ARCTIC: Sanctions & more – 18th Jun 2024

Bures from BA! This is the Rorshok Arctic Update from the 18th of June twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what’s going down North of the Arctic Circle!

Global conflicts are hitting the Arctic hard. On Wednesday the 12th, the US Treasury Department announced new sanctions against Russia in response to its ongoing invasion of Ukraine. These sanctions target three of Russia's Arctic natural gas projects, Obsky LNG, Arctic LNG 1, and Arctic LNG 3, and companies building infrastructure for other Russian Arctic energy projects. Each new round of US sanctions makes it increasingly difficult for Russian companies to buy materials from other countries, raising the time and cost to complete Russia's Arctic energy projects.

Despite the sanctions, Novatek, the company running the Arctic LNG projects, released a statement on Monday the 17th saying that the the projects would be finished by July twenty twenty-six.

But the country isn't backing down from Arctic dominance. On the same day the sanctions were announced, Russian power company Rosatom revealed the completion of a military expedition to the North Pole. The company provided the icebreaker that brought over eighty veterans from the war in Ukraine to the North Pole, where they planted Russian flags adorned with the Z symbol, which is the Fascism-inspired symbol of Russia’s wars of aggression. The expedition aimed to train soldiers who fought in Ukraine to become business and political leaders in Russian society.

The once peaceful Russian and Norwegian Arctic border has increasingly become a place of military activity. On Monday the 10th, the Russian military flew two long-range bomber planes along Norway’s northern border in a display of Russia’s power. Norway responded on Wednesday the 12th when the country’s parliament unanimously approved a new aerial defense plan that will double Norway’s anti-aircraft weaponry. On the same day, Navy shipbuilders delivered a new military vessel to Norway’s navy in Tomrefjord, which is the third new navy vessel built in the last year specifically to protect Norway’s northern coast.

Norway's northern seas face challenges beyond military activity. In early June, an Irish ship traveled through the Norwegian islands of Svalbard while carrying heavy fuel oil, violating the Svalbard Environment Act, which prohibits the presence of heavy fuel oil in the region. On Thursday the 13th, the governor of Svalbard confirmed that the shipping company had been fined nearly $100,000 US dollars for this infraction. Shipping companies must transition away from heavy fuels promptly, as a UN ban effective on the 1st of July will prohibit most ships from using heavy fuels in much of the Arctic Ocean.

Oil might be getting banned but whaling in Iceland is not. On Tuesday the 11th, Bjarkey Olsen Gunnarsdóttir , the Minister of Fisheries, granted the whaling company Hvalur a new license to hunt fin whales this year. This decision, delayed for months due to political turmoil, has sparked anger from all sides. Hvalur stated on Friday the 14th that the late decision might prevent them from hunting at all this year. Animal welfare groups worldwide have condemned the permit, with The Humane Society International criticizing Iceland on Tuesday the 11th for allowing what they call immense animal suffering.

Speaking of fisheries, ice is melting in the Arctic Ocean, and new fishing grounds are opening. The UN is attempting to establish laws by setting up the Central Arctic Ocean Fisheries Agreement. On Friday the 14th, the ten Arctic nations met in South Korea to agree on who can fish in the high Arctic and how much can be fished. Unfortunately, they could not agree on the conditions for commercial fishing. In twenty eighteen, the Arctic countries agreed on a moratorium on any commercial fishing in this area until twenty thirty-seven so there is still time to create a sustainable plan for fishing.

This week was a monumental one across Europe with elections for the European Parliament taking place over the continent. On Sunday the 9th, three candidates from the Arctic region were newly elected to the EU, two in Finland and one in Sweden. While the trend across Europe was to elect far-right parties, the Nordic nations all granted the majority of their European parliament seats to left-leaning and green parties.

Want to explore the impactful EU election results? Follow the link in the show notes!

The iconic resident of the Arctic, the polar bear, received mixed news this week. On Thursday the 13th, research group Polar Bears International released two studies on how the species is adapting to climate change. The good news is that fears of polar bears disappearing due to hybrid breeding with grizzly bears are not coming true. Their study found that hybrid Grolar bears have remained at only one percent of the North American bear population. However, as ice continues to disappear and polar bears are forced south to find food, the risk of increased breeding with grizzly bears remains a concern.

On the other hand, if the world fails to meet the UN’s most ambitious climate targets, Canada risks losing most of its polar bear population due to disappearing ice. These animals need ice because it's like camouflage, which keeps the young bears safe, and it's where they hunt for food. Less ice means finding food will be harder and the cubs will be in danger. Hudson Bay in Canada could be ice-free for most of the year if global warming reaches two degrees Celsius, or about thirty-six Fahrenheit, leading to the collapse of the Hudson Bay ecosystem. Scientists consider Hudson Bay an indicator for the rest of the Arctic, making this a worrying sign for polar bears across the entire region.

But there’s some good news for people in the Canadian north this week. On Tuesday the 11th, Northwestel, the biggest telecommunications company in northern Canada, announced that it is being sold to a consortium of Indigenous Communities across Canada’s northern territories for almost 1 billion US dollars. Tiffany Eckert-Maret, one of the consortium leaders, said this development will allow the prioritization of telecommunications for northern Canadians who have been previously ignored by national companies. The consortium has pledged to double internet speeds for those who already have fiber internet available, and to make high-speed satellite broadband available to even the most remote communities in Canada.

Turning to Alaska. While the US government protects much of the Arctic from oil drilling, it hasn't abandoned the practice. On Wednesday the 12th, the Department of Natural Resources held an auction for oil and gas drilling leases in the Cook Inlet Basin and the Alaska Peninsula in southern Alaska. Unusually, these leases were offered royalty-free, meaning drillers wouldn't need to send the usual twelve percent of profit to the state government. This discount aimed to attract new investment after only six unsatisfactory bids last year. Despite this, only three bids were made for Cook Inlet, and none for the Peninsula. The head of the Department of Natural Resources acknowledged on the 12th that the sale was a failure, and the state needs to consider new ways to make oil and gas exploration in Alaska's remote regions more appealing.

Oil might be going out of fashion but finding the critical minerals to power renewable technologies is the future. Greenland is home to huge amounts of these minerals and on Tuesday the 11th, the Greenlandic government sold a license to mine the Tanbreez Rare Earth Mine, one of the world's largest known rare earth deposits. The mining company Critical Metals Corporation has purchased the license for over $200 million US dollars and when the mine becomes operational, it will be one of the only large sources of rare minerals in the Western Hemisphere.

Finally this week, a chapter in history closes. The famous explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton died in nineteen twenty-two on board the ship Quest, while exploring the Antarctic. The ship continued to explore the world before mysteriously sinking in nineteen sixty-two in the Arctic Ocean. But on Wednesday the 12th, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society announced their team, which includes Shackleton’s granddaughter, has finally discovered the wreck of Quest in the Labrador Sea, between Canada and Greenland. Over a hundred years since his death, the extraordinary story of Sir Ernest Shackleton can finally close.

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

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Mana