“Letters to Europe” – a book project (collage) by ICORN

Full (*) version of the Minister’s article

Letter from the North
Pictures and images count. I recall watching the weather forecast for Europe on television during my years as a student in Paris in the 1980s, and seeing a continent that was cut off at 60 degrees north. Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki were as far north as the weather maps of Europe used to go. They were maps with large parts of Europe simply left out. This was not only the case in France. When I once asked a German scholar what he considered the High North to be, he replied “Schleswig-Holstein”.

I am mentioning this as a reminder that Europe is much more than most Europeans, in the past, perceived it to be. And because many of Europe’s peoples and resources – as well as its most vulnerable ecosystems – are to be found precisely in the parts of our continent above the 60th parallel north.

Fortunately, the High North now seems to be back on the map, at least on the political map, due to climate change, ice melting and increased human activity in the region.

What, then, are the emerging perspectives of the High North that Europe needs to take into consideration? The Arctic Ocean links the North American, European and Asian continents together. What was once purely the domain of polar heroes and expeditions, such as those of Fridtjof Nansen, Roald Amundsen and Umberto Nobile, is now attracting worldwide interest because the region’s resources – both renewable and non-renewable – have become more accessible. Moreover, the international shipping industry has seen the potential in dramatically reducing the sailing routes between the Far East and the West – via the Northern Sea Route.

These opportunities may seem desirable, but they are caused by something far less so, namely climate change. The High North offers front-row seats for studying the effects of climate change, although these effects may be more apparent elsewhere in the world, for instance in the form of desertification in African nations and disruptions of monsoon patterns in Asia.

While governments such as Norway’s work to fight climate change, we also need to address its effects, in the Arctic and elsewhere – because these effects are already visible. As the ice retreats in the Arctic, economic activity in the High North is already increasing in the areas of fisheries, maritime transport and petroleum. In the north we have learned from experience that we need to cooperate across borders in order to secure sustainable management of the rich resources in such a climatically vulnerable region.      

Due to this experience, sustainable development has long been a mantra of Norwegian policy, and to an increasing extent on the world stage, ever since former Norwegian Prime Minister and Chair of the World Commission on Environment and Development, Gro Harlem Brundtland, submitted the report Our Common Future to the United Nations in 1987. The key idea in the report, to secure “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”, is as valid today as ever.  

And this vision can also guide us in the further development of the Arctic region as a whole. Using sustainable development as the compass by which to steer in the High North requires the latest scientific knowledge. This is something that I believe we have readily available, in various reports from the Arctic Council as well as the report Melting snow and ice: A call for action presented by Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former US Vice President Al Gore and myself at the COP15 meeting in Copenhagen in 2009.    
   
Now, while Antarctica is a land mass surrounded by an ocean, the Arctic is an ocean surrounded by coastal states, and is therefore regulated by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). This provides the region with predictability and stability. Under UNCLOS, coastal states have special rights and obligations and must take steps to ensure that new activities that become possible as the sea ice retreats do not cause unnecessary environmental damage or represent a security risk.

This is important, because when people talk about there being a race for the Arctic, or describe the Arctic as a “new battlefield” for great power rivalry, this is simply not true – not least due to this Convention, which provides us with the framework we need to resolve differences, regardless of whether we are small or great powers. The most recent example of how Arctic states can solve disputes is the agreement between Norway and Russia on maritime delimitation and cooperation in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean, which I had the honour to sign together with my colleague Sergei Lavrov in Murmansk on 15 September 2010.

In the High North we are pragmatic and promote warm relations between neighbours. This approach has led to the establishment of a number of well-functioning regional institutions such as the Arctic Council, the Barents Cooperation and the Northern Dimension. As I like to say from time to time, when meeting colleagues from other parts of the world, our regional organisations may be weak on preambular texts, but we are usually strong on practical measures and concrete results.
             
My message is this: our lessons from the north of Europe show that successful long-term cooperation needs to be based on people-to-people cooperation, cross-cultural exchange and partnerships between municipalities, regional authorities and the business community across borders – and in accordance with international laws and conventions. We have seen a tremendous increase in Russian¬–Norwegian cooperation since the 1990s. We are dependent on each other in the High North. This is no zero-sum game. Rather, what we have is a win-win situation, if we stick to the established mantras of sustainable development, international law and political cooperation. For the countries in the region – and for all parts of Europe.  

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(*) More information on the project (and for a shorter version of the Minister’s contribution), see: www.icorn.org and www.passaporta.be