Socio- Ecological Risks and Governance of Resource Extraction in the Eurasian Arctic. Influences from and on Non-Arctic Regions

The Arctic region is climatically one of the fastest changing regions worldwide, as exemplified by the decreasing extent and volume of Arctic sea ice. These changes are attributed mostly to cumulative effects of consumption and production patterns in industrialized countries beyond the Arctic’s southern borders - specifically the increasing emission of greenhouse gases and Short Lived Climate-warming Pollutants (SLCPs). Warming in the Arctic may feed back on mid-latitude weather and climate by impacting storm tracks, which in turn can induce a series of feedback loops between climatic and socio-ecological changes in Arctic and non-Arctic regions. The warming climate also enables a number of economic and societal transformations in the Arctic, driven by the extraction of oil and gas resources on Arctic continental shelves, Arctic shipping mostly along north-eastern routes, and the expansion of Arctic tourism.

These changes affect regions beyond the Arctic, such as Europe, North America and Asia, creating new challenges for governance. Proactive and anticipatory capabilities are required to deal with these changes, which include adapting to altered weather patterns in mid-latitudes and related effects on crop production, tracking and limiting air pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions, monitoring air quality, and coping with potential rising sea level resulting from a melting Greenland ice sheet.

In this paper we present an original approach taken by the Sustainable Modes of Arctic Resource-driven Transformative Interdependence (SMARTI) project at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) as a strongly transdisciplinary attempt to deal with these complex issues in an holistic way. A wide range of stakeholders are being engaged in this process using a highly integrative approach across multiple disciplines. Our focus lies on the coupled social, political, and economic dimensions that define the governance processes and institutions needed for a more sustainable future in the mutually affected Arctic and non-Arctic regions.