The modern Arctic is a busy place. New mines and crowds of tourists drawn by the changing climate jockey for space alongside traditional communities and the lands they depend on.
At the crossroads of all that traffic sits the small town of Kiruna, in northern Sweden. Which makes it an appropriate backdrop for the Arctic Council meeting it hosts on May 15.
Senior ministers from the Council’s member states meet every two years, and as global awareness of the region has grown, so too has the attention drawn by these gatherings. Next week, eyes will be on Kiruna.
As Gustaf Lind, head of the Senior Arctic Officials noted in a press briefing earlier this week, “it’s an interesting town since it shows how the Arctic is developing.”
And developing Kiruna is. It’s an Arctic town built on mining; iron was officially noted in the mountain Kirunavaara almost three centuries ago. Around the end of the 19th century a railway to transport ore was completed and Luossavaara-Kirunavaara AB, also known as LKAB, was founded.
Today, the underground mine in Kiruna—the largest of its kind in the world—produces about 76,000 tons of ore every day, according to the LKAB website. Or, enough to fill up a 12-story building.
But Kiruna is becoming increasingly well known for more than what it digs out of the ground. It neighbours the Esrange Space Centre, a rocket range and research centre. It has a healthy tourism industry and well known hotels. It’s driving distance to several protected areas, including Abisko national park. And of course, the area it occupies is part of the traditional home of the Sami people, who have raised major concerns about the impact of increased activity—iron mining in particular—on the grazing range of the reindeer they depend on.
So there’s no question that Kiruna is developing, but it’s doing so while trying to negotiate the needs of multiple stakeholders in a small, environmentally sensitive area.
How best to manage the future of the Arctic—and juggle these competing interests—is at the heart of next week’s upcoming Arctic Council meeting. As more and more nations begin to look north, the Arctic Council aims to help guide development in the Arctic in the years to come.
Lind says a couple of important documents will be approved, including the Arctic Marine Oil Pollution Preparedness and Response Agreement, which will set out a framework for collaborating on any future oil spills.
The ministers also plan to release an overall “Vision for the Arctic,” which will shape development in the High North for the next 16 years.
There will also be reports presented on Arctic preparedness, ocean acidification, Arctic pollution, the current state of Arctic biodiversity, and the resilience of communities and environments in the face of climate change.
The Council will also decide on 14 applications for observer status—including ones from the European Union, China and South Korea.
What the Council will not discuss is climate change or the growth of carbon dioxide emissions. These are areas, Lind says, that fall under the jurisdiction of the United Nations.
Finally, Sweden will hand the baton to Canada, who takes over the chairmanship of the Arctic Council for the next two years.
