Day: September 7, 2018

On 03-07.09.2018 the UArctic Congress took place in Helsinki and Oulu.

The University of the Arctic (UArctic) is one of the largest university networks in the world with over 200 member institutions. It facilitates collaboration, resource sharing and capacity building among higher education institutions and most university institutions interested in the Arctic. UArctic members are committed to the production and sharing of new knowledge. The circumpolar network is the only one of its kind, fostering sustainable development and knowledge exchange in the Arctic region for the benefit of the North, as well as the whole world.

The UArctic Congress 2018 in Finland has gathered over 600 participants from more than 30 countries. The alignment of this Congress into the program of the Finnish chairmanship of the Arctic Council demonstrates our commitment to work with the countries and peoples of the Arctic towards common goals. This partnership is reflected in the themes of the Congress and its science section, which are modeled on the priorities of the Finnish chairmanship – environmental protection, connectivity, meteorological cooperation, and education, as well as the goals of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, supporting gender equality, and the Paris Agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Our team was present at the several events:
– 05.09, University of Oulu, session “Sustainable development of the Arctic – boreal regions“. Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen was one of the conveners of the session and Dmitry Yagodin presented a poster “Anthrax, vaccinations and climate change in the media reports of the 2016 Yamal emergency”.
– 07.09, University of Helsinki, session “Arctic resource geopolitics, oil and gas – actors, policies, platforms“. Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen was of the conveners of the session again. Hanna Lempinen gave a presentation “The Arctic energyscape from within: (R)evolution of the Arctic energy concern in the 2007-2017 Arctic Energy Summit Reports”. Hilma Salonen presented a work titled “Fossil fuel deliveries in the Russian Arctic – embedded choices and new players of the field”. Jussi Huotari gave a talk on “Changing climate? The future of the Barents Sea’s petroleum development in the age of energy transition”.
-07.09, University of Helsinki, session “Connect or separate? Social studies of the Northern Sea Route“. Alla Bolotova gave a presentation “Ice as infrastructure: Social life of the glacial environment on the Northern Sea Route”.

More information on the Congress is available online here.

Yesterday a public conference “The Arctic and Education” was organized in the framework of the EU Climate Diplomacy Week and in the context of the Finnish Chairmanship of the Arctic Council, by the Finnish Ministry of the Environment, the Embassy of Germany, the British Embassy in Helsinki, the Embassy of France and the Institut Français in cooperation with the UArctic congress. The conference consisted of opening session, two panel discussion and a screening of the short movie “Changing environment – Stories above the
Arctic Circle” by the Sami Educational Center.

Professor Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen was moderating the panel “Challenges and perspectives of education in Arctic in the climate change context”, where Professor Jan Borm, Vice-President International Affairs, University of Versailles Saint-Quentin, France, Professor Florian Stammler, Research Professor Anthropology, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland and Dr. Gareth Rees, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, UK were presenters. The speakers shared their opinions on the education programmes in Arctic and about it, that are running in their universities, and answered the moderator’s and the audience’s questions.

The Artic and Education conference 2018 programme.