News

Posted on

Katowice Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 24)

This week our doctoral student Karoliina Hurri is taking part in the Katowice Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 24), organised in Poland.
The conference includes the 24th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 24) to the UNFCCC, the 14th session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP) and the third part of the first session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA 1-3). The conference also includes the 49th sessions of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI), and the seventh part of the first session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement (APA 1-7).

The conference is expected to finalize the rules for implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change under the Paris Agreement work programme (PAWP). It also includes a number of high-level events, mandated events, action events and roundtables.

More information on the event is available online.

Posted on

Venäjä ja ympäristönsuojelu – mikä on suunta?

Today the event  Venäjä ja ympäristönsuojelu –mikä on suunta? (Russia and environmental protection – what is the direction?)  was organised  in the New Wing of the Parliament.
Ivan Blokov introduced his book ”Environment and its protection in Russia over the last 25 years” in a public lecture. PhD Ivan Blokov is a well-known figure in Russian environmental protection. He has been a citizen activist, a scientist and last years he has been working for Greenpeace Russia in Moscow.

Professor Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen commented on Dr. Blokov’s presentation and participated in the discussion. The event was organised by Mr. Pekka Haavisto, the Green Party MP.

More information on the event can be found from Facebook event page

Posted on

Arctic Media World Congress in Salekhard

The International Circumpolar Mass Media Congress “Arctic Media World” dedicated to the anniversary of formation of Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, is organised in Salekhard, Russia, from 9th to 11th of December. More than 200 representatives of the media community based in circumpolar territories will participate in the event. Journalists from seven countries (Denmark, Iceland, Canada, Finland, Norway, the United States of America and Sweden) and eight Arctic regions of the Russian Federation will be united in one venue in Yamal.
Dmitry Yagodin and Lauri Lähteenmäki from our team are taking part in the congress.

The Congress is aimed to involve representatives of arctic mass media in the discussion of urgent problems of the arctic development with the government and public, to share experience, to build relations and partnership in coverage of different topics of the Arctic agenda between journalists worldwide.

The focus of the Congress is to show the connection between such processes as the exploration of Yamal and the preservation of national culture of indigenous peoples of the North. That’s why on the first day of the program a daylong tour of the settlement Sabetta was provided. Guests visited its International airport and the seaport of Sabetta considered to be a key object of the Northern Sea Route; existing produce volume of the plant “Yamal-Liquefied Natural Gas” will be observed; the Arctic LNG project was presented.

More information on the congress.

Posted on

Yle’s new article “Kremlin sisäpiiriläisiä vai onnekkaita yrittäjiä? Näin tuntematon suomalaiskaksikko hoitaa rikkaiden venäläisten bisneksiä”

Yle published a new article “Kremlin sisäpiiriläisiä vai onnekkaita yrittäjiä? Näin tuntematon suomalaiskaksikko hoitaa rikkaiden venäläisten bisneksiä” (Kremlin insiders or lucky entrepreneurs? This is how unknown Finnish duo manages rich Russian businesses), which has Professor Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen’s interview in it.

The article is investigating who are the Finnish citizens Svetlana Kotiranta and Juri Tikhomirov, whom the Russian state trusts in their businesses.

– The fact that this duo of Russian Finns has been involved in the energy trade – and even the one with the Russian state-owned company Gazprom – tells that they are not just straw men Only the carefully selected insiders are allowed to benefit from  the energy trade flows, says a Russian energy sector specialist Tynkkynen.

Read the full article online here.

Posted on

ASEEES 2018

On 6th-9th of December ASEEES 50th Annual Convention is taking place in Boston, United States.
From our team, Stephanie Hitztaler is taking part in the conference. She is a participant at the roundtable “Doing Research in Post-Soviet Spaces: Reports on Recent Fieldwork” today, on Friday, 7th of December.

Coming up with research questions is only one part of our work as academics; the ways in which we answer them is another major aspect. This roundtable panel will discuss strategies for adapting to the varied landscapes—political, social, and cultural—of doing research in the former Soviet Union, touching on working with local academic communities, technological limits and capabilities, and specific challenges at research sites. Panelists from history, sociology, geography, anthropology, and interdisciplinary fields will discuss the ever-evolving constellation of research methods and methodologies, including the value and mechanics of doing mixed-methods approaches, the impact of the rising emphasis on interdisciplinarity, and the role and importance of recognizing researcher subjectivity, in their recent fieldwork in Ukraine, Russia, and Central Asia.

