead of the upcoming Security Council election to raise our grave 
concerns about policies that two candidate countries - Norway and Canada - are currently 
pursuing which, if implemented, pose a significant risk to our common security and that of 
future generations. 
 
We recognise that for over a decade, Small Island Developing States have led efforts to 
highlight the important security implications of climate change and the need to address 
them as part of the agenda of the UN Security Council.   
 
We believe candidates for election to the Security Council must recognise the climate 
emergency and be committed to act based on the best available climate science. The Small 
Island Developing States understand more than most the existential threat posed by climate 
change to our peace and security, even fundamental statehood, and as such have a strong 
interest in ensuring that climate commitments are a central consideration when deciding 
which candidates to support. 
 
The benchmark for any country’s commitment to the fight against climate change must be 
national policies and targets aligned with achieving the Paris Agreement’s objective ​to keep 
the increase in global average ​temperature​ to 1.5°C or well below 2°C above pre-industrial 
levels. 
 
In 2015, scientists calculated that for a 50% chance of keeping warming below 2°C (a target 
that is now morally unacceptable, in view of the IPCC’s Special Report on Global Warming 
of 1.5°C), a third of all known oil reserves, half of gas reserves and 80% of coal reserves 
would need to remain unused. They advised that development of resources in the Arctic 
and any increase in unconventional oil production would be incommensurate with the 2°C 
limit. If we are to avoid exceeding the 1.5°C limit, a much higher proportion of fossil fuels 
will need to stay in the ground. 
 
Given this, there is no justification for new oil and gas exploration or extraction of any kind. 
Stopping new projects alone will not be enough - governments must very rapidly phase out 
existing infrastructure, while securing a just transition for workers and communities. The 
most recent analysis​ shows that OECD countries will need to phase out fossil fuel 
production within 5 years, with non-OECD countries phasing out within 25 years, for a 66% 
chance of staying below 1.5°C. 
 

 Despite this, globally, governments ​continue to plan for​ 50% more fossil fuel production by 
2030 than is consistent with a 2ºC pathway, and significantly greater than double (120%) the 
production consistent with a 1.5ºC pathway. Norway and Canada - ​both running for UN 
Security Council seats in the Western European and Others Group​ - are among those 
countries actively expanding and subsidizing domestic fossil fuel production.  
 
In making the case for a seat, ​Norway claims​ to “promote the implementation of the Paris 
Agreement”, but Norway is counting on buying international credits to reach its emissions 
reduction targets for 2020 and 2030. Oil and gas extraction accounted for more than a 
quarter of Norway’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2018, ​up 73% percent since 1990​, and the 
new Johan Sverdrup deep-water field alone is expected to significantly ​increase Norway’s 
daily oil output​. Norway is the world’s seventh largest exporter of emissions - exporting 10 
times more emissions than the country produces at home.  
 
Norway’s political leadership has two immediate opportunities to turn this around, instead 
of accelerating in the wrong direction. On 12th June 2020, the Norwegian Parliament ​will 
vote on proposals​ to dramatically increase tax benefits for the petroleum industry as a 
response to the Covid-19 crisis. ​The proposed changes include faster depreciation and an 
additional uplift to an already generous oil tax regime, that would​ likely increase and extend 
activity into vulnerable territories in the Arctic. ​The Norwegian Ministry of Finance and 
several of Norway’s leading economists have warned against the changes as they will 
provoke investments in fields that would otherwise be unprofitable. ​On 18th June 2020, the 
Parliament will vote on a government recommendation that completely fails to respect the 
scientifically-informed delineation of the marginal ice zone management area in the Barents 
Sea, thereby allowing for continued oil and gas development in the Arctic.  
 
If Norway is serious about implementing the Paris Agreement, its Government should 
remove rather than increase tax benefits to the petroleum industry, and should revise its 
position on the marginal ice zone - instead opting for the larger management zone that 
scientists recommend and committing to phase out oil and gas extraction in this 
ecologically important and sensitive area. 
 
As part of its Security Council campaign, ​Canada​ is promising to integrate climate change 
into the Council’s regular deliberations and to advocate for the creation of a new Special 
Representative for climate security. While these promises are certainly commendable, 
Canada’s 2018 Energy Future plan foresees ​a 60% increase in fossil fuel production by 
2030​, and the country remains way off track in its efforts to meet its Paris emissions 
reduction targets. Canada is the ​second largest financier​ of fossil fuels in the G20 (per 
capita, it’s the highest) - and has been providing at least $13.8 billion a year in public 
finance to the oil and gas sector since the Paris Agreement was signed. Export 
Development Canada - through which much of this oil and gas sector support is channelled 
- has even loaned money to a number of domestic oil and gas projects that ​violate the UN 
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples​ and have enormous carbon footprints, 
including the government-owned Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) pipeline and the Coastal 
GasLink pipeline. 
 

