INUVIK - As Prime Minister Stephen Harper toured the North last week, 60 of Canada's young leaders met to find ways to preserve the Arctic. And they hope the government is paying attention.

Kari Hergott of Fort Providence was one of 60 delegates under the age of 30 to attend the Young Leaders' Summit on Northern Climate Change in Inuvik from Aug. 17 to 20, 2009. - Katie May/NNSL photo

Budding environmentalists under the age of 30 from the three territories and southern Canada are calling for political and personal action to combat climate change after gathering in Inuvik for the Young Leaders' Summit on Northern Climate Change from Aug. 17 to 20.

"The only thing that frightens us more than climate change," their summit declaration reads, "is our governments' failure to respond to it."

Researchers have found that the Arctic is heating up faster than anywhere else on Earth. In Canada, the western Arctic is warming even more quickly than the eastern Arctic, causing sea ice to melt, shorelines to erode and wildlife habitats to suffer, particularly across the Yukon and NWT.

With those facts in mind, the summit delegates – many of them having seen first-hand the effects of climate change on their own communities – each came up with ways they would work toward a solution to climate change and help others do the same, both locally and nationally.

Kari Hergott, a Metis Fort Providence resident, said she felt it was her responsibility to learn about climate change at the conference and work with the Dehcho First Nation to raise awareness back home.

"I didn't know the extent of climate change up here but after being here, I've been inspired," Hergott said.

"It's not just about the environment; it's about the people, it's about our animals migrating in different patterns and their habitats changing and that will gravely affect our lives and our sustainability as people up here – and not only in the North.

It'll affect everywhere in Canada, it's just we're seeing it the most here."

Pam Gross, a 24-year-old youth co-ordinator from Cambridge Bay, organized the trip to the summit for six other young Inuit from Nunavut's Kitikmeot region.

"There are so many youth in Nunavut and we need more voices out there for our people to speak out about climate change and to get involved in any way that they can," Gross said. She recognized extreme living conditions can make it more difficult for Northerners to cut down on their emissions and live in a sustainable way, but she said everyone can start small. As Cambridge Bay establishes its recycling program, Gross said, recycling should be a top priority for other Northern communities as well.

"The other communities in our region, they would like to see a push for ways to recycle as well," she said."Whether it's shipping our stuff by barge or by airplane, either way would be a great way to get everything down south so it can be re-used again."

For her part, Gross said she would lobby members of Parliament to develop strong climate change polices before a national PowerShift climate change conference in October.

Western Arctic MP Dennis Bevington, who attended the summit last Thursday, said he would do what he could to make sure the federal government heeds the young leaders' call to action leading up to the United Nations December Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

"It's remarkable to get all the young people from the three territories together on an issue as important as this. We share so much time together in sports and recreation, but we don't really do this kind of work together," Bevington said."It happens to come in a week when Arctic sovereignty is the burning issue right across the country, so the timing has been very good."

Though the delegates offered different perspectives on how to minimize the consequences of climate change, they agreed that the Canadian government must improve its climate change policies.

Agreeing to meet emissions targets and implementing a carbon tax would be a start, said Joshua Prowse, from Victoria, B.C.

"I think the best way to ensure Canada's northern sovereignty is to prevent dangerous climate change from affecting the North," Prowse said. "That should be our starting point, as opposed to building more ships in a military capacity."

Though Prime Minister Harper wasn't there to witness the young people's work toward protecting the North from climate change, Fort Good Hope delegate Paul T'seleie said the summit showed a "whole new era of leadership" in which those younger than 30 make the rules.

"You have a whole new era of young people here. And that's Canada," T'seleie said. "The most important thing is to deal with the issues now and in the future we're going to accomplish a lot more."