Arctic Frontiers 2024

UiBs program på Arctic Frontiers

Her finner du Universitetet i Bergens arrangementer og mangfoldige aktiviteter under Arctic Frontiers 2024.

Hovedinnhold

Oppdatert: 31.01.2024 (Først publisert: 23.01.2024)

Som et ledende universitet på forskning i Arktis er Universitetet i Bergen (UiB) tungt til stede på den internasjonale møteplassen Arctic Frontiers i Tromsø også i 2024. En delegasjon ledet av rektor Margareth Hagen vil bidra til å belyse Arktis stadig mer sentrale geopolitiske betydning.

– Arktis har aldri vært så viktig som i dag og UiB er og skal være en tung forskningsaktør i regionen. Forskningssektoren leverer pålitelig og solid kunnskap om Arktis, slik at beslutningstakere kan treffe gode avgjørelser for vår felles fremtid, sier rektor Margareth Hagen og fortsetter:

– Ikke minst har krig og uro i våre nærområder bidratt til at vi og våre europeiske og arktiske naboer står i en ny geopolitisk situasjon som krever kunnskap og innsikt fra universitetssektoren. Jeg er glad for at UiB stiller med en sterk, flerfaglig delegasjon på Arctic Frontiers og ser frem til å bidra i flere debatter.

– Dette blir gøy, sier instituttleder og professor Tor Eldevik, som har vært primus motor for UiBs Arctic Frontiers deltakelse, og også sitter i styret for organisasjonen bak arrangementet.

– Arctic Frontiers er en veldig god blanding av forskning, kunnskapsbasert debatt og formidling. Her møtes det lokale, det nasjonale og det internasjonale. Det er ministre, byråkrater, næringsliv og stipendiater. Jeg opplever det utrolig givende for UiB å være sentralt til stede der kunnskapen får bryne seg på beslutningstakere, og vice versa.

– For egen del, ser jeg spesielt frem til at UiB denne gangen tar med seg både EU- og faktadebatt til scenen i Tromsø. Det tror jeg skal lage litt liv.

Under konferansen vil UiB og andre deltakere fra Bergen bidra på en rekke arrangement sammen med nasjonale og internasjonale partnere. Her finner du en oversikt.

MANDAG 29. JANUAR

Norway-EU Science Diplomacy Network: Developing a European Framework for Science Diplomacy

Tid: Mandag 29. januar kl. 09.00-10.30

Sted: Importkompaniet, The Edge

Postdoktor og SEAS fellow João Bettencourt fra Geofysisk institutt deltar i dette panelet om vitenskapsdiplomati og vil særlig bringe inn perspektiver knyttet til hav.

Side eventet organiseres av Norway-EU Science Diplomacy Network. Professor Rasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen fra UiT – Norges arktiske universitet leder nettverket, som i tillegg har UiB, Arctic Frontiers og EU Science Diplomacy Alliance som medlemmer. På dette side eventet er vi spesielt glade for at Frankrikes ambassadør til Norge, Florence Robine, skal holde innlegg om betydningen av vitenskapsdiplomati.

Beskrivelse av innholdet:

All dimensions of Europe's place in the world, including academia, including the Arctic, reflect relative demographic, economic, scientific, technological, political, cultural, military, etc., power shifting back to the Rest of the World after centuries of a Western-dominated world. This side-event will discuss Arctic and global dimensions of European science diplomacy in a post-Western world from both academic and practitioner perspectives. Europe must rethink its place and relations in this changing world, including academic relations. The side-event will also report from the 1st European Science Diplomacy Conference: Towards a European Approach to Science Diplomacy, under the Spanish EU Presidency, Madrid, December 2023.

Science diplomacy on the Arctic, Russia, the UN, and oceans, are key foreign and security policy instruments and interests for Norway. It contributes to low-tension and science-based management in the Arctic and builds trust between Norway and Russia.

The EU (European Union) is determined to use science diplomacy in a much more strategic way to ensure Europe's place in the world, including the Arctic.

Science diplomacy is the use of scientific research and higher education for foreign and security policy purposes. There is a long historical record of such use of research and higher education by both state and non-state actors. In recent years, the term science diplomacy has gained much attention in scholarly and policy circles, which should not be confused with recent occurrence, as science diplomacy as practice has a long record.

The European Union with its member-states is one of the biggest economic, regulatory, scientific and security actors in the world with worldwide presence and reach. European nations have centuries of global engagement, and European science, culture, languages, education, etc., has penetrated and shaped large parts of the world. The European Union therefore seeks a deep theoretical and strategic understanding of the use and potential of science diplomacy for its global role based on historical research. This theoretical and strategic understanding is pursued through the EU Science Diplomacy Alliance based on legacy H2020 projects EL-CSID, InsSciDE and S4D4C.

