Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic: Perspectives from the Barents Area

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Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic: Perspectives from the Barents Area

Chapter 1 for a detailed geographical description).The area has a diverse physiography ranging from very sparsely inhabited High Arctic areas, such as Svalbard, to mainland areas that are well integrated into the respective states,and with comparatively high population and cities. The market-integrated economies of the region are affected by the consequences of cumulative impacts of changing socio-economic conditions, including resource demand driven by increasing globalization such as urbanization trends, the impacts of global markets, climate change and other environmental impacts, and national and international policies. The latter include drivers such as commitments of the Barents countries to international agreements (e.g. CITES 1976, Bern Convention 1986, Council Directive 92/43/EEC, CBD 1994,World Trade Organization), European Union regulations, national laws and management practices regarding taxation,level of local autonomy (municipal/ local council level), regional processes in the different countries, infrastructure, health and education systems related to the welfare states of Norway, Sweden and Finland; and specific resource use, nature protection and other environmentally related rights. Given the increasingly global context of market competition and regulative influence there is increased risk that local and indigenous peoples will be negatively affected by current and future changes through loss of the ability to maintain locally based livelihoods and occupations in the relatively sparsely populated areas of the region (see Chapter 7). The increased focus on renewable and non-renewable resources in the Barents area, by businesses within and outside the region brings challenges as well opportunities for residents and policymakers. Opportunities to exploit northern and Arctic Ocean resources carry great responsibility in terms of safeguarding and including local and indigenous communities in decision-making processes and environmental protection. Adaptive strategies therefore require attention to multiple stressors and to cumulative and cascading effects. The recent Arctic Council report Taking stock of adaptation programs in the Arctic: Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic (Arctic Council, 2013a) concludes that adaptation to climate change in the Arctic remains at an early stage. The report also notes that the information gathering methodology may overlook some community level activities. The work that underpins the present chapter shows that although adaptation takes place across various scales and sectors, it is predominantly occurring at the local level. Concerns noted include permafrost thaw, sea-level rise and flooding, ecosystem change, and consequences for infrastructure and traditional practices and ways of life (Arctic Council, 2013a). The report was based on a survey providing an overview of the status of adaptation programs across the Arctic. Five main categories of adaptation activity were identified (planning and decision- support tools, awareness-raising, monitoring and provision of data, training, mainstreaming) and within each category the majority of activities were aimed at enabling adaptation, such as the development of community adaptation plans, hazard and vulnerability assessments and maps, communication products, monitoring, and training. The survey showed that adaptation activities related to infrastructure were the most common, especially in areas such as transport, the built environment and water management.

While climate change increases the opportunities for industrial development and other economic activities in the Barents area, it also interacts with socio-economic, political and cultural changes and creates both opportunities and challenges for people living and operating within the region. The interactions between climate change impacts and socio- economic and environmental conditions create direct and indirect cumulative, and often unforeseen, consequences for society (e.g. Hovelsrud et al., 2011) (see Chapter 6).While the opportunities emerging in the Barents area are highly likely to be exploited and developed, society may not be as well prepared for the challenges. Challenges such as extreme weather events, storms, extreme rainfall, floods, wildfires and heat waves are all expected to increase and are currently addressed to varying degrees in the Barents area countries. Adaptation to the consequences of climate change is inevitable, irrespective of whether the world succeeds in achieving the necessary reductions in greenhouse gases (GHG). The unprecedented effects of climate change expected in the near future will further increase the focus on adaptation. In this chapter, ‘adaptation’ is applied as an analytical term and used to describe responses or activities undertaken or planned to address change,but within a broader context of multiple stresses to acknowledge that climate change is rarely the only factor to which society must adapt (e.g. Leichenko and O’Brien, 2008). This includes existing coping strategies and actions undertaken in response to general changes in society that may be relevant for adaptation to climate change (e.g. Smit andWandel, 2006). This multiple understanding of adaptation mirrors an increasingly complex understanding of adaptation in the literature. Adaptation has moved from being a sign of humanities’ failure to deal with GHG emissions to become a household concept. Adaptation is nevertheless a new area for many national policy approaches and has recently been suggested for inclusion within the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – framed in terms of strategic planning for the future. The focus of this chapter is on adaptation options and draws on the definition adopted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)“ The array of strategies andmeasures that are available and appropriate for addressing adaptation needs.They include awide range of actions that can be categorized as structural, institutional, or social ” (IPCC, 2014b). In this assessment, the IPPC definition is broadened to capture the complexities of interacting and cumulative societal and environmental (including climate) changes,and discuss how adaptation options are shaped by these interactions and the ways adaptation takes place in a local, societal, political, globalized and financial context. In this report,the approach to adaptation includes diverse and dynamic aspects such as understanding impacts on natural resources, livelihood flexibility, enabling institutions across societal scales, and trade-offs between options.This means assessing adaptation options as processes and drivers that shape the development of measures including awareness of factors that both facilitate and impede such measures. The Barents area broadly covers northern Europe and northernmost Russia and includes large ocean areas (see