A workshop session “Business voice to Arctic change” aims at gathering and discussing business community perspectives to the changes in the Arctic and the measures needed to advance adaptation. The workshop is organized by the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland and is part of the Arctic Business Forum breakout sessions in Rovaniemi on Thursday March 12th, 2015.

The workshop is part of the “Adaptation actions for a
change Arctic” (AACA) project, under the auspices of the Arctic Council, to develop
a knowledge base for identifying socially, economically, environmentally and
culturally appropriate adaptation options for the decision makers and actors.

Although climate change is the important of change in the arctic
region, other factors, such as global resource demand, tourism, international
transport, economic and political development also drive change in the Arctic.
AACA-C project will cover climatic and socio-economic changes, the future scenarios
of regional development, and the consequences of change, adaptation and options for
adaptation actions. The report will combine and analyze both scientific and
non-scientific knowledge. To do this, it is essential to have an input from the
business community for the report.

 

Intensive workshop for business
community

At the beginning of the event, the
latest information on the expected climatic and socio-economic changes will be
presented shortly by a global change consultant Tom Armstrong. Dr. Thomas Armstrong
is the Deputy Secretary of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP) where
he is the US lead of the the Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic (AACA). Prior
to this, he served in the Obama White House as the Executive Director of the U.S.
Global Change Research Program. During his tenure, Tom also served as the U.S. Head
of Delegation to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment
Report.

The second introducer to the topic is Chairman of
Lapland Hotels & Safaris, Mr. Rauno Posio. He is also a Vice Chairman of the
Northernmost Chamber of Commerce in the European Union, the Lapland Chamber of
Commerce.

After that the workshop is organized by Dr.
Monica Tennberg, who is a research professor at the Arctic Centre at the University
of Lapland. She is also the co-chair of the Barents regional integrated assessment
(BRIT) project and the coordinating lead author of Chapter 2 of the report focusing
on local and regional perspectives. The results of the project will be presented to
the Arctic Council ministerial meeting in 2017.

Warmly
welcome!

Registration by 9th
March:
Research Assistant Ilari Nikula
ilari.nikula(at)ulapland.fi

More
information
Research Professor Monica Tennberg
monica.tennberg(at)ulapland.fi
+358 (0)40 019 2005

The Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland is a research institute
and science communicator focusing on the interaction between people and the
environment in the Arctic.

Links for more
information

Actic Business Forum / Business
Voice to Arctic Change: http://www.arcticbusinessforum.com/files/ABF15_Businessvoice.pdf

Arctic Council’s AACA-C-project:
http://www.amap.no/adaptation-actions-for-a-changing-arctic-part-c

Tom Armstrong:
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/tom-armstrong/17/530/3b6