Arctic Environment Ministers’ meeting

23 October 2018

The OSPAR Secretariat attended the Arctic Environment Ministers’ meeting, 11-12 October 2018, Rovaniemi, Finland, where discussions on climate change, biodiversity and the prevention of pollution in the Arctic took place, back to back with the Arctic Biodiversity Congress 2018 (http://www.ym.fi/en-US/Latest_news/Press_releases/Arctic_Council_meeting_of_environment_mi(48191).

The alarming conclusions of the Special Report (http://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/) released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, referred to a warming two to three times higher in the Arctic than the global annual average, putting Arctic populations and indigenous peoples at a greater risk of adverse consequences. The Ministerial meeting favoured an ecosystem-based approach to management, as well as the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, in order to strengthen ecosystem resilience in changing conditions. International cooperation was considered essential to address long-range pollution that ends up in the Arctic region, including plastics and new emerging contaminants.