News Articles

The Arctic Council recognizes the central role of business in the sustainable development of the Arctic. During Canada’s Chairmanship (2013-15), the Arctic states and indigenous permanent participant organizations are facilitating the creation of a circumpolar business forum - the Arctic Economic Council.

In the Arctic Council’s Kiruna Declaration, signed in May 2013, Ministers from the eight Arctic Council states recognized that “reduction of short-lived climate forcers [SLCFs] could slow Arctic and global climate change, and have positive effects on health.” The Arctic Council’s Task Force on Black Carbon & Methane met on 12-13 December in Stockholm to advance work in this area.

The rapidly-changing Arctic presents a challenge to those working on adaptation actions at the local, regional or global level. The inherent uncertainty of long-range climate forecasts makes it important to provide Arctic communities with a broad suite of tools to help them respond to a changing ecological and social environment.

The Arctic Council’s Scientific Cooperation Task Force, established by the Kiruna Declaration of May, 2013, had its first meeting in Stockholm, Sweden on 10-11 December. The workshop was primarily a scoping session, exploring the best path forward for the Task Force.

At the May 2013 Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting in Kiruna, Sweden, Ministers from the eight Arctic Council states established a “Task Force to facilitate the creation of a circumpolar business forum.” That Task Force met on 4-5 December in 2013 in Helsinki, where it selected a new name – the Arctic Economic Council – and advanced its work on the scope and mandate of the proposed new organization.

November 6th students from the University of Tromsø held a role-play session where they acted out a EPPR Working Group meeting and a Senior Arctic Officials meeting. The role-play was a voluntary activity for the students and their teacher Piotr Graczyk hopes that the exercise will increase student awareness about the work of the Arctic Council.

Though not as extreme as last year, the Arctic continues to show evidence of a shift to a new warmer, greener state in 2013, according to the Arctic Report Card, an annual report that details Arctic change released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The Arctic is changing rapidly. As it does, it may offer more access to new visitors and new residents arriving from the South. That could mean cruise vessels underway off the coast of Greenland, shipping vessels carrying fuel oil along with their cargoes, or invasive species brought northward as uninvited guests aboard ships. The Arctic Council is working to develop a comprehensive picture of such risks to the Arctic marine environment.

The Russian Federation has an estimated 40,000 tonnes of obsolete pesticides, and the Arctic Council Working Group ACAP has been engaged since 2001 on a project to improve management of those stockpiles. At the recent SAO meeting in Whitehorse, Yukon, ACAP’s final report for inventory and storage improvement phases, and the recommendations associated with the report, were approved.

The Arctic Council Senior Arctic Officials held their first meeting under Canada’s Arctic Council chairmanship in Whitehorse, Yukon, on October 21 to 23, 2013.

The Arctic Council Working Group, the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) has released the “Life Linked to Ice: a guide to sea-ice-associated biodiversity in this time of rapid change” report, which details changes in marine species and human

High resolution photos from the Whitehorse Senior Arctic Officials' and Permanent Participants' meeting held 21-23 October can be found in the Arctic Council Flickr gallery. These photos are available for use through the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons license. Please credit the Arctic Council Secretariat.

Patrick Borbey, chair of Senior Arctic Officials, will hold a media availability on October 23 on the results of the plenary meeting of the Senior Arctic Officials. Media representatives are also invited to attend a public outreach event held by the Arctic Council and its biodiversity working group, CAFF, in partnership with the Government of Yukon and the Yukon Science Institute.

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a new report - Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis - on September 27th, 2013. Many scientists from Arctic Council members contributed to this IPCC report, and the findings have informed the Council’s climate change related work, notably in guiding further scientific efforts and in adaptation actions

The Minamata Convention, a global agreement “to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds,” will be opened for signature in Minamata, Japan from October 9-11. The Arctic Council States and Permanent Participant organizations welcome the new agreement, recognizing that the Council’s scientific work has contributed greatly to global understanding of mercury

The city of Whitehorse is located on the banks of the Yukon River in south-western Yukon, an hour and half from Kluane National Park, home of Mount Logan, Canada’s highest mountain. Whitehorse was an important river and railway hub for prospectors during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898 and was named for the white “manes” of the nearby river rapids close to a former First Nations salmon fishing site.

The Kiruna Declaration, The Arctic Council’s Vision for the Arctic, and the Kiruna Senior Arctic Officials’ Report to Ministers were approved by the Arctic Ministers in Kiruna 15 May 2013. The documents have now been formatted and illustrated with photos from the Arctic. These new versions are available for download from the website and in hard copy from the Arctic Council Secretariat.

When the Arctic Council’s Task Force for Action on Black Carbon and Methane (TFBCM) met in Whitehorse, Yukon on 17-19 September, the discussion focused on the health and climate benefits that would follow from reduction of black carbon and methane emissions in the Arctic.

A recent paper in the journal Nature on the potential costs to the global economy of methane release in the Arctic garnered many headlines and ignited significant debate on this important environmental issue. Short-lived climate pollutants such as black carbon, ozone, and methane contribute to global warming. Sustained reductions in short-lived

Last week in Ilulissat, Greenland, the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) Working Group of the Arctic Council provided an Arctic perspective to the Nordic-Baltic Wetlands Initiative (NorBalWet) conference, a regional initiative under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, to discuss northern wetlands and climate