 Now the Canadian government has given Export Development Canada a major role in the 
Covid-19 response, through two major financing programs that ​specifically prioritise the 
fossil fuel industry​. The new Business Credit Availability Program will provide loan 
guarantees of up to $80 million for small and medium companies – with oil and gas listed as 
a priority sector. Initially the size of this program was capped at $65 billion, but has since 
been expanded to an unknown amount. Another (unnamed) multi-billion dollar program has 
been created to provide credit support specifically for the oil and gas sector – up to $100 
million per company. So far there is no financial ceiling for this program. 
 
If Canada is serious about implementing the Paris Agreement, the Government should 
make the temporary moratorium on Arctic oil and gas extraction permanent, shelve major 
new oil and gas infrastructure projects like the Trans Mountain and Keystone XL tar sands 
pipelines, and stop subsidizing the oil and gas industry - including through its Covid-19 
bailout funds.  
 
For the young generation who will inherit the consequences of these decisions, it is critical 
that those who claim to be leading on climate action are held to account for decisions they 
are making back at home. As the Ambassador of a country that understands the grave risk 
posed to our security and yours, we ask that you raise these issues in your conversations 
with representatives of the candidate countries, and demand that they unite behind the 
science. If Norway and Canada are serious about our climate security, they should commit 
to no new fossil fuel exploration or extraction, and begin phasing down their domestic 
production at a pace that is consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C.  
 
Multilateralism depends on respect for others’ interests, and there is no greater interest 
than securing a safe and liveable planet for current and future generations. 
 
Yours sincerely, 
 
Youth activists​: 
Greta Thunberg​ (Sweden) 
Litokne Kabua​ (Marshall Islands) 
Ranton Anjain​ (Marshall Islands)  
Pauline Tomren​ (Norway) 
 
Climate & Arctic Scientists​: 
Hannah Bailey​ - Scientist, University of Oulu  
Jonathan Bamber ​- Professor of Glaciology, University of Bristol, former President of the 
European Geosciences Union  
Eddy Carmack​ - Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Emeritus; Order of Canada 
Florence Fetterer​ - Principal Investigator, National Snow and Ice Data Center, CIRES, 
University of Colorado 

 Jennifer Francis​ - Senior Scientist, Woods Hole Research Center 
Dabo Guan​ - FAcSS   Fellow of the Academy of Social Science   Distinguished Chair in 
Climate Change Economics, Department of Earth System Science, Tsinghua University, 
Beijing, China 
David Hik​ - Associate Dean - Academic, Faculty of Science, Professor, Department of 
Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Canada 
Alun Hubbard​ - UiT - Professor of Glaciology, The Arctic University of Norway, Tromso 
Peter Kalmus​ - Project Scientist, University of California, Los Angeles, Joint Institute for 
Regional Earth System Science & Engineering 
Anna Liljedahl​ - Associate Scientist, Woods Hole Research Center 
Michael E. Mann​ - Distinguished Professor, Penn State University, Member, National 
Academy of Sciences; Tyler Prize Recipient 
Mal McMillan​ - Reader in Environmental Sensing, Lancaster University, UK 
Susan Natali​ - Associate Scientist, Arctic Program Director, Woods Hole Research Center 
Helge Niemann​ - Research Leader at NIOZ, Professor for Microbial and Isotope 
Biogeochemistry at University of Utrecht, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea 
Research, Department of Marine Microbiology & Biogeochemistry, and Utrecht University 
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber​ - Founder & Director Emeritus of the Potsdam Institute for 
Climate Impact Research (PIK) 
Martin Siegert​ - co-Director of the Grantham Institute, Imperial College London 
Will Steffen​ - Emeritus Professor, The Australian National University 
Julienne Stroeve​ - Canada-150 Research Chair, University of Manitoba 
Peter Wadhams ​ScD - Emeritus Professor, Dept of Applied Maths and Theoretical Physics, 
University of Cambridge 
Gail Whiteman​ - Founder of Arctic Basecamp and Professor of Sustainability, University of 
Exeter 
Jeremy Wilkinson​ - Sea Ice Physicist, British Antarctic Survey 
Dimitry Yumashev​ - Senior Research Associate, Lancaster University