Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
ond Arctic countries. If it wished, the Arctic Council could consider whether to
ask some of its observer states to join the exercise.
·
Completion of the exercise should improve the ability of Arctic Council member
states to achieve mutually satisfactory results at the UNFCCC.
It would be possible because:
·
Although the Arctic Council will not meet again until spring 2015, it has created a
way for opportunities to be seized between meetings. The May 2013 Kiruna De-
claration empowered senior Arctic officials to adjust mandates and work plans of
the council and of its working groups and to establish new ones.
It would be correct because:
·
The three elements from the Arctic Council founding declaration quoted earlier
seem to require the council to take a lead role in addressing the root cause of Arc-
tic warming and emission reduction. The founding declaration certainly does not
imply that Arctic countries would address a response to issues of this magnitude
without the benefit of circumpolar cooperation.
·
If the Arctic Council is not willing to take actions aimed at addressing climate
change from a circumpolar as well as a global perspective, who will?
Are these thoughts too ambitious? Perhaps they are. However, I do believe that the
founders of the Rovaniemi Process and of the Arctic Council would have suggested actions
to achieve objectives such as those I have described. It would be a major and assertive step
forward for the Arctic Council. Climate policy is seen by some as being so closely related
to economic competitiveness that doing anything cooperatively could be viewed as being
too risky. But the Arctic Council is an organisation that embraces sustainable economic de-
velopment as well as environmental protection. The possession of a common framework
for actions to prevent crossing the 2°C line could present substantial benefits for the Arctic
states at the UNFCCC. It could also offer the best chances that the climate concerns of the
Arctic Messenger will be heard and addressed. The legacy of Rovaniemi would be alive
Search WWH ::




Custom Search