Arctic Forum Foundation

This exceptional conference gathered over 2,500 Arctic and Antarctic researchers, policy- and business- decision-makers, stakeholders from academia, industry, non-government, education, Arctic communities and indigenous peoples. The intent of the conference was to contribute to the translation of polar scientific findings into an evidence-based agenda for action that would influence global decisions, policies and outcomes. Indeed, informing decision makers is the core notion of the EU Arctic Forum, as a platform to improve synergies in decision-making related to Arctic issues. General Secretary Steffen Weber took part in the event and met with several old and new partners of the Forum.

The International Polar Year collected a large amount of key observations and brought to light the fast changes occurring in the polar regions as a result of climate warming and increased human activity on the global stage. Such a reflection on the link between expertise and decision-making proposed by the Montreal conference is necessary. More and more conferences include this component such as Arctic Frontiers, which editions are composed of a science section and a policy section. A research project like ACCESS (Arctic Climate Change, Economy and Society, 2011-2015), part of the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission, which was presented during the conference, is structured in several work packages that assess the scale of climate change in the ocean, analyses the impact on key economic activities to provide suggestions in terms of governance for decisive political action.

In Montreal, Secretary General Steffen Weber met with scientists, political and business representatives from North America, Europe, Russia and Singapore. As a speaker he presented a research paper developed by Dr. Cecile Pelaudeix on “Devolution, regional development and extractive resources in the Arctic.” Special meetings where arranged with the Chair of the Arctic Council, several working groups, and a number of representatives from the present business sectors as well as with old partners e.g. from the University of the Arctic and new partners like APECS.

During specific panels, action fora and at special side meetings the EU Arctic Forum participated in the debates, and presented a European Perspective in debates sometimes Ccanadian dominated debates, and also introduced a political perspective in often very scientific debates. Although many actors are aware of a certain gap between (scientific) knowledge and (political) action, a lot more needs to be done to develop a better understanding of the different mind-sets and preconditions under which scientists and decision makers in politics or business operate, to be able to bridge the divide between science and complicated political decision making processes. Thus the experience of the EU Arctic Forum also functioning successfully as a Science-Policy Interface, found a particular interest among the participants.

More information on the Montreal IPY conference.