 Good afternoon or good morning, ladies and gentlemen on behalf of the Institute of International and European Affairs and Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs who are jointly hosting today's event. I'd like to welcome you to this webinar on Ireland and the Arctic Council. This is being held in the context of Ireland's recent application to join the Arctic Council as an observer. My name is David Domehoo. I'm a former Irish diplomat and I'm delighted to have been asked to moderate today's event. Just some housekeeping points first. You can join the discussion using the Q&A function on Zoom which you will see on your screens. Please feel free to send in questions at any time when they occur to you and we will do our very best to get to them in the Q&A session. I encourage you to use a tweet with the handle at IIEA. The presentation by Minister Simon Coveney, the subsequent panel discussion and the Q&A session are all on the record and we are live streaming this event. So a very warm welcome to those who are joining via YouTube. We will hear first of all from the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defense Simon Coveney TD who will deliver a keynote address which launches Ireland's bid to become an observer at the Arctic Council. We have a very distinguished panel of speakers who will then take part in a discussion after the Minister has spoken and then we will turn over to a Q&A session afterwards. So with that I would like to come to the pre-recorded contribution by Minister Simon Coveney. It's always a pleasure to take part in events organized by the Institute for International and European Affairs and I'm delighted to have the chance to speak to you this afternoon to introduce Ireland's bid to become an observer on the Arctic Council. The Arctic Council established in 1996 is recognized as the primary forum for international cooperation and coordination in the Arctic region. Its members are the eight Arctic states and there are also 13 observer states. That's the grouping that Ireland seeks to join and we submitted our application in December 2020. You may well ask why is Ireland applying to the Arctic Council? The answer is quite simple. We are an island at the edge of Europe in the North Atlantic and we have a culture, heritage and identity intrinsically linked to the seas that surround us. We're not in the Arctic but we are part of the wider Arctic neighborhood. There are fundamental changes taking place in the region that impact directly on Ireland as a country as well as being a wider global concern. With the changes we are experiencing year after year to our climate there is a growing awareness that the only successful way forward is working together with others in developing solutions to the problems and challenges that we all face. Ireland's foreign policy is based firmly on the belief that states working together in cohesive multilateral organizations is the best way to achieve global progress and sustainable development. From the earliest days of our independent statehood when we played an important role in the ill-fated League of Nations to our modern-day membership of the United Nations and its many subsidiary organizations and of course the European Union we have worked together with like-minded countries on global issues such as disarmament, human rights, peacekeeping and fighting poverty and hunger. Our election last year for the second time in 20 years as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council speaks to the respect in which Ireland is held as a pragmatic and neutral actor on the international stage. Ireland will approach observer status to the Arctic Council if we are successful in our application of course in the same spirit of commitment and pragmatic multilateral action. We recognize that the eight member states of the council and the communities that live in the Arctic will be the primary decision makers and shapers of the region's future but we offer ourselves as an observer state with a track record as a respected and respectful global citizen and a country with a contribution to make. We will work with the Arctic states to understand and address the effects of climate change. I read recently that every year the Arctic ice cap loses an area the size of Austria. Climate change in the Arctic threatens not only the people of the region and the wildlife and fauna but all of us and Arctic permafrost is a huge natural storehouse of carbon. As it melts it releases greenhouse gases which will accelerate global warming. Since 1979 the volume of the Arctic ice has shrunk by 75% and in the summer it is now feasible to navigate from the Atlantic to the Pacific without needing an icebreaker. For the indigenous communities of the Arctic the growing interest in the region might create an economic activity and lead to extensions of roads, railways, telecommunication networks and electricity grids but new routes and increased shipping also mean risks for indigenous communities and an already fragile ecosystem. This may have a negative impact in terms of accidents and pollution. Industrial accidents can have devastating effects on the environment and local communities. Ireland's world-class development cooperation programme has proven capabilities in empowering and giving voice to vulnerable communities in a spirit of partnership and justice. We will use this experience to engage with the indigenous peoples of the Arctic region and to build cross-cultural exchanges. We will work to ensure that their voices are heard when decisions are made that affect their future in the region. Ireland can also bring scientific and technical experience. The application submitted by the government in December is firmly grounded in the ability of our scientific community to understand and address the issues at stake in the Arctic region today. They are already active in many intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations