Arctic Governance, International Cooperation for Environmental Protection and Safety of Offshore Operations

Current trends call upon Arctic governance innovation, towards the strengthening of international cooperation between Arctic and non-Arctic States, and the setting up of environmental provisions common to all actors. This Project evaluates the adequacy, efficiency and efficacy of current environmental governance systems to face climate change challenges and intends to carry out a crosscutting analysis for the purpose to contribute in finding new governance solutions, including the elaboration of recommendations on environmental policy measures, the safety of offshore operations, and the participation of indigenous people in decision-making on environmental and development events which have a strong impact on their way of living. End-users will be involved through consultation activities on environmental impact assessment (EIA) and corporate environmental responsibility (CER). This will assist in understanding the interests related to the offshore operations. This Project is structured in four thematic areas, articulated in several specific issues and objectives: I. Arctic Governance; II. International Cooperation for Arctic Environmental Protection; III. The Safety of Offshore Operations IV. Sociological and Anthropological Aspects of Sustainable Development in the Arctic. The Project novelty is its simultaneous focus on climatology; international and national relevant legislation; international, EU, and Arctic States policies; environmental sociology and sociology of governance. The expected results will represent a significant improvement and deepening of existing knowledge and will have a positive impact on the academic community, industrial sector, and practitioners, while helping institutions, local communities and indigenous people to identify possible tools for boosting an innovative Arctic environmental governance.