A new – and perhaps last? – chance for resuming Arctic cooperation

On May 11, Norway will assume the chairship of the Arctic Council. After two years with the Russian Federation at the helm, the Arctic Council will soon be chaired by Norway. Like other organizations that care deeply about the Arctic’s future, WWF is optimistic that the transition can breathe some much-needed new life into the Arctic Council’s work.

However, the changing of the guard will be different this time, largely because of the events of the past year.

Changes to the formalities

This is because in March 2022, in response to the war in Ukraine, the seven other Council members jointly refused to continue cooperating with Russia. The Council’s work was put on “pause,” and its normal operations came to a stop.

In spite of this major rupture, the Arctic countries appear to be still committed to Council’s mandate, goals and achievements. Norway’s resumption of the chairship promises to reignite the Council’s activities. Working and expert groups should start up again, particularly resuming work on projects that don’t involve Russia as a partner, but also communicating publicly about their progress again.

As no new work programmes will be approved on May 11 (ambassadors should only be endorsing a very short statement), the groups will most likely continue to deliver the work programmes approved for 2021 to 2023 and will consider any new proposals separately.

An incoming Scandinavian trio

It’s intriguing to look beyond the incoming Norwegian chairship to the next two in line: the Kingdom of Denmark and then Sweden, making this a trio of chairships over the next six years from Scandinavian countries that are likeminded in many ways, including on environmental matters.

These next six years will be crucial for delivering on the Arctic Council’s ambitious 2021–2030 strategic plan. The period from now to 2030 is important because numerous global goals related to sustainable development, climate change and biodiversity—all of which have direct relevance to the Arctic—have 2030 deadlines.

The Norwegian chairship’s priorities

Norway announced its priorities for the chairship at the end of March. Although much attention now focuses on the transition itself, Norway indicated that it plans to focus on the following four substantive priorities:

• The oceans. Norway wants to develop information, observation and management tools for the Arctic Ocean, take steps to protect Arctic ice–dependent species and ecosystems, and advance thinking on ecosystem-based ocean management. It also plans to strengthen cooperation on tackling marine litter, preparing for emergencies, and improving safe shipping.
• Climate and environment. Norway wants to use science and local and traditional knowledge to better understand climate change, pollution and biodiversity. It also wants to enhance the availability and accessibility of data, strengthen cooperation on the conservation of Arctic biodiversity, reduce black carbon and methane emissions, and support global climate action.
• Sustainable economic development. The chairship wants to look at ways to combine the safeguarding of traditional land use with a green transition, stating that it will be a major responsibility of the Arctic states to ensure that resources are not exploited at the expense of traditional communities or impacting negatively on biodiversity. It also wants to promote greener Arctic shipping (including potentially establishing green shipping corridors as a pilot project), examine the impact of the climate crisis on Arctic food systems, and strengthen its ties with businesses through the Arctic Economic Council.
• People in the North. Norway wants to engage Arctic youth, work on gender, diversity, and inclusion, and enhance health and cultural cooperation.

We are encouraged to see that many of the dots in these plans connect to WWF priorities for Arctic cooperation: ocean protection, climate crisis response, biodiversity conservation, pollution reduction, cleaner shipping, a focus on traditional knowledge, and the engagement of Arctic youth. We sense clear ambition and momentum going forward.

That said, there are a few adjustments we would like to see:

• Not much has been said about mitigating activities in the Arctic that will worsen the climate crisis. As one of the world’s most important oil and gas producing regions, the Arctic is currently feeding the global fossil fuel-based economy with oil and gas, amplifying the impacts of climate change in the region.
• While we support the green transition, it cannot be done at the expense of Arctic ecosystems and livelihoods. Any planned extraction of raw materials must be carefully weighed against the impacts this will have on the Arctic’s fragile natural environment and communities. Projects that involve deep seabed mining or new extraction of fossil fuels should be rejected.
• More efforts should be made to shift Arctic economic plans away from extractivism to locally embedded economic activities. This includes stewarding Arctic biodiversity, building climate change resilience, and figuring out how the Council and its members can enable these initiatives.
• Arctic Indigenous Peoples should be fully engaged in decisions that involve their historic lands, including any developments that may affect their lives or the ecosystems of which they are a part.
• We welcome Norway’s willingness to be the spokesperson for the Arctic at global forums. But we challenge all Arctic countries to do more than that—to be the frontrunners of global environmental and climate ambition.

The Scandinavian chairship trio is an opportunity to ensure continuity and leadership on key priorities. That is why we have developed a position paper highlighting where we expect the Council to be at the end of this decade and how that can translate to consecutive chairship programmes in four key areas: establishing a network of protected and conserved areas, ensuring their ecological connectivity, advancing an ecosystem-based approach across the Arctic Ocean, and reducing the impacts of Arctic shipping.