working in the region. We will hear later from Richard Cronin, Head of Marine Environment Policy in the Irish Government, who is the current Chair of the OSPR Commission about important collaborative work that the Commission under Irish leadership is undertaking with Arctic partners. Ireland has a cutting-edge research and development sector characterised by outstanding levels of collaboration between government, industry and academia. We believe that Ireland can contribute significant expertise that aligns with the mandates of the existing council working groups by contributing to an understanding of the dynamics of change in the region, the impact on all who live there and in promoting and empowering action. Ireland will be serving not only its own interests as an island nation geographically close to the Arctic but also those of the wider world. I hope that this event today with its distinguished and knowledgeable panel from Ireland and abroad will bring our vision of an active collaborative and engaged observer state to a wider audience. I hope too that the government of the member states of the Arctic Council will consider Ireland's application for observer status in the spirit in which we have made it as an engaged global citizen keen to play our part in helping increase knowledge of and search for solutions to the difficult ecological problems facing the region. Thank you very much. Well, I want to thank you to Minister Simon Coltony for his keynote remarks which set the context for our recent application and indicate the key considerations which underlie that application. So I now turn to our very distinguished panel of expert speakers who will open up this discussion. I turn first to Richard Cronin who is as Minister Coltony said the principal advisor on marine environment environment policy for the Irish government and who also chairs the OSPAR commission. After Richard has spoken, I will come to Professor Ann Husebeck who's director of the Arctic University of Norway at Tromsø. I then come to Dr Audrey Morley who is a lecturer in physical geography at NUI Galway and who is president of the network of Arctic researchers in Ireland and then I will come to Heather Conley, senior vice president for Europe, Eurasia and the Arctic at the center for strategic and international studies in Washington DC. So I'm looking forward to a very lively and I'm sure invigorating discussion about Ireland and the Arctic Council. So with that I hand the floor first to Richard Cronin. Richard. Thank you very much, David. Thank you, Minister. Thank you to the IEEA for giving me this opportunity to speak today. To everybody who's attending, my children will be delighted to know that I'm now live streaming on YouTube which must be the high point of my year anyway at this stage. I'd like to say good afternoon and to anybody joining us from Wales are whose name is David. Happy St David's Day as well. You already know my name and I'm the principal advisor for marine environment for the Irish government. We look after both the national policy and implementation on marine environment, our engagement with the European Union, then at a wider regional level through the Ospark Commission and also at a United Nations level. We're responsible for the implementation of a number of laws, European laws and sustainable development called 14 Life Below Water. Now while I'm really looking forward to the open discussion, I just want to make a few opening remarks about Ireland's potential role in multilateral cooperation in the Arctic. I'll touch on some of the needs for cooperation and then offer some observations on the dynamics of consensus-based decision making. The minister has already referred to the Ospark Commission. I'll just maybe explain that a little bit more for people who aren't fully aware of it. The Ospark Convention for the Protection of the Environment of the Northeast Atlantic was established in 1992. It succeeds the Oslo Convention and the Paris Convention from 1972 and 1974 respectively. It covers approximately 13.5 million square kilometres of the Northeast Atlantic, including parts of the Arctic Seas. It has 16 contracting parties and many observers. These parties implement the Convention through the Ospark Commission and they take actions and decisions based on consensus. The parties to the Convention are Belgium, Denmark, the European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. I'll be checking later to see if you can remember all of those. The Ospark Commission is supported by a pooled resource of experts that work in committees and they address a variety of subjects such as biological diversity and conservation, radioactive substances, hazardous chemicals and eutrophication, the offshore industry, the oil and gas industry, and pressures such as marine litter and noise. Ospark has overlapping competency with the Arctic Council in part of the Arctic region and there's a memorandum between the two bodies that's been in place since 2017. Now just to set the scene about maybe a little bit more about why Ireland feels the need now to apply for observorship. Well the evidence is clear, the health of the planet is in crisis. Recently published evidence has highlighted the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. In our seas and oceans the systems we rely on for our weather patterns and our food are coming to a tipping point if human behavior is left unchecked. