ARCTIC: COP30 & more – 18th Nov 2025

Góðan daginn from BA! This is the Rorshok Arctic Update from the 18th of November twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what’s going down North of the Arctic Circle!

The eyes of the world and the hopes of a healthier climate are all turned toward Brazil, as the twenty twenty-five United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP30, takes place. In the hopes of keeping the future of the Arctic at the forefront of climate discussions, on Friday the 14th, the Inuit Circumpolar Council issued a paper to the conference attendees with its recommendations for ensuring a sustainable Arctic climate, while strengthening Indigenous rights.

Among the recommendations are ensuring that Indigenous communities are given greater powers to manage their lands, including the Inuit Council in upcoming UN climate negotiations, and incorporating traditional knowledge into scientific research.

The magazine, Living on Earth, has an excellent interview with climate scientist Miriam Jackson on how the conference’s negotiations could impact the Arctic. Link in the show notes.

Canada is making progress towards an Arctic that is fairer and healthier. On Thursday the 13th, Mark Carney, the Prime Minister, announced seven initiatives that he is fast-tracking into completion, two of which affect Arctic territories.

In Iqaluit, Nunavut, the first totally Inuit-owned hydro energy project will be built by an Inuit development company, and generate enough renewable electricity to replace the 15 million liters of imported diesel that Nunavut currently relies on.

In the Yukon and northern British Columbia, The Northwest Critical Conservation Corridor will be built. This project will develop the northwestern coast of Canada, expanding mining, industry, and renewable energy, while creating a surrounding conservation area to offset the environmental cost of this development.

Nunavut is celebrating investment in the conservation of its oceans. On Thursday the 13th, the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, which represents most of Nunavut’s Inuit communities, announced the finalization of a landmark agreement with the federal government and several charitable trusts that will invest about $200 million US dollars in Inuit-led ocean conservation.

Named The Sinaa Agreement, this conservation program will run over the next ten years. Qikiqtani’s Indigenous communities will establish and maintain new protected conservation areas, while improving local infrastructure and training Inuit in leadership roles.

While the Canadian government has made its hopes of a prosperous Arctic clear this week, the north faces darker dangers from abroad. On Thursday the 13th, Dan Rogers, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, gave a speech where he flagged the growing threat posed by hostile nations that are seeking control of the Arctic. He specifically cited the intelligence services of China and Russia, which have been targeting both governments and the private sector in the region.

He accused Russia of trying to acquire Canadian resources to use in its war against Ukraine, and accused China of trying to recruit Canadians with military knowledge as double agents in the Arctic.

Security risks in the north don’t just come from foreign governments, according to Johann Johannsson, Iceland’s Climate Minister. On Wednesday the 12th, he told Reuters that the theorized collapse of the AMOC, the major Atlantic Ocean current system, has been designated as a national security concern and an existential threat to Iceland’s very survival.

Scientists have seen that climate change is causing ocean currents to change rapidly, and believe that if the Atlantic Ocean’s main current system collapses, it could plunge northern Europe into a new ice age. This Atlantic collapse is exactly how Earth’s last ice age began, and we could be heading there again.

Avoiding the worst-case scenario for Arctic climate change is difficult while the US government continues to deprioritize climate research. On Thursday the 13th, Reuters reported that the federal government quietly removed one of the chief officials in charge of the U.S. Arctic research policy.

Elizabeth Qaulluq Cravalho, an Alaska Native, was a commissioner of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, appointed by former President Biden. Reuters’ sources believe President Trump will replace Cravalho with someone who aligns with his desire to expand military and energy extraction in the Arctic, instead of advocating for environmental and climate protections.

Native groups in Alaska are fighting back against the Trump administration’s activities. On Thursday the 13th, the news agency, The Alaska Beacon, reported that three tribal governments and several environmental groups sued the Trump administration the day prior. Their suit hopes to block the construction of a road through a national wildlife refuge in southwestern Alaska.

Supporters of the road project say it will connect the remote town of King Cove to better transport links, but opposers say the proposed road route runs directly through the middle of the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, which is vital habitat for numerous endangered species.

A legal battle in Norway has been hailed as a win for people, nature and climate. On Friday the 14th, an Oslo Appeals Court announced its verdict in the case, which saw Greenpeace taking on the Norwegian government to stop three major oil and gas fields from operating. The court ruled that the climate impacts of the Tyrving, Breidablikk and Yggdrasil oil and gas fields were not properly assessed, so they are operating illegally. The court has given the government six months to conduct new environmental assessments.

This legal battle has been ongoing for over two years, but now the government must prove its vast oil projects are not causing serious harm to the Norwegian environment.

Speaking of oil and gas exploration in the Arctic, a hidden source has been discovered in northern Greenland. According to a study published on Wednesday the 12th, a research team from the University of Aarhus investigated the seafloor of the Northeast Greenland margin, one of the least explored continental margins on Earth.

They discovered that large amounts of oil and natural gas are seeping from below the seafloor, releasing into the ocean. While oil and gas leaking into the ocean might seem harmful, it is all part of the natural carbon cycle, which supports Arctic life. More danger comes from increasing hydrocarbon extractions across the north, which risk disrupting the carbon cycle, causing permanent harm across the ocean.

From Greenland’s resources to its people, a new report has revealed Greenland’s income inequalities.

There is a gender pay gap, with men paid around twenty percent more than women in Greenland. The most surprising statistic comes when you look at the nationality of the highest earners, though. Danish men are, by a large margin, the group who were paid the most money in twenty twenty-four, and the lowest earning group is Greenlandic women.

According to Marie-Kathrine Poppel, a researcher of inequality in Greenland and the Arctic, the income differences between native Greenlanders and Danes who move to the country is attributed to the unbalanced distribution of power and education between the two countries.

In The Faroe Islands, one of the most ambitious construction projects in the country’s history is at risk of collapse. The Faroese Economic Council said on Friday the 14th, that it will not invest in the Southern Island Tunnel project (which is intended to connect the island of Suðuroy to the main islands) due to the high costs of almost $800 million US dollars.

Suðuroy is the nation’s southernmost island and can only be reached by a ferry, meaning the island and its 4,500 residents are disconnected from easy access to Faroese services. While the parliament voted to advance the project last year, the Economic Council says that until the Faroe Islands’ economic outlook improves, it is too expensive to connect Suðuroy with its northern neighbors.

Finally, let’s head over to northern Russia, as Reuters reported on Friday the 14th that scientists have recovered the oldest-known RNA from a woolly mammoth that lived nearly 40,000 years ago.

The find is remarkable because RNA is far more fragile than DNA, and, until now, the oldest known sample was only 14,000 years old. This breakthrough lets researchers peer into the mammoth’s full metabolic landscape, offering an unprecedented look at its biology. The analysis shows the animal was a male, stood about five feet, 1.6 metres tall, and had been attacked by a cave lion shortly before it died — details once thought impossible to uncover.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

Don’t go yet! You’ll like what’s next. The first five people who send us an email at info@rorshok.com saying T-shirt and Arctic Update will get a free t-shirt! You'd better hurry!

Ha Det