Is Adaptation Governable in the Arctic? National and Regional Approaches to Arctic Adaptation Governance

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is introduce adaptation to impacts of climate change as part of international climate governance in the Arctic. In the Arctic, there is a clash of two discourses – scientific discourse on concern for the impacts of climate change and neoliberal discourse of new opportunities for resource exploitation made possible by the climate change. The chapter studies the national communications of eight Arctic states to the secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change since the early 1990s to analyze three related questions (1) how the concern for the climate change and its impacts are articulated as “governable problems” in the national communications, (2) how the regional concern for the Arctic is manifested nationally and (3) how the agency in developing preparedness, and responses to climate change impacts are constructed in these communications.

The analysis of the concern for the climate change impacts in the Arctic countries show that the national concerns are constructed by using different discursive strategies. Most of the Arctic countries have found their “arcticness” after the publication of the ACIA report in 2004. The main reason for these national approaches to differ so much in their approach to the Arctic region is largely explained by the simple fact that these reports are written from the perspective of national economic interest. In this national economic interest arctic region offer natural resources and climate change in many cases promises to help the exploitation of these resources. Although, the issue of climate change has emerged on the Arctic political agenda, adaptation plans and measures have not been developed as an area for Arctic political cooperation.