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into sharp focus our interconnected world and human reliance on the environment. The next decade and beyond will see a need for concrete action on the effects of climate change, a loss of biodiversity and the impact of pollution including plastics and microplastics. Vulnerable and fragile parts of the planet including the Arctic region will need to be carefully managed. Now in a global context regional cooperation such as through the Arctic Council is of vital importance in the 21st century. The transboundary nature of the environment demands multilateral cooperation beyond our national and regional boundaries. There's a growing recognition among governments that more rapid and effective regional cooperation is needed. Historically slow processes that reduce solutions to this lowest common denominator will not work in a 21st century information society. Regional cooperation mechanisms such as the Arctic Council are faced with the challenge of designing high quality solutions and taking action that meet the needs of different countries of different social and economic groupings and of the environment. These solutions must also meet the global need for the role the Arctic plays in planetary systems. This is no longer a triple bottom line, it's a quadruple bottom line and it's a colossal task of great significance. It will require cooperation not only within the Arctic Council but also with other competent bodies and other countries. Ireland has a long track record of successful partnership and engagement with different members of the Arctic Council in other global and regional forums such as the United Nations, the European Union and as I've said the Aspar Convention. But when you survey our engagement at a global and regional level there's a gap in Ireland's regional engagement in the Arctic. Further progress in the successful stewarding of the Arctic is in Ireland's best interests. But then the question arises, what can Ireland contribute as an observer to the Arctic Council? Well there are a number of pillars on which Ireland can deliver effective and practical support and contribution to the Arctic Council. There's the first very practical issue of the existing relationships that are there already there. These existing relationships are well established between Irish scientists and policy officials and their counterparts in most of the Arctic Council members. These relationships have developed over decades and they underpin Ireland's credentials as a constructive partner. Irish scientists, researchers and policymakers already work with their counterparts in the Arctic Council countries dealing with the conservation and protection of the environment, scientific assessments and monitoring, emergency response preparedness, meteorology and sustainable development. Ireland has solved a lot of the problems that face the Arctic region already. We've faced and overcome the same challenges that the Arctic Council members face now. In my own area of responsibility, the marine environment, on subjects like marine litter we've worked with businesses, with schools, with local communities to tackle it and to reduce it so that now it is heading towards being a problem of the past and we have actions in place to make sure it doesn't become a problem in the future. We have started work recently on new ways of creating marine protected areas. These can be divisive if not done properly and we're focusing on the role that all stakeholders can play in the decision-making process. And most importantly for Ireland being an island on the edge of Europe as the minister has stated, we understand that cooperation with our neighbours is key to success. So thought is about the Irish approach that makes us different. Most of all the Irish approach to consensus-based decisions is the main benefit. Reaching consensus between governments is never an easy task. The right balance between the ambitions of some and the concerns of others needs to be struck. Ensuring that words turn into actions that make a real positive difference to the region, its people and its environment is vital. Through the current chairmanship, my chairmanship of the Aspar Commission, we've established Ireland as a proactive and pragmatic and consensus-based partner for all the countries of the Northeast Atlantic, including those who are members of the Arctic Council. Ireland works to ensure that the parties talk with each other and not at each other. That they engage positively and constructively to understand each other's points of view and work to close the divide between their positions. By bridging the divide between other positions, Ireland not only serves the needs of the region but also its own needs. Now from the outside looking in, successful cooperation between countries can look amazingly dull. Its people sitting and talking with very little exciting happens. But if someone from Germany commented to me recently at a celebration of 50 years of successful cooperation to protect the North Sea and parts of the Northeast Atlantic from the effects of oil spillages from shipping, nobody's ever heard of us and that's the reason why we're so successful. So I was just going to show up by saying that it's only by dialogue that leads to trust and eventually to action can any country hope to make any progress and any region hope to tackle the challenges that are in front of it. And this is the real basis for the Irish application for observership. And of course, there's the old Irish saying, and in English means there is strength in unity. So together we can tackle these, we're stronger together. Thank you very much, David. Thank you, Richard. Thank you very much for that. And I now come to Professor Ann Houserbeck, a rector of the Arctic University of Norway at Tronsil. Ann, you have the floor. Thank you very much. Let me share a presentation. So in the beginning, thank you for inviting me to this important meeting regarding Ireland and the Arctic and the application to become an observer stayed in Arctic Tronsil. This is actually a voice from the Arctic. My name is Ann Houserbeck. I'm a physician, professor in immunology, and I have been rector at UIT, the Arctic University of Norway, for the last seven and a half years. You are all well aware of the challenges in the Arctic that are first and foremost related to climate change. The climate change challenged people living in the