The Norway-EU Science Diplomacy Network (the Network) organizes a side-event at the 2024 Arctic Frontiers conference between its constituent partners, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Arctic Frontiers, UiB SDG Bergen Science Advice, the European Union Science Diplomacy Alliance and the Horizon2020 InsSciDE. The Network will also separately organize business meetings and field visits in Tromsø outside the Arctic Frontiers conference.

The Norway-EU Science Diplomacy Network enhances Norwegian participation in European Science Diplomacy Alliance and shares findings, resources, and networks of the Alliance with Norwegian public, private, academia, and civil society.

The Norway-EU Science Diplomacy Network allows Norwegian societal actors to develop their science diplomacy practice with H2020 input, Alliance research to include Norwegian experience, and EU institutions to learn from Norway.

This project builds a long-term Norway-EU Science Diplomacy Network to support Norwegian and EU research and strategy on science diplomacy.

InsSciDE has received funding under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme (grant agreement n° 770523, 2018-2022).

Interdisciplinary poster session

Dette er ikke en EU-debatt

TIRSDAG 30. JANUAR

Observing Ice-Ocean-Atmosphere Interactions: Changes and Effects on Interannual to Centennial Timescales. Part 2

The Facts Are...

Tid: Tirsdag 30. januar kl. 11.00-12.30

Sted: Margarinfabrikken 1 & 2, The Edge

Tre UiB-forskere deltar i denne sesjonen. Professor ved Institutt for biovitenskap og preses i Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi Lise Øvreås. Førsteamanuensis Endre Tvinnereim fra Institutt for politikk og forvaltning. Instituttleder og professor Tor Eldevik fra Geofysisk institutt og Bjerknessenteret for klimaforskning er moderator for debatten.

Frankrikes ambassadør til Norge, Florence Robin, deltar også i debatten sammen med direktør for Polarinstituttet, Camilla Brekke, rektor ved UiS, Klaus Mohn, og førsteamanuensis ved UiT – Norges arktiske universitet, Troy Broderstad. Vi gleder oss til en god diskusjon med dem for å få fakta på bordet.

Kort beskrivelse:

What are Norwegians' opinions toward important societal matters? And how have they evolved over time? What are the facts, the distinct trends in public opinion over the last 10 years? For example public support (or opposition) to onshore and offshore wind power generation; of NATO or the EU; concern about Norway's state of finances; what are the Norwegian voters' main political issues (e.g., climate and environment, healthcare, or the economy); and how these project on voting preferences.

The Norwegian Citizen Panel (https://www.uib.no/en/citizen), has been consulted by social scientists at the University of Bergen and NORCE regularly since 2013. Here we present and debate some the key trends related to the above and more, and how they have evolved to present data. We will assess and debate how response is stratified with respect to demography including geography, and what seems particularly contested about or in the Arctic. Important reference points in time include the COVID pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine.

And in the end, to what extent are these facts – the Citizen Panel's evolving societal perception over the last 10 years – reflected in how Norwegian society and politics have evolved, and particularly in an Arctic perspective. How can these facts better inform decision makers, politicians, media, and so on? Where could they for example be better informed by actually taking this into account?

Concerted Efforts for International Collaboration in the Arctic Ocean

The Future Barents Sea Ecosystem: Adapting and Managing for 2050 and Beyond

Tid: Tirsdag 30. januar kl. 17.30-19.00

Sted: Arbeidskontoret 1, The Edge

Forsker Marius Årthun fra Geofysisk institutt og Bjerknessenteret for klimaforskning deltar i debatten sammen med Per Sandberg fra Fiskeridirektoratet, Benedicte Nielsen fra Norges råfisklag og Anita Evenset fra Akvaplan-Niva.

Kort beskrivelse:

The Barents Sea generates wealth and jobs, and contributes to food security for Norway, Europe, and the world. The marine ecosystem underpinning these socioeconomic services is changing rapidly, and planning and managing for the future require timely knowledge on how the system responds to change and what may be expected over the next decades. The Nansen Legacy Project has spent the last 5 years conducting field work, laboratory research, and modeling studies investigation the changing climate system and its impacts on the structure and function of the Barents Sea ecosystem. In this side event we report on projections for both 2050 and 2100 from physical, biogeochemical, and ecological perspectives, and discuss the consequences for ecosystem-based management. We invite contributions from management, industry, and planning sectors to discuss how our projections may impact their forecasts. Several short presentations will be followed by an open, moderated panel discussion.

Warming of the Barent Sea – how will it impact fishing?