Stephanie will also chair the panel “The Soviet Anthropocene” on Sunday, December 9th.

More information can be found on the
conference website.

Posted on

On the Northern Dimension Future Forum on Environment: Black carbon and climate change in the European Arctic

The Northern Dimension Institute (NDI) organized the Northern Dimension Future Forum on Environment: Black carbon and climate change in the European Arctic on 19 November 2018 in Brussels. Yesterday, the NDI published a piece “Cutting black carbon emissions is an acute challenge for all in the European Arctic” about the forum, that can be read online here.

The event gathered researchers, top experts, decision-makers and NGOs to discuss the future challenges as well as solutions available to avert the black carbon impacts of future climate change. The event featured two knowledge arenas consisting of brief researcher presentations followed by comments and a moderated discussion. Ms. Cathy Smith from Speak-Easy moderated the event.

In his presentation, Associate Professor, Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen from the Aleksanteri Institute of the University of Helsinki and Strategic Research Program on Security, Academy of Finland, indicated that reducing gas flaring of the Russian oil and gas industry has critical role in curbing black carbon emission in the Arctic. He underlined e.g. environmental certificates and more reliance on soft means to influence environmental investments and international cooperation in the renewable energy.

Professor Tynkkynen is available in slides and in video format below:

Posted on

Karoliina Hurri’s and Sanna Kopra’s column at The Ulkopolitist.

Two  researchers from our team, Karoliina Hurri and Sanna Kopra, wrote a guest column for The Ulkopolitist titled “Puolan ilmastokokouksessa paljon pöydällä: Odottaako maailma Kiinalta liikaa?” (Much on the table at the Poland’s climate conference: does the world expect too much from China?).

From 3 to 14 October The United Nations Conference on Climate Change is organised in Poland, and it is expected to be the most important event after the Paris Climate Treaty. The Polish climate conference is the last chance to negotiate the rules of the Paris Agreement, because it will be implemented in 2020. One big question  for the Polish negotiations is which role that China will take. The world has started to hope that China will take the role of a new leader in international climate negotiations after the United States announced its withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement.

Both Karoliina and Sanna research interests are China’s Arctic policy and its role as a great power. Read their expert opinion on the conference online here.

Posted on

Pohjoinen on punainen? : Kiina ja Arktiksen uusi alueellistuminen

Liisa Kauppila’s and Sanna Kopra’s article “Pohjoinen on punainen? : Kiina ja Arktiksen uusi alueellistuminen” (The High North is Red? China and New Regionalism in the Arctic) was published in November in Kosmopolis –  academic journal of Finnish Peace Research Association.

This article analyzes the role of China in the transformation of the Arctic from the theory of new regionalism point of view. It emphasizes that the Arctic is a socially constructed area that is defined by processes that are changing in the face of globalization and climate change. The article claims that, especially China’s rise to power transforms the dynamics of the northernmost parts of the globe and promotes both the discursive and material development of the so-called Asian and Arctic operational area. The article also briefly reflects on the wider political, economic and environmental impacts of this ongoing change in the Arctic.

The article can be downloaded online here.

Posted on

26-30.11.2018 Media and the Arctic – Master Class Week in Tampere

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.

Posted on

Alla Bolotova on the Interactive map of Arctic: People and infrastructure project

Last Friday, on 17th of November, Alla Bolotova participated in the presentation of the results of the project “Интерактивная карта Арктики: Люди и инфраструктура” (Interactive map of Arctic: People and infrastructure) at the 11th Exhibition of the Academic Research Achievements (VDNKh) of the European University at St. Petersburg. Last year EUSP’s Center for Science and Technology Studies, Center for Arctic Social Studies,  and ENERPO Research Centre received Presidential Grant for this project and started working on it in February 2018. Last week the website InterArctic has been launched. Alla and two other anthropologists from the Center for Arctic Social Studies have been working in the project team, which all together consisted of 10 people, and she told more about this work for our blog.

Continue reading “Alla Bolotova on the Interactive map of Arctic: People and infrastructure project”