Arctic, indigenous and non indigenous, challenged the coast and the ocean, ecosystem and land on land and the ocean, not only in the Arctic, but all over the planet. The oceans have no borders and is thereby also influencing Ireland. We need to understand the changes, make sure that we do all that we can to prevent further changes, and we need to do the best we can to adapt to unavoidable changes. So how do we do that? We have to make a resilient Arctic built on scientific competence, collaboration, and by building local capacity. Ireland may help out in this matter. And as I understand, your application is built on this important issue. If you Google the Arctic and even humans in the Arctic, you get pictures like this. But I can show you, this is Tromsø, a small island in the coast at 69 degrees north. A city of 75,000 people living their modern lives in the Arctic. We have an airport, the largest harbor for landing and processing of fish in Norway, Arctic industry, a university hospital and a university. The northernmost in the world, funded as a classical university in 1968, and now a university with more than 17,000 students, 4,000 staff and presence in 10 locations in the north of Norway and on Svalbard. In addition, Tromsø hosts the Norwegian Polar Institute, a branch of the Institute of Marine Research and the Fram Center, a network organization with 20 Arctic related members. And in the Fram Center, the Secretariat for Arctic Council is located, as well as the Secretariat for Arctic Indigenous People and the Arctic Economic Council. What do we achieve together and with partners in other Arctic countries? We do research, education and outreach related to Arctic peoples, including Indigenous peoples in the Arctic, biodiversity and Arctic ecosystems, climate and climate change and the consequences, pollutant in the ocean, on land and effects of the pollutants and emergencies related to search and rescue. UIT's mission in the Arctic is to increase the height north of both competence and capacity, not only in Norway, but in circumpolar areas. We do collaborate with universities in many countries and are active members of the University of the Arctic, a network of more than 200 institutions inside and outside the Arctic. In attempts to translate our research into innovation and use in the Arctic, we are now establishing the Arctic Resilience Accelerator in collaboration with Harvard Kennedy School and Belfort Centre and EPFL University in Lausanne in Switzerland. Three pillars are defined, covering research, funding and communication. The initiative will cover three traumatic areas in an international and multi-disciplinary way, namely food security, health and welfare and renewable energy. The initiatives seek public and private financing and the first real activity should have been an Arctic Innovation Summer School in collaboration with Frinnid College in Dublin this year, but due to the pandemic it is postponed. The Arctic consists of five million people, a lot of snow and ice, but less each year and a very productive ocean without borders, reaching for instance all the way to Ireland. I truly believe in collaboration, in a dedication to participate and contribute to the challenges in the Arctic and the consequences for the entire planet. I really wish to see Ireland as an observer in the Arctic Council. Thank you for this. David, you are muted. Thank you very much. Again, warm thanks to Ann Husebeck. I turn now to Audrey Morley, lecturer in Physical Geography at National University of Ireland in Galway and president of the network of Arctic researchers in Ireland. Audrey, you have the floor. Thank you very much for having me today. Over the next 10 minutes or so I will talk about the network of Arctic researchers in Ireland and I want to focus on our goals and vision of how we can contribute to existing and emerging challenges in the Arctic. So first of all, Nari was created in early 2020, so about a year ago, to provide a platform for Irish-based researchers to enhance their interdisciplinary collaborative efforts. As a group we are very eager to hit the ground running and to develop new projects focusing on Arctic challenges. We also seek to provide objective and independent scientific advice on issues of science in the Arctic and to communicate scientific information to the public and policymakers. We also fear very strongly about promoting and involving the next generation of scientists working in the Arctic and we seek polar cooperation through interaction with other science organizations. So to achieve our goals, Nari has formed three distinct working groups for the marine sciences, the terrestrial sciences, and the humanities and social sciences that reflect the expertise and research agenda of our members and these also mirror the working groups of the Arctic Council. So in the next few slides I want to present some of the current research projects that are led by our members to highlight how Nari is contributing to the objectives laid out by the working groups of the Arctic Council. So the marine sciences working group and research carried out by its members directly supports the objectives defined by the Arctic monitoring and assessment and the Arctic contaminants action programs. For example, in terms of monitoring, Project InterOS, a Horizon 2020 funded project aims to develop an efficient integrated Arctic observation system by extending, improving, and unifying existing systems in different regions of the Arctic. Also with the polar code certification of the Irish research vessel the Celtic Explorer last year, we now have the capacity to expand our expertise in monitoring essential climate variables beyond the Arctic circles. For example, last September the Explorer travelled north to 78 degrees north to monitor ocean acidification, deoxygenation, and warming of the Nordic seas, which is a very sensitive area for deep water formation and climate change. Irish