Ladies and gentlemen, 

I want to start by telling you how honored and pleased I am to have been asked to participate in this Earth Day Dialogue with my fellow Arctic colleagues and all of you who are watching through your screens. I want to thank the organizers at the Arctic Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School´s Belfer Center and the Polar Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center for the opportunity to partake in today’s event.

It is only fitting that we have come together on Earth Day to discuss the future of the Arctic region. Since the first Earth Day in 1970 it has given a voice to an emerging public consciousness about the state of our planet and the rapid changes in our ecosystems due to climate change. With temperatures in the Arctic rising at more than twice the global annual average, climate change is already affecting the four million Arctic inhabitants. It is important that we recognize these signs in our environment and react before it is too late. We need to make changes to better serve the health and wellbeing of the people and ecosystems of the Arctic region. 

As most of you know, Iceland has chaired the Arctic Council for the past two years now and we will hand the Chairmanship gavel over to Russia at the upcoming Ministerial Meeting in Reykjavík next month. On that note, I want to stress how pleased I am that Secretary of State Blinken has confirmed his attendance. I look very much forward to welcoming him in Reykjavík. 

As you can imagine, this has been both a strange and challenging time to chair the Arctic Council. Thankfully, this is the first time that Iceland has had to organize an international Chairmanship while fighting a global pandemic, and hopefully the last! I have to say though, that despite the challenges posed by Covid-19, we can be proud of what we have achieved during our Chairmanship period. Here I would like to note the “Covid-19 Briefing Document for Senior Arctic Officials” that was compiled in record time last summer, under the lead of the Sustainable Development Working Group. It served to inform initial discussions on the pandemic in the Arctic at a Senior Arctic Officials executive meeting. The Briefing Document outlines the impact of Covid-19 in the region and the actions taken to respond to the pandemic in the first few months. Vulnerabilities in remote Arctic communities include crowded housing that make self-isolating near impossible, lack of running water, disruption of supply chains and long distances to access health care. 

On the other hand, the pandemic has also brought out the resilience of Arctic inhabitants, their resourcefulness and adaptability, which help them to deal with difficult situations. 
I would also like to mention that the pandemic has presented us with an incentive to modernize the working methods of the Arctic Council. In 2019, when we took over the Chairmanship from Finland, we noted the interest for online meeting participation. At the time, the Council’s six Working Groups had used online meeting platforms in their work, but the Council’s plenary meetings had always been held as in-person gatherings. Since then, we have of course had to adapt and move most of the planned Chairmanship events and meetings online, including the meetings of the Senior Arctic Officials. We also hosted the first international Symposium on Plastics in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic Region in a fully online format. Leading scientists and experts in the field came together to share their knowledge and research on plastics in the ocean. Most of the participants have graciously allowed the public release of their interventions and thus the material from the plastics symposium will be made available very shortly. 

The Arctic Marine Environment has been one of Iceland’s main priorities during our Chairmanship. The Icelandic people have of course relied on the ocean for their livelihoods for centuries. Being an island nation in the north, fishing kept us alive, and we still rely heavily on ocean-based activities and marine products today. The same goes for our neighbors in other Arctic communities as the region is largely covered by ocean. We have all witnessed the changes in the Arctic marine environment due to climate change. It is our duty to safeguard the oceans around us for a sustainable future in our region. The Arctic Council Working Groups have contributed significantly to scientific knowledge and understanding of the Arctic marine environment, and we have built on this work during Iceland’s Chairmanship. We launched a new platform for discussing Arctic marine environment issues within the Council, called the Senior Arctic Officials Marine Mechanism or SMM. Although we started this initiative as a webinar series, it is our hope that the SMM becomes an annual gathering of scientists and experts under the auspices of the Arctic Council, and that it will strengthen circumpolar marine stewardship. 

The Arctic Marine Environment has not been Iceland’s only priority during our Chairmanship. The Ottawa Declaration that established the Arctic Council places sustainable development at its core. Sustainability is also the backbone of Iceland’s governance. That is why we built our Chairmanship priorities around striking a balance between economic, social, and environmental sustainability under the heading: “Together Towards a Sustainable Arctic”. 

Throughout our Chairmanship, we have also highlighted Climate and Green Energy Solutions, People and Communities of the Arctic and last but not least a Stronger Arctic Council. And we are hoping to be able to mark the 25th anniversary of the Council by adopting a Strategic Plan at the upcoming Ministerial Meeting next month. The aim is to provide the Arctic Council with a long-term guidance to its work, going beyond the usual two-year Chairmanship cycle. 

Dear friends, 

It has been a great honor and privilege to serve as the Chair of the Arctic Council for the past two years. I believe that it is paramount that we, the Arctic States, Permanent Participants, and Observers continue to use the platform the Arctic Council has given us to continue our good and important cooperation in the Arctic, so generations to come may enjoy a prosperous, sustainable future in our spectacular region in the north. 

I look forward to our conversation here today on the future of the Arctic region. 

Thank you.

Ávarpið var flutt á vefráðstefnu Arctic Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School´s Belfer Center and the Polar Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center á degi jarðar, 22. apríl 2021.