Annika E. Nilsson

Knowledge for local climate change adaptation in Sweden: challenges of multilevel governance

Adaptation to climate change is often perceived as a local concern; yet local stakeholders are influenced by knowledge and politics from international and national contexts. Based on a review of Swedish climate change adaptation policy and interviews and focus groups in the Stockholm region, this paper discusses how knowledge relevant to climate change adaptation has been institutionalised in Sweden and how this may affect the potential for learning. The results indicate that the institutionalising of knowledge and knowledge exchange has been weak, especially compared to the implementation of Local Agenda 21, which also calls for action at the local level. So far, Swedish adaptation policy has relied mainly on soft governance tools. Further, we conclude that there is need for improved mechanisms for feedback from the local to the national level in this rapidly evolving policy field.

A Changing Arctic Climate: Science and Policy in the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment

Climate change has often been framed as a global issue but slow progress in the global negotiations and needs to plan for local adaptation have made it increasingly salient to also discuss other arenas for climate policy and knowledge production. This chapter analyzes the interplay between climate science and policy at the international regional level based on a study of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA). The history and process of ACIA illustrate how the existence of a global climate assessment can delay a regional response and how the initiation of a circumpolar Arctic assessment of the impacts of climate change depended on interplay between global and regional regimes. Once the assessment process was in place, the regional arena brought new actors into climate knowledge production and policy with an increased emphasis on the complexity of social and cultural impacts of climate change among indigenous peoples. The results illustrate how the structure of international cooperation can influence knowledge production about climate change and highlight the political dimensions of focusing on particular spatial scales and governance levels in climate knowledge production and policy.

Assessing Arctic futures: voices, resources and governance

Interest in the future of the Arctic is running high, motivated in large part by belief that climate change will open new possibilities (and unleash new threats). Wealth from shipping and natural resource extraction features prominently in narratives about the Arctic in the media, and governance of the region has become a major concern as new actors demand influence. We use three components of current discourse about the Arctic to help reveal connections between how the region is constructed and how the right to decide its future is articulated. Voices are the actors who participate in the discursive construction of Arctic futures, with varying degrees of influence. Resources are objects upon which actors inscribe values, thus locating them in the discourse. Governance refers to the structural features through which action is regulated within spaces, restricting also the range of legitimate actors. We demonstrate the usefulness of these concepts through brief case studies of coal on Spitsbergen, hydrocarbons in the Barents Sea and whaling in the North Atlantic. We conclude by emphasizing the value of a historical perspective to understanding contemporary debates about the future of the Arctic.

Arctic sustainability research: toward a new agenda

ABSTRACT The Arctic is among the world’s regions most affected by ongoing and increasing cultural, socio-economic, environmental and climatic changes. Over the last two decades, scholars, policymakers, extractive industries, local, regional and national governments, intergovernmental forums, and non-governmental organizations have turned their attention to the Arctic, its peoples and resources, and to challenges and benefits of impending transformations. The International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP) has now transpired three times, most recently in April 2015 with ICARP III. Arctic sustainability is an issue of increasing concern within the Arctic and beyond it, including in ICARP endeavors. This paper reports some of the key findings of a white paper prepared by an international and interdisciplinary team as part of the ICARP-III process, with support from the International Arctic Science Committee Social and Human Sciences Working Group, the International Arctic Social Sciences Association and the Arctic-FROST research coordination network. Input was solicited through sharing the initial draft with a broader network of researchers, including discussion and feedback at several academic and community venues. This paper presents a progress report on Arctic sustainability research, identifies related knowledge gaps and provides recommendations for prioritizing research for the next decade.

Signals from a Noisy Region

When the Arctic Ocean ice cover reached a record low in the late summer of 2007, it provided images of the Arctic entering an era where human-induced climate change had started to create a new geography — the ultimate evidence of the ‘Anthropocene’ where human actions are a major driver of Earth as a system (Crutzen and Stoermer, 2000). Given that emissions of greenhouse gases continue to increase and that the connection between these emissions and increasing global temperatures is firmly established (IPCC, 2007a), a prominent assumption is that the ice will continue to retreat. In public discussions, the question is no longer whether the Arctic Ocean will be virtually ice-free in the summer, but when this will happen.

Globalization, Climate Change and the Media: An Introduction

In the summer of 2011, the tanker STI Heritage left Houston, Texas and made the long, arduous journey to Thailand, eventually arriving with over 60,000 tons of condensed gas.1 What made this trip special was not the start and end points (these are two major ports), but rather how, and how fast, the tanker made the journey. Instead of the traditional route via the Suez Canal, the STI Heritage picked up the condensed gas in Murmansk, Russia, and continued its journey towards Thailand via the Northeast Passage, a shipping lane running from Murmansk, along Siberia, ending at the Bering Strait. The use of this lane is, in and of itself, not unique, as historically portions of it have been navigable for two summer months each year. What made the STI Heritage voyage special, however, was the speed with which the vessel completed the entire route: eight days.2 This was a record for the Northeast Passage (broken weeks later by a gas tanker that made the trip in just over six days), which has seen a dramatic reduction of summer ice over the past decade, making commercial use of the lane economically viable, at least if one extrapolates from the numbers. In 2009, only two commercial vessels made the voyage. In 2011, that number had increased to 18.3

Arctic sea ice and the communication of climate change

ABSTRACT Media play a major role in framing key political issues such as climate change, and the melting of the Arctic snow and ice has become a bellwether of global climate change through the mediations of the region and its wildlife. While Arctic change has scientific significance for understanding global warming, it also plays a key role in the popular communication of global climate change and its impacts. This article addresses questions such as how the Arctic and its sea ice have become become powerful images of climate change, and what roles scientific activities, technologies, and networks play in relation to media and mediation. Drawing upon earlier research on the role of the media and framing in relation to climate change in general and upon Arctic climate change in particular, we explore how media framings are linked with various dynamics such as scientific practice and the institutional structure of the media system.

Bellwether, exceptionalism and other tropes : Political coproduction of Arctic climate modelling

Bellwether, exceptionalism and other tropes : Political coproduction of Arctic climate modelling