Making use of Arctic science - The Case of the Arctic Council

On February 24, 2022, Russian forces invaded Ukraine. At the time, Russia was in the middle of its chairmanship period of the Arctic Council. The member states of the Arctic Council recognised the importance of a united response, and work with Russia was temporarily paused. Since then, the degree of Russian involvement and participation in the Arctic Council has been significantly reduced but has not completely stopped, affecting all the organisation’s work. Thus, the Arctic Council is in danger. A key question in our project is: what is lost if the Arctic Council fails to survive? Climate and environmental challenges in the Arctic have been high on the international research agenda in several years, and scientific knowledge of developments in the north has played a role in international and national policymaking. This is also supported by some legal and social science analyses, which suggest that ‘Arctic knowledge’ has made a difference. In MARCS, we take a closer look at the Arctic Council, which since 1996 has produced scientific monitoring and assessments reports addressing Arctic climate change, biodiversity and pollution. More specifically, the main focus is on knowledge compilation and dissemination in three of the Council's working groups—Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP), Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) and Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment (PAME). We ask the following question: Why and how is scientific knowledge from the Arctic Council’s working groups used? The purpose is to facilitate an informed discussion about how Arctic knowledge is established and used in the span between research, management and politics. We also want to lay the foundation for further research on the role of Arctic knowledge compilation in international regulations and national environmental management, which been in short supply; the research has instead focused on the development of scientific knowledge from the natural sciences and less on how and why some types of knowledge are considered relevant and ultimately applied. Thus, the project argues for the necessity of an expanded research agenda about the Arctic. We will show the breadth that exists and hopefully provide input to several more in-depth case studies about such topics as climate change, environmental toxins biodiversity and pollution. We also use Norway and Canada as illustrative cases. Such an endeavour is more important than ever, as it provides insight into what happens if the Arctic Council cannot survive.

The overarching aim of this project is to analyse the Arctic Council and its role as a platform for dealing with local, national, regional and global challenges of relevance to the "new" Arctic. The Arctic Council has been hailed for producing and synthesizing scientific findings and knowledge, and for its role in making the Arctic region more visible. However, less is known about when, how and why this knowledge is used. We ask: To what extent and how and under what conditions is knowledge and policies generated in the Arctic Council used? We narrow in on three key issue-areas in the work of the Arctic Council: Short-lived climate pollutions, Biodiversity and Maritime shipping. To refine the analysis we will compare the science-policy nexus in two Arctic states, Norway and Canada. The project will lean primarily on two fields of study: political science and international law. Further, the project will draw on both rationalist and constructivist scholarship. Aware of the epistemological and ontological differences in these two main traditions, we argue for a more pragmatic approach. By acknowledging its complexity, researchers from several traditions should be able to provide a more complete picture of this field of study. User/stakeholder involvement is also an important element in the project. The reference group will ensure the most updated information and ensure policy relevance and will also provide the necessary link between the work of natural scientists, technology studies and Permanent Paricipants in the Arctic Council's Working Groups, the state ministries and agencies, and this project.