researches have also been at the forefront in monitoring microplastic pollution in marine surface waters and sediments, not only in our own region, but also in the Arctic, including, for example, the recent mapping of microplastic distribution on the Icelandic shelf. Expertise within ICRAG, the Irish Centre for Research and Applied Geosciences has also improved knowledge on the stability of methane deposits and explored the capacity for storing anthropogenic carbon near Svalbard. And finally, within the Horizon 2020 Blue Action Project, Irish researchers are investigating how lower-latitude climate drivers are impacting climate change in the Arctic. The Terrestrial Working Group supports objectives outlined by the conservation of Arctic flora and fauna in the Arctic monitoring and assessment programmes. For example, the Klima DAAP project is investigating migration histories of Arctic alpine cushion plants to determine the capacity of these plants and their ecosystems to cope with rapid climate change. A growing group of glacial geomorphologists in Nari have also contributed to reconstruct the history of the Greenland ice sheet. They are investigating what kind of climate boundary conditions are responsible for local and regional advance and retreats of glaciers that are fed by the ice sheet. This is crucial considering the modern and future context of melting and the potential contribution of Greenland ice sheet melting to sea level rise. The Seabird Watch Project is an exciting citizen science programme to monitor seabird populations in the Arctic, and they involve over 11,000 volunteers that are identifying seabirds to the species level on time-lapse images. With the help of these volunteers, the Seabird Watch initiative can monitor population health across meaningful scales to identify local impacts from climate change. The Social Sciences and Humanities Working Group supports objectives defined by the emergency prevention, preparedness and response and the sustainable development working groups. For example, AIARC is a newly funded Horizon 2020 project aiming to address maritime border security challenges within the Arctic. A Nari member of ours is contributing islands expertise in artificial intelligence-based search and rescue technology. AIARC aims to increase local capabilities, save lives and limit the extent of damage caused with the marine environment should an incident occur. The Norfish Project investigates the fish revolution that took place in the 15th to 17th century in the Arctic Atlantic zone, including Norway, Iceland and Newfoundland. Here the assessment of human interactions with the environment and the adaptation to fish population decline is at the foreground of the investigation to form later historical changes and cultural practices. The Irish Impact Project aims to provide an analysis of historical and contemporary connections between Ireland and the Arctic. It will shed light on how Ireland is connected with northern and Arctic heritage in addition to political and economic interests in the region. I want to finish my presentation of Nari by showcasing two initiatives that support the next generation of Irish scientists that focus their career path on the Arctic. First, for a number of years now, the Embassy of Ireland in Oslo and the Department of Foreign Affairs have provided funding for promising young researchers in Ireland to participate in the Arctic Frontiers Emerging Leaders Program. And as Professor Hussbeck has already mentioned, the center of the environment at Trinity College Dublin has partnered with the University of the Arctic and the Arctic University in Norway to launch an Arctic Innovation Postgraduate Summer School. The summer school aims to enhance Arctic resilience by developing a community of change makers who can tackle Arctic challenges and enable short and long-term change. In this summer school, students will work together with local problem owners to create innovative projects together through collaboration. So if I've piqued your interest and you would like more information regarding the projects I've mentioned today, here are the names, affiliations, and funding partners of relevant Nari members. Also please visit our website if you want to hear more about these projects. So with this, I'd like to thank you all for listening and I'm looking forward to answering any questions that you might have. Thank you very much, Audrey, for that very helpful overview of the research work which is going on in Ireland and the contribution which Ireland is making to international research projects. Very interesting. And now I come to Heather Connelly, Senior Vice President for Europe, Eurasia, and the Arctic at the CSIS in Washington, DC. Heather, you have the floor. David, thank you so very much and very special thanks to IAEA for this very kind invitation. What I've been asked to do this afternoon is to place Ireland's application for observer status in the Arctic Council into some context and some geopolitical context. I'd like to first talk a little bit about the Arctic Council and its role since its founding in 1996. Look at its future and then to talk a little bit about the Biden administration's policy towards the Arctic Council and the Arctic region more broadly. Certainly, as Minister Coveney noted, the Arctic Council has been an excellent example of pragmatic multilateralism founded in 1996. Again, I think many very much enjoyed the benefits at the end of the Cold War where in fact the Arctic was one of the first regions to really fall from the Cold War that we viewed environmental protection and scientific collaboration to be absolutely essential. What makes the Arctic Council unique is not only does it bring the five Arctic coastal states together plus Finland, Sweden and Iceland, but at the center of this organization are the permanent participants, the indigenous community. This is a very human-centric intergovernmental