"On Friday 1 December 2017, Anders Samuelsen, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Denmark, and Suka K. Frederiksen, Minister of Independence, Foreign Affairs and Agriculture, Greenland, in partnership with the Arctic Economic Council and planned together with the Faroe Islands, hosted an international high-level Conference in Copenhagen on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Arctic." IASC was represented at this meeting by Naja Mikkelsen, IASC Vice-President & Marine Working Group member from the Kingdom of Denmark.
"The Conference offered dynamic discussions on sustainable development in the Arctic, including economic development, and the three dimensions of the SDGs: social; environmental; and economic." Key outcomes include that:
- "The SDGs present a good framework for strategic and concrete cooperation and economic development in the Arctic.
- A holistic approach to development, including the voices of the Arctic peoples, is crucial to ensuring that development is truly sustainable.
- Climate change, which is particularly affecting the Arctic, is a global challenge calling for global rules and regulations.
- There is no one Arctic region, but rather diverse, multidimensional national and sub-national Arctics with similarities and differences."
Further information, including background, program, and key insights from the meeting (which this post quotes) are available at http://um.dk/en/foreign-policy/the-arctic/the-sdgs-in-the-arctic/program/.
If you are potentially interested in representing IASC at future meetings, please contact the IASC Secretariat.