Month: November 2018

From Tuesday, 27th of November, to Thursday, 29th of November, Dmitry Yagodin and his colleagues from Tampere’s Reseacrh Cenre for Russian and Chinese Media are organising “Media and the Arctic” master class week in Tampere. The master class weeks consists of teaching  programme and public events. Dmitry Yagodin is organising a workshop “Arctic Environmental Journalism” together with Anna Kireeva and Thomas Nilsen.

On Friday, 30th of November, Sanna Kopra will be taking part in a panel discussion “Arctic Myths and Realities”, together with Stina Aletta Aikio (free artist), Matti Posio (Lännen Media), René Söderman (Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland), led by Johannes Riquet (University of Tampere). The discussion is a public event.

More information available here.

The FRRESH Autumn Seminar, that is taking place today at the University of Helsinki, is focusing on practical skills. The seminar is divided into two sessions with one focusing on supervision and the other on teaching. Karoliina Hurri, who is working as PhD student in our group, is one of the panelists.

The morning panel will discuss supervision both from the supervisor’s and the graduate students’ viewpoint and the afternoon workshop will share best practices in assessment of the undergraduate students.

The relationship between the supervisor and the Ph.D. candidate is crucial for a successful completion of a dissertation. What do supervisors expect from Ph.D. students and what do students expect from supervisors? Are there differences in the way supervision is conducted in national academic contexts? These are among the questions tackled in the panel with supervisors and Ph.D. candidates from Finland, Russia, and the UK.

The panel will be followed by a workshop on teaching. Among the many challenges in teaching at a university level, assessment of undergraduate students’ work is often the hard one. At the panel the experience of teaching and difficulties will be discussed.

Additional information on the event can be found here.

 

“Northern Dimension Future Forum on Environment: Black carbon and Climate Change in the European Arctic” is organised today in Brussels. Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen is taking part in “Knowledge Arena 2: Actions in Practice” session of the forum, giving a talk “How to reduce black carbon emissions in Russia’s oil and gas industry?”

We are the big buyers of Russian energy. Energy security could be boosted via eco-responsibility certificates. @AKA_ohjelmat @Akatemia_STN #NDFutureForum @ND_Institute #ClimateChange pic.twitter.com/pFbcMlJFaT

— Riitta Kosonen (@riitta_kosonen) 19 ноября 2018 г.

Temperatures in the Arctic are rising clearly faster than the global average temperatures. Thus, also black carbon, that may cause some 20-25% of the warming in the Arctic, has received special attention by the Arctic Council and the Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership. In addition to its global warming impacts, black carbon is detrimental to human
and ecosystem health. Important sources of black carbon include transport, residential burning of coal and biomass, oil and gas flaring, and open burning of biomass.
Because black carbon remains in the atmosphere only for days or weeks, emission reductions produce positive results fast. Furthermore, many technological solutions to curb emissions already exist. In addition to the activities of the Arctic Council, there are also other international and regional initiatives aiming at reducing black carbon emissions such as the Climate and Clean Air Coalition and the World Bank’s Zero Routine Flaring by 2030.
This event brings together researchers, businesses and policy makers to discuss how countries and actors in the European Arctic are tackling this common challenge and what they could do more.

More information on the event is available here.

The XI International Scientific Conference “ENERGETIKA XXI: Economy, Policy, Ecology” “The Need for Energy Dialogue in a Fast Changing Environment” takes place in St. Petersburg, Russia, from 14th to 16th of November. 

ENERGETIKA is a conference regularly held in St. Petersburg in the month of November to address recent developments in the energy sector on a global basis with special focus on Russia. It is organized by UNECON (the St. Petersburg State University of Economics) with financial support by energy companies, combining an open academic atmosphere with the insights of representatives of important energy companies, like Gazprom and Gazprom Export, as well as from national and international public organizations.

On one side the world has seen a joint global approach to climate issues by the Paris Agreement (PA) with strong impact on the energy sector and on the relation between energy resource holding and energy importing countries. On the other hand unilateral approaches by the US by leaving the PA and stepping down from the Iran deal as well as fostering the position of US LNG by political means. While progress has been made in EU-Russia gas relations, much remains open, if not controversial. In such a fast and often abruptly changing environment it is paramount to foster dialogue between all parties to prevent misunderstandings and to identify mutual opportunities. ENERGETIKA offers itself as a place for an open dialogue on economy, policy and environment aspects of energy.

Jussi Huotari, Lauri Lähteenmäki, and Hilma Salonen from our team are participating in the conference. Jussi is presenting his paper “Yamal LNG and Global Production Networks” at the “Recent Developments of Energy Markets” panel on 15th of November.

More information on the conference can be found here.

Our doctoral students Karoliina Hurri and Sohvi Kangasluoma are spending this week in Norway, taking part in the “Asia on the Move” conference in Tromsø and a PhD workshop on-board Hurtigruten cruise ship sailing between Tromsø and Svolvær. The event is organised by the Nordic NIAS Council in collaboration with the Centre for Peace Studies, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway. The conference is held on 5th-7th of November and the workshop from 7th to 9th.

Asia – a region that contains nuclear states, the second and third largest economies in the world, the largest global population – is on the move!
The continent which has changed the most in the 21st century is Asia: be it Asia’s engagement with the Arctic region, presence in Africa, economic prominence, or geopolitical influence within and outside of the region, increased population movements in and outside Asia, increased risk of climate change, democratization and citizenship issues, nuclear proliferation and security threats to and from some of the Asian countries – all require in-depth analysis for good global governance.
For example, the rise of China in Central Asia has led to many speculations, including a ‘New Great Game’ with Russia and the United States. On the other hand, new moves from both parties on the Korean peninsula may see a ‘new hope’ for peace.  Sideways, in the context of climate change and ‘arctic race’, new geo-ecopolitical, and geostrategic dynamics led to the growing interest of non-Arctic states in the affairs of the Arctic. Engagement of countries like China, Japan, Korea and India in the Arctic will significantly influence the evolving dynamics in that region.
Meanwhile, forced migration (e.g. Rohingya issues) and climate change induced displacement, corruption, violation of human rights and citizenship, crisis in Asian mega cities, and rising inequality have huge influence on ‘The Move’ and hence require much attention from policymakers and academics working on Asia.

At the PhD workshop, Sohvi presents a paper for NIAS PhD course – Theoretical background and operationalization of human security from a feminist perspective titled  “A feminist approach: Impacts of oil and gas sector to human security in Arctic communities”, and Karoliina presents a paper for NIAS PhD course Research Design and Key Concepts “China’s Leadership Role in Climate Negotiations: A case of BASIC countries, BRICS group and the Arctic Council”.

Check conference website for more information on the event.