forum and as Dr. Morley beautifully laid out, you saw all the different activities of the six working groups of the Arctic Council from terrestrial issues, flora and flana, to marine protection and the Arctic Council. I wish more people would know about the incredible assessments and impact studies that the Arctic Council members supported also by observer states and organizations have produced. They've been groundbreaking. One in particular that I've worked very closely with is the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment. This was a document created well over 12 years ago, but still is foundational in our understanding about how shipping will work in the Arctic. Again, these are incredibly impactful assessments because as we know, the Arctic is the true global canary in the mind of what we're seeing as far as Arctic and climate transformations generally. But it's not just the Arctic Council as an intergovernmental forum that's been useful. It's actually the framework of these eight nations and that framework has been used very successfully over the last several years to be what I call a very flexible and nimble governance manufacturer, if you will. So these eight countries, not part of the Arctic Council, but they've used that framework to negotiate an international search and rescue agreement, an international oil spill and response agreement, an international science and technology agreement. In fact, that the five coastal states were very instrumental in coming together to produce an agreement that would basically place a moratorium on fisheries in the central Arctic Ocean of which then five other fishing nations and the European Union joined. So it has used this framework to be very creative. The members have created an Arctic Economic Council. These countries have created an Arctic Postcard Forum. So all of these very flexible, nimble governance structures have really helped maintain good governance in the Arctic. But the challenge is all of those things that I've described to you are not part of the Arctic Council. They run separate. They are not connected to the Arctic Council. And that sort of brings up new challenges. So the future of the Arctic Council, for me, has some question marks. Again, a body that was created in 1996, if you had a house that was built in 1996, you'd probably be doing some renovations right now, energy efficiency. You would probably be restoring some of the plumbing. Well, in some ways that's what the Arctic Council probably requires. Because what it was designed to do in 1996, and it continues to do very well, it's being stretched and pulled because the Arctic has now grown not only an importance from the environment and the scientific community, of course, but it also has very important geoeconomic interest. And now we see a growing role of the military in the Arctic. Now, these aren't encouraging developments, but these are developments that have to be addressed. And the Arctic Council is not equipped to address them. The Arctic Council is forbidden to address any hard security issues. And as I said, although there's an Arctic Economic Council, that is not in any way connected with the Arctic Council. So you see this sort of growing body of entities, and we're not quite sure how they plug and play into the Arctic Council. Very much again, to Mr. Kofi's remarks, and he stated it clearly, that Ireland's application is very much focused and allowing those Arctic Council members and the Indigenous communities, they have the lead Ireland will support. And that touches on this dynamic. The Arctic Council is a regional forum. But of course, it's a global concern, which is why China, India, Japan, Korea, and other countries are also observers to the Arctic Council. And then sometimes you get these tensions between where the regional actors want to have a clear role, but yet other global actors want to say. And so the Arctic Council is going to have to manage those regional as well as global tensions. We are going to need greater transparency in the Arctic and across the board from military exercises and military buildups. But we're also going to need more transparency in science, making sure that all countries that are participating collaborate and are transparent about their data and about what they're doing to make sure we continue to maintain confidence in that strong international collaboration. So the Arctic Council is a phenomenal intergovernmental forum, but it has challenges ahead of it. And that's what we'll see in the future. So let me conclude with just a few words about US policy towards the Arctic Council and the Arctic in general. So you can go back as early as to the Nixon administration in the 1970s, US policy towards the Arctic has been very consistent, but inconsistently applied. So the two pillars of US policy toward the Arctic is national security because we are an Arctic nation, we have territorial waters and land and airspace that is important to be defended and to maintain our access to. And so that is always a clear pillar of our US Arctic policy because the Arctic represents the two avenues of approach to the United States through the North Pacific and the North Atlantic. But the second pillar of US policy has always been about international collaboration, particularly on science and the environment. The United States is a science power in the Arctic, we put an enormous amount of budget resources into understanding that science. Now over the last 12 years, those two policy engagements have been evident, but each administration has decided to focus on one or the other, just not both. So the Obama administration was very focused on a very proactive climate agenda, seeing the Arctic as bringing the urgency to a climate agenda. And of course, the Obama administration was very busy in preparing for the US chairmanship of the Arctic Council from 2015 to 2017. But in many ways, the Obama administration placed