The arctic environment is the combination of its nature, resources and all the living lives together. Because of such close relationship, changes are significant in this equilibrium and have noticeable impact on every elements inside the arctic environment. The concept of
36 Geoffrey D. Dabelko and David D. Dabelko, "Environmental Security: Issues of Conflict and Redefinition", Environmental Change and Security Project Report 1, no. 1 (1995): 3-13.
18 | P a g e environmental security recognizes all these elements and discusses about possible threats concerning or created by any of these elements.
Such security threats can be caused by natural phenomena or human activities. It was the threat possessed by global warming that largely provoked the scholarly debate on environmental security in the late 1980s and in the Arctic environment, such threat has a fairly noticeable impact.
Arctic ice-sheet melting and related environmental security issues have been prioritized in the scientific research in many occasions since the formulation of the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS) in 1991. The Arctic Council, which was created in the course of the AEPS, addressed the climate change impact on the Arctic region firstly through the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) assessment report in 1997/1998.37 The AMAP again followed up on this issue in the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA), 2004.
However, there has also been reports regarding other environmental security threats and different pollution issues. In response to those reports, the Arctic Council has successfully come up with declarations and legally binding agreements such as: ‘the Agreement on Cooperation on Aeronautical and Maritime Search and Rescue in the Arctic’, in 2011 and ‘the Agreement on Cooperation on Marine Oil Pollution Preparedness and Response in the Arctic’, in 2013. Such initiative of the Arctic Council positively provided materials to deal with some environmental threats and emphasized on collaborative approach on this region.
Despite of its intergovernmental cooperation, researchers have criticized the Arctic Council for not being cooperative or its resistive nature in the changing Arctic.38 The Arctic Council’s
‘Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment (AMSA)’ report triggered the process for formulating the ‘Polar code’, a manual that provides guidelines for the ships operating in the Arctic Ocean. So far, the Arctic Council maintained close collaboration with the International
37 Arctic Pollution Issues: A State of the Arctic Environment Report, (Arctic Council, 1997).
38 Timo Koivurova, "Limits and possibilities of the Arctic Council in a rapidly changing scene of Arctic governance." Polar Record 46, no. 02 (2010): 146-156.
19 | P a g e Maritime Organization (IMO), the authority responsible for designing the Polar Code. The final version of this guideline will become mandatory from the beginning of 2017 while a voluntary guideline was available in the past.
However, key findings and the final report of the Arctic Climate Change and Security Policy Conference 2008, pointed out ‘inadequate’ and ‘weak’ policies regarding the Arctic shipping and pollution prevention.39 Further involvement of the Arctic Council members and observers through its working groups or task forces might have helped both parties to formulate and implement more efficient guidelines for the environmental safety.40
Climate change, a global environmental threat causing the Arctic ice sheet melting, brought the Arctic Council’s activities under a magnifying glass. Complex relationship between this regional and global problem needs to be well recognized by the council and should reflect on its policy level. While consequences of global climate change might have a greater impact on the underdeveloped part of the world, these countries are responsible for far less contribution for causing the problem. Thus, it is creating a vacuum of responsibility for possible climate refugees and related situations of unrest.41 In the given scenario, the Arctic Council has the possibility to create a remarkable example of leading a regional approach for fighting against global climate change crisis in solidarity with the Paris Agreement, 2015.42 Such policy implication may result into minimizing the local and global environmental threats and create a notion of international cooperation as well.
39 Kenneth S. Yalowitz, James F. Collins, Ross A. Virginia, The Arctic Climate Change and Security Policy Conference : Final Report and Findings, (University of the Arctic, 2008) : 4.
40 Richard OG Wanerman, "Freezing Out Noncompliant Ships: Why the Arctic Council must Enforce the Polar Code," Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law.
47 (2015), 429.
41 Jon Barnett, The Meaning of Environmental Security: Ecological Politics and Policy in the New Security EraZed Books, 2001).
42 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Adoption of the Paris Agreement. Proposal by the President, (2015).
http://unfccc.int/documentation/documents/advanced_search/items/6911.php?priref=6000088 31.
20 | P a g e Besides the eight member states, there are several representative governing bodies of indigenous people integrated in the operation of the Arctic Council. These permanent participants represent a large number of people, who are heavily exposed to the changes in the arctic environment. Researcher Timo Koivurova mentioned the necessity of including all these parties in the policy development as well as increasing their activities inside the Arctic Council.43
In order to develop successful policy agendas to mitigate climate change and adapt to the changing situation, a wider regional and international cooperation might need to be considered beneficial for the Arctic Council in the field of environmental security governance.
The Arctic Council’s past and current activities will definitely contribute in shaping-up its future role in this case. Therefore, this study looks into nine Arctic Council declarations to answer the question: ‘how issues related to climate change, fossil fuel exploration and shipping operation are being reflected in the activities of the Arctic Council?’