Fishing is one of the most important livelihoods in the North of Norway. For the last ten years, the economical results have been at an all-time high. Climate predictions tell us that the Barents Sea is heating up. Consequently, fish populations will probably change their migrating patterns accordingly. Can we spot changes already? How does the fishing industry in the North prepare for the changes to come, both in the short and the long term?

Management of fisheries under climate change

Norway is one of the leading fisheries nations in the world, ranking as number 10 in terms of catch volume. Its fisheries are based on fish stocks shared with other countries, and some of the most important ones are found in the Northeast Atlantic and the Barents Sea. Climate change may influence both the productivity and distribution of fish stocks, as well as species interaction. It is important to assess the consequences of these. In this short introduction Specialist Director Per Sandberg at the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries will elaborate on climate change and some of their possible implications for Norwegian Fisheries.

The future Barents Sea - a synthesis of physical, ecological and biogeochemical changes toward 2050 and 2100

The Barents Sea is a hotspot for ongoing Arctic climate change, manifested in a rapid warming of the ocean and the atmosphere, and a strong decline of the winter sea-ice cover. These changes in the physical environment have large consequences for the marine ecosystems and fish populations. In a warmer future climate, both physical and ecological changes are expected to intensify. Here we provide a first comprehensive overview of future climate change projections for the Barents Sea, and the associated physical, ecological, and biogeochemical consequences based climate models, end-to-end ecosystem models, and statistical models of ecological processes. We detail and discuss changes in ocean and atmospheric temperatures, stratification, ocean acidification, primary production, and fish stocks. We furthermore discuss potential future changes in human activities and their impacts, including changes in shipping activity and contaminants. We analyze results for two time horizons - the near-future (2040-2050) and the far-future (2090-2100) - and for two different emission scenarios; one with moderate future greenhouse gas emissions (SSP2-4.5) and one high emission scenario (SSP5-8.5). Implications of these results are far-reaching, including outlining the sensitivity of climate change to future emissions, informing regional management strategies, and potentially identifying needs for adaptation to changes already likely to occur.

ONSDAG 31. JANUAR

The Future Arctic Ocean and GoNorth initiatives

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TORSDAG 1. FEBRUAR

A New Arctic Energy Mix – at what Costs? The Finnmark Example

Tid: Torsdag 30. januar kl. 11.00-12.30

Sted: Arbeidskontoret 2, The Edge

Professor Eystein Jansen fra Institutt for geovitenskap og Bjerknessenteret for klimaforskning og akademisk direktør for Academia Europaea Bergen Knowledge Hub. organiserer møtet og deltar selv i paneldebatten.

I tillegg deltar sjefredaktør Helge Nitteberg i Nordlys, ordfører Wenche Pedersen fra Vadsø, direktør Lars-Henrik Paarup Michelsen i Norsk klimastiftelse, regionsdirektør Sigrid Ina Simonsen i NHO Arktis, førsteamanuensis Jonas Kristiansen Nøland ved NTNU, avdelingsleder Anne Ingeborg Myhr i NORCE, spesialrådgiver Geir Vollsæter i Fagforbundet Industri Energi og prosjektleder Ole Øvretveit i Kystutviklingssenteret.

Les mer om dette arrangementet her.

Kort beskrivelse:

The Norwegian government´s decision to change the energy source at the Melkøya Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) plant from natural gas to electrical power in August 2023 has been followed by a polarised debate. This decision has ramifications that extend beyond local considerations. The debate mirrors numerous global challenges related to the green transition and the and the need for more energy.

The IPCC finds that there is a more than 50% chance that global temperature rise will reach or surpass 1.5 degrees Celsius between 2021 and 2040. Norway, as the rest of the world is struggling to reach the Paris agreement´s 1.5 or even 2-degree target and close to 3-degrees seem likely given current pledges and implementation. While the decision to electrify Melkeøya will have a large positive impact on reduction of Norway’s inland CO2 emissions, many fear negative consequences for e.g., local industry, jobs, communities, nature, reindeer herding and energy security.

Like most Arctic regions the population of Finnmark is rapidly decreasing, and the need for energy is a crucial factor for e.g., development of new jobs. How much energy and from which sources, will be needed to compensate for the electrification of Melkøya. And how will this conflict with recommendations from the UN’s Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), that states that “The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.”

The case of Melkøya raises many issues. A central question is how to provide legitimacy considering both scientific knowledge and stakeholder interests. We will take this important debate by addressing the dilemmas and also discuss what solutions developing technologies and systems might provide, like multisource micro energy plants, hydrogen solutions, offshore wind and maybe even nuclear power.

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Arctic motive used to illustrate Arctic Frontiers 2024 conference

Foto/ill.:

Lloyd Woodham via Unsplash

Foto/ill.:

Arctic Frontiers