Norway to take Arctic Council chairship from Russia
Research and collaboration on the Arctic are critical for India particularly because how ice melts in the region impacts the Indian monsoon, the lifeblood of the country’s economy
Norway will on Thursday take over from Russia the chairship of the intergovernmental forum Arctic Council, which seeks to promote cooperation on issues such as environmental protection in the Arctic and includes India as one of the observers. Research and collaboration on the Arctic are critical for India particularly because how ice melts in the region impacts the Indian monsoon, the lifeblood of the country’s economy.
Russia held the chairship for two years. But intergovernmental cooperation with the largest Arctic state was stalled following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year and impacted issues related to climate change.
Union earth sciences ministry secretary M Ravichandran said the chairship to Norway is important to India. “Norway has been one of the main drivers for our work in the Arctic. We will have more collaboration now. Norway has given us two berths in a Norwegian ice-breaker ship which will be used by Indian scientists to go to the North Pole this year.”
He added they are uncertain as to how the council will function without Russia and how will their activities roll out. “We will try to contribute and collaborate,” said Ravichandran. “The Arctic Sea ice melting contributes to an increase in extreme rainfall events during monsoon. More heat released due to extreme events is transported to the Arctic.”
Former earth sciences ministry secretary M Rajeevan said India has a small presence in the Arctic Council as an observer country with a limited role. “We have an observatory in Svalbard in Norway. We were exploring setting up an observatory in Canada which may come up soon. The Arctic plays a very important role in India. The snow and sea ice in both the Arctic and Antarctic contributes to global energy balance and any changes there can impact the Indian monsoon.”
He cited impacts on the atmospheric circulation and added India needs to be present in the Arctic not only for science and climate but for its political and economic potential. “The region has a lot of potential. With the melting of sea ice, new shipping routes will open which will have implications for economy and trade.”
The World Meteorological Organisation has cited satellite records from 2009 to 2018 and said they show increasing maritime ship traffic in the Arctic as sea ice declines. The most significant increases in traffic are occurring among ships traveling from the Pacific Ocean through the Bering Strait and the Beaufort Sea. This opens economic opportunities for new trade routes and also poses potential human-caused stresses on Arctic people and ecosystems.
The 2021-2022 Arctic snow season saw a combination of above-average snow accumulation and early snowmelt, consistent with long-term trends of shortening snow seasons in several areas.
The Russian town of Verkhoyansk recorded a temperature of 38°C on June 20, 2020. It was a new Arctic temperature record. Average temperatures over Arctic Siberia reached as high as 10°C above normal for much of summer in 2020, fuelling fires, and driving sea ice loss.
London-based think tank Polar Research and Policy Initiative said the problems the Arctic Council faces will not disappear with Norway taking over its chairship. But the change will make it possible for the majority of member states (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden, and the US) to have a close working relationship with the chair once again, it added. The think tank said this will aid the forum’s work.
Polar Research and Policy Initiative managing director Dwayne Ryan Menezes said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had such dramatic reverberations across the region that every long-held assumption relating to Arctic exceptionalism was called into question.
In March last year, seven of the eight members of the Arctic Council issued a joint statement of condemnation, declaring that their representatives would not travel to Russia for meetings of the council over the Ukraine war. They temporarily paused participation in all meetings of the council and its subsidiary bodies.
On 7 July 2022, seven of the eight member states of the Arctic Council (US, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Kingdom of Denmark) issued a joint statement affirming their intention to implement a limited resumption of Arctic Council cooperation in projects which do not involve the participation of Russia.
In February, Russia amended its focus on multilateral regional cooperation formats such as the Arctic Council. It said it will rather focus on the prioritisation of its national interests.