Climate Change and Risk Management Challenges in the Arctic

Climate change or global warming results in melting ice in the Arctic, both inland and sea ice. This opens up opportunities of natural ressource extraction and possibilities of new shipping routes, that opens up opportunities for increased maritime activities. However, with these opportunies come also the challenges of increased maritime activities that result in several risks in the Arctic such as the risk of pollution and the risks of accidents, which produce a need for preparedness towards oil spill and towards search and rescue (SAR) and institutions for SAR. Since the Arctic is such a huge territory with diverse stakeholders, there is a need for transborder cooperation within the Arctic states and between the Arctic states and states outside the Arctic that recently gained access to the Arctic Council activities as observers states. On this background, the paper will investigate and assess possibilies of transborder risk management and partnership building.