Senior officials from the Arctic Council’s eight member States and six indigenous Permanent Participant organizations (PPs) concluded their latest meeting in Portland, Maine on 6 October 2016 providing updates on a number of key initiatives, including black carbon and methane mitigation, Arctic resilience, and planning for Arctic events at the UNFCCC’s upcoming COP22 meeting in Marrakech. The group also undertook a wide-ranging discussion of the Council’s present and future work on climate change, and addressed several initiatives to strengthen the Council, including strengthening the capacity of the PPs.
The Arctic Council focuses on issues of sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic. The Arctic Council’s six Working Groups reported progress on specific elements of their work, including:
- A suite of projects addressing short-lived climate pollutants, highlighting the importance of practical measures to reduce black carbon emissions and introduce options for renewable energy investments in the Russian Arctic
- An assessment of new chemicals (some used as replacements for banned substances) that are now being found in Arctic environments and biota, raising new concerns
- A report summarizing the status and trends in key biotic elements of the Arctic marine environment
- A recently-held exercise, led by the U.S. Coast Guard, supporting the 2011 Agreement on Cooperation on Marine Oil Pollution and Response in the Arctic, which provided an important opportunity to improve international cooperation and preparedness
- A project to develop an interactive, user-friendly tool to capture Arctic conditions and shipping-related activities, allowing for trend and risk analysis for the Arctic marine environment
- A project providing an updated overview of the Arctic economy (including subsistence activities), socio-economic conditions, and environmental issues that aims to improve the knowledge base for policy-making to support sustainable development
Source: Arctic Council
