Sustainable Arctic Development in the Era of Low Carbon Transition

Saturday October 14th, 2017

Sustainable Arctic Development in the Era of Low Carbon Transition will be a 90-minute breakout session at Arctic Circle comprised of a roundtable discussion delivered by selected speakers, with a guided discussion among all participants to follow.

While there is a great deal of research about the impact of climate change on the Arctic, there is much less work about the role the Arctic itself can play in making the transition to a very low carbon economy, that is critical to the region’s own ecological integrity. This breakout session will bring together cross-disciplinary academic and industry experts from the Arctic states and the UK, to set out a strong case for a leadership role for the Arctic states and communities in the low carbon transformation. The aim of this event is to foster a dialogue between Arctic stakeholders to identify opportunities and pathways to reduce the carbon footprint and wider environmental impact of Arctic development, by exploiting low carbon innovation to produce clean energy and industrial decarbonisation, as well as adopting strategies around corporate environmental and social responsibility. Given current geopolitical flux, this work is more important than ever.

Key objectives of the workshop include but are not limited to:

To facilitate a discussion to foster international collaboration between Arctic and non-Arctic actors to support low carbon Arctic development that is truly sustainable for people and environment.
To showcase examples of low carbon innovation initiatives and corporate sustainability strategies which are applicable and/or relevant for the Arctic region.
To establish a global network of sustainability experts from the Arctic region and beyond, to catalyse knowledge exchange and explore avenues for international collaboration to advance the low carbon transition in the context of Arctic development.
To begin to shape some common standards for sustainable development in the Arctic.

Format:

The breakout session will begin with a short presentation that will introduce the topic and the challenges that the Arctic region faces in times of escalating climate change impact, delivered by an invited speaker. The first half of the session will be dedicated to a roundtable panel discussion on the opportunities for the use of low carbon innovation and corporate sustainability strategies to decarbonise Arctic energy production and industry, with reference to existing projects and initiatives taking place both within and beyond the Arctic region.

The second half of the session will be dedicated to a more inclusive interaction between the panel and the wider audience to identify other low carbon and environmental initiatives that are relevant for a sustainable Arctic development, as well as a broader discussion around the pitfalls and promise of existing and future initiatives.