Challenges and opportunities of the Arctic region: Launch of new scientific report

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The event brings together leaders from academia and governments to highlight the importance of the Earth’s most remote frontier: An area, claimed by eight states and inhabited by dozens of groups of Indigenous people, that is changing fast due to the effects of global warming. In the report Arctic Policies and Strategies, IIASA alumni Lassi Heininen, Karen Everett, Barbora Padrtova, and Anni Reissell, analyzed 56 key policy documents to identify trends in Arctic governance and geopolitics. It considers how different Arctic actors define and address issues around the human dimension, governance, environmental protection, climate change, safety, economy, and science. The report was produced as part of the IIASA Arctic Futures Initiative and was co-funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and IIASA. 

Jan Marco Müller, IIASA Acting Chief Operations Officer, and Ossi Piironen, Senior Researcher with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, will offer opening remarks. This will be followed by an introduction to the report, including an overview of Arctic policies and strategies, by Lassi Heininen, University of Helsinki.