The Arctic Climate Impacts and International Law: Issues and Challenges

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunil Kumar Agarwal
2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 675-693
Author(s):  
Sabaa Ahmad Khan

AbstractThe environmental and economic realities of Arctic climate change present novel problems for international law. Arctic warming and pollution raise important questions about responsibilities and accountabilities across borders, as they result from anthropogenic activities both within and outside the Arctic region, from the Global North and the Global South. Environmental interdependencies and economic development prospects connect in a nexus of risk and opportunity that raises difficult normative questions pertaining to Arctic governance and sovereignty. This article looks at how the Arctic has been produced in international legal spaces. It addresses the implication of states and Indigenous peoples in processes of Arctic governance. Looking at specific international legal instruments relevant to Arctic climate change and development, the author attempts to tease out the relationship between the concepts of Indigenous rights and state sovereignty that underlie these international legal realms. What do these international legal regimes tell us with respect to the role of Arctic Indigenous peoples and the role of states in governing the ‘global’ Arctic? It is argued that while international law has come a long way in recognizing the special status of Indigenous peoples in the international system, it still hesitates to recognize Indigenous groups as international law makers. Comparing the status of Indigenous peoples under specific international regimes to their role within the Arctic Council, it becomes evident that more participatory forms of global governance are entirely possible and long overdue.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghislain Motos ◽  
Paraskevi Georgakaki ◽  
Paul Zieger ◽  
Jörg Wieder ◽  
Ulrike Lohmann ◽  
...  

<p>The Arctic region suffers an extreme vulnerability to climate change, with an increase in surface air temperatures that have reached twice the global rate during several decades (McBean et al., 2005). The role of clouds, and in particular low-levels clouds and fog, in this arctic amplification by regulating the energy transport from and to space has recently gained interest among the scientific community. The NASCENT 2019-2020 campaign (Ny-Ålesund AeroSol Cloud ExperimeNT) based in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard (79º North) aimed at studying the microphysical and chemical properties of low-level clouds using measurements both at the sea level and at the Zeppelin station (475 m a.s.l.). Specifically, the susceptibility of droplet formation, which has recently been shown to be highly dependent on aerosol levels in European alpine valleys (Georgakaki et al., under review), could strongly vary between the fall to winter months, with pristine-like conditions, and the higher particle concentrations generally found in spring, known as the arctic haze. First results using a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) and a cloud condensation nuclei counter (CCNC) confirmed that aerosol concentrations in the range 10 < D<sub>part </sub>[nm] < 500 were approximatively 4-5 times higher during the months of spring 2021 compared to those of fall 2020. In addition, we found relatively low values of the aerosol hygroscopic parameter κ, generally below 0.3, consistently with previous studies in the arctic region (Moore et al., 2011).</p><p> </p><p>Georgakaki, P., Bougiatioti, A., Wieder, J., Mignani, C., Kanji, Z. A., Henneberger, J., Hervo, M., Berne, A. and Nenes, A.: On the drivers of droplet variability in Alpine mixed-phase clouds, , 34, under review.</p><p>McBean, G., Alekseev, G., Chen, D., Førland, E., Fyfe, Groisman, J., P. Y., King, R., Melling, H., Voseand, R., Whitfield, P. H.: Arctic climate: past and present. Arctic Climate Impacts Assessment (ACIA), C. Symon, L. Arris and B. Heal, Eds., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 21-60, 2005.</p><p>Moore, R. H., Bahreini, R., Brock, C. A., Froyd, K. D., Cozic, J., Holloway, J. S., Middlebrook, A. M., Murphy, D. M. and Nenes, A.: Hygroscopicity and composition of Alaskan Arctic CCN during April 2008, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 11(22), 11807–11825, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-11807-2011, 2011.</p>


Author(s):  
Mark C. Serreze ◽  
Roger G. Barry

Author(s):  
E. S. Bodrova ◽  
V. V. Dolgosheev ◽  
I. M. Kirpichnikova ◽  
D. V. Korobatov ◽  
A. S. Martyanov ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
pp. 024
Author(s):  
Rym Msadek ◽  
Gilles Garric ◽  
Sara Fleury ◽  
Florent Garnier ◽  
Lauriane Batté ◽  
...  

L'Arctique est la région du globe qui s'est réchauffée le plus vite au cours des trente dernières années, avec une augmentation de la température de surface environ deux fois plus rapide que pour la moyenne globale. Le déclin de la banquise arctique observé depuis le début de l'ère satellitaire et attribué principalement à l'augmentation de la concentration des gaz à effet de serre aurait joué un rôle important dans cette amplification des températures au pôle. Cette fonte importante des glaces arctiques, qui devrait s'accélérer dans les décennies à venir, pourrait modifier les vents en haute altitude et potentiellement avoir un impact sur le climat des moyennes latitudes. L'étendue de la banquise arctique varie considérablement d'une saison à l'autre, d'une année à l'autre, d'une décennie à l'autre. Améliorer notre capacité à prévoir ces variations nécessite de comprendre, observer et modéliser les interactions entre la banquise et les autres composantes du système Terre, telles que l'océan, l'atmosphère ou la biosphère, à différentes échelles de temps. La réalisation de prévisions saisonnières de la banquise arctique est très récente comparée aux prévisions du temps ou aux prévisions saisonnières de paramètres météorologiques (température, précipitation). Les résultats ayant émergé au cours des dix dernières années mettent en évidence l'importance des observations de l'épaisseur de la glace de mer pour prévoir l'évolution de la banquise estivale plusieurs mois à l'avance. Surface temperatures over the Arctic region have been increasing twice as fast as global mean temperatures, a phenomenon known as arctic amplification. One main contributor to this polar warming is the large decline of Arctic sea ice observed since the beginning of satellite observations, which has been attributed to the increase of greenhouse gases. The acceleration of Arctic sea ice loss that is projected for the coming decades could modify the upper level atmospheric circulation yielding climate impacts up to the mid-latitudes. There is considerable variability in the spatial extent of ice cover on seasonal, interannual and decadal time scales. Better understanding, observing and modelling the interactions between sea ice and the other components of the climate system is key for improved predictions of Arctic sea ice in the future. Running operational-like seasonal predictions of Arctic sea ice is a quite recent effort compared to weather predictions or seasonal predictions of atmospheric fields like temperature or precipitation. Recent results stress the importance of sea ice thickness observations to improve seasonal predictions of Arctic sea ice conditions during summer.


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