MB3: Green financing, blue economy: investments in Arctic biodiversity

Date: Thursday October 11, 2018

Location: Saivo, Lappia Hall

Time: 10:30-12:00

The Arctic is a diverse, rapidly-changing and environmentally sensitive region that is home to over four million culturally diverse residents, and an emerging global investment opportunity. This session will provide an orientation of available financial platforms, partnerships and examples of existing initiatives and interventions aiming at mitigation of climate impacts, pollution prevention, enhancing energy and resource efficiencies, including cross-media impacts, to address removal of hot-spots and improving the Arctic environment in general. The session will have several presentations followed by a panel discussion with a summary of key conclusions.

Chair: Husamuddin Ahmadzai, Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO)

Format: Series of presentations followed by discussion

Presentations:

Financing green investments in the Arctic and Barents Region- NEFCO's near term cooperation: Husamuddin Ahmadzai, Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO)
The Arctic blue economy: risks and opportunities: Tom Arnbom, World Wildlife Fund
Financing green investments in the Arctic and Barents Region- The Arctic Council Project Support Instrument (PSI) and NEFCO's near term cooperation: Husamuddin Ahmadzai, Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO)
Financing green investments in the Arctic and Barents Region- The Barents Hot-spots Facility (BHSF) and NEFCO's near term cooperation: Henrik G. Forsström, Nordic Environment Finance Corporation
Financing sustainable development in the Russian Arctic zone: Vladim Litvak, VTB Ecology
Perspectives of regional governments on conservation of biodiversity in conditions of industrial development of the Arctic: Sakhamin Afanasiev, Minister, Ministry of Ecology, Nature Management and Forestry of Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Russia

Abstracts

Financing green investments in the Arctic and Barents Region- NEFCO's near term cooperation

Husamuddin Ahmadzai, Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO); Henrik G. Forström, Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO)

NEFCO is supporting a number of initiatives and projects including implementation of Arctic and Barents Councils' initiatives e.g. through financing and project support for green investments addressing bio-diversity and sustainable development. The cooperation covers support to the ACAP Working Group's contaminant mitigation projects and AMBI-CAFF bird work. NEFCO's support is carried out through a number of instruments such as the Arctic Council Project Support Instrument (PSI), the Barents Hot-spot Facility (BHSF), the Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership (NDEP) and information exchanges in the context of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) and the EU work regarding use of best environmental technologies and practices. The presentation will provide and overview of how this is and can be done in the near term addressing the sustainable development goals.

The Arctic Blue Economy: risks and opportunities

Tom Arnbom, World Wildlife Fund

The Arctic is undergoing dramatic change, driven by global climate change and a growing human presence. These twin pressures are having a profound impact on Arctic ecosystems and peoples. The changing climate means an ocean defined by sea ice is changing to an ocean that will be mostly open water for several months of the year. At the same time, the Arctic is increasingly attracting new investment. Most of that will be to expand marine-based or shipping-dependent industries, and build the coastal, terrestrial and marine infrastructure to support them such as new ports and airports, roads and housing to support mining operations, drilling platforms, expanded fishing fleets, tourism facilities, and many other developments. These developments will affect nature and the way of life for indigenous and local people. It is of high importance that the concept of a Sustainable Blue Economy for the Arctic is adopted and based on the principles of ecosystem-based management, circular and renewable technologies, and inclusive governance processes to secure a sustainable development in the Arctic. This work will address Recommendations 3.1, 4.1, 4.3 and 4.4 of the Arctic Biodiversity Assessment.