Highlighting Businesses as Key Non-state Actors in the Arctic: Collaboration Between Arctic Economic Council and Polar Research and Policy Initiative

Abstract

Think tanks play a key role in the Arctic by providing much-needed analysis, reporting, and advisory services for a critical, yet relatively unknown, region of the world. This chapter provides an overview of one project delivered by an Arctic think tank, Polar Research and Policy Initiative (PRPI). Commissioned by the Arctic Economic Council (AEC), an international organisation representing the voice of industry in the Arctic, the resultant report focuses on the sustainability measures undertaken by another set of key non-state actors in the region: businesses and investment projects. The report demonstrates that the Arctic is an area where businesses have a unique responsibility to safeguard the environment, and work with and strengthen local communities. A series of case studies is presented, each focused on one business or development project, and its adherence to sustainability standards as laid out by the Arctic Investment Protocol, a series of internationally recognised guidelines for investment and commercial activity in the Arctic. These businesses represent every Arctic nation, and most key sectors. Through a structured interview process and key financial data, they demonstrate their own sustainability credentials, worthiness for investment, and provide material from which PRPI has drawn a series of findings and recommendations to policy makers. Through reports such as this one, these non-state actors’ role in the Arctic can be better understood, creating the conditions for responsible and holistic policymaking.