much less emphasis on the economic development of the region, as well as starting to assess the larger security and geopolitical trends that were emerging during its administration. Of course, when the Trump administration came into office, that pendulum swung the absolute opposite way. And all we concentrated on was national security and the geopolitics of the situation. And the Trump administration actively stripped away any mention of climate change. But interestingly, science and science funding continued because there was bipartisan support for that. It was just kept very, very quiet. So now the Biden administration enters. And there's real question marks. This is a very young administration that's just getting sea legs underneath it. But my hope for the Biden administration is that we will advance the dual pillars of US policy towards the Arctic. We have to acknowledge the geopolitical realities of Russia's military buildup and China's economic presence in the region that presents challenges. And we have to find forums and dialogues to address those, as well as increase US capabilities, search and rescue capabilities, as well as oceans protection and terrestrial protection. At the same time, you will see the Biden administration openly engage and embrace the Arctic Council and focus on climate change. And this is where we see former Secretary of State John Kerry's role as special envoy, probably to be quite consequential. Then Secretary of State Kerry attended Arctic Council meetings. He found this issue to be very important and, of course, his own work in oceans and oceans protection continues to underscore that. So we have some real questions. But my hope is that the Biden administration can return to both US national security and geopolitics as well as climate, but do so with that pragmatic multilateralism that the minister was speaking to. And as we look forward to the upcoming May Arctic Council ministerial in Iceland, where the torch has then passed to Russia, it will assume the chairmanship, these geopolitical tensions have to be managed, and this dialogue on climate and the Arctic must continue. But that, David, I'll turn it back over to you. Thank you so much. Thank you very much, Heather. That was a fascinating account of the various pressures which arise in the Arctic region, and I mean both the potential but also the challenges. Thank you very much for that. So I just want to put a couple of opening questions to all four members of the panel, and then we will bring in questions from the audience. I suppose let's take the climate change issue straight off. And Heather referred to the importance of transparent data on that as well as on everything else. I'm putting this question to all four really. How can we ensure that data are collected from the region in sufficient quality and quantity to demonstrate, I suppose, the relevance of the Arctic to climate change? I mean, we're all seeing the global warming and the melting of Arctic ice. But in a way, not many, the wider public doesn't yet know about that or doesn't know any detail. It's essentially a scientist and researcher. Is there scope for the Arctic Council to throw additional light from the public point of view on what the Arctic means for climate change specifically, on how developments in the Arctic will in fact impact on the rest of us in many ways? So I'm really asking about how can one improve the quality and quantity of data collection about climate change in the Arctic region? Is there anybody who would like to start off on that before I think of something like Richard? Well, I was just going to put my hand up anyway. Just get in there before you put it to me. So when I think about that sort of question, the first thing I think about is the question to the Arctic Council itself, which is what are its research needs in terms of or what are its monitoring and assessment needs in terms of the effects of climate in the region? So there's a lot of capacity within the permanent members of the Arctic Council. It's a very well developed economic part of the world of the planet. So they have the capacity themselves to carry out a lot of monitoring. So the second question then really is what additional value can you get from other data sets? So we've already spoken about how the Arctic region is interconnected to the part of the world we exist in and in other parts of the world, so in other northern hemisphere environments. So I suppose the challenge is to find out what other data sets or what other bits of information do we have or can we contribute to the ongoing work in the Arctic and how that can then form a larger piece of evidence. So the basis for a larger evidence set that can set in context how the effects of climate change, for example, are potentially accelerated within the Arctic region. And then the second thing, of course, is we all know, and we saw from Professor Husebeck there, we saw the photographs. It's a hostile environment. So using technology to access the area for remote monitoring or for monitoring, and the different compartments then present their own challenges. Monitoring the ocean is historically very difficult because of the remoteness and the difficulty in accessing it. And we still struggle with that. But there are other parts then that maybe are more suitable to access. But when I look at all the parties are the members of the Arctic Council, all of them have very strong commitments at a national level to transparency and to decisions based on evidence. So it's evidence based decision making we hear a lot about. So really it's just about understanding what's the dynamic tension within something like the Arctic Council that maybe needs to be unstuck so that you can have a lot more, I suppose, evidence presented to those outside. But we see this in all sorts of multilateral cooperation mechanisms. There was always be a sensitivity inside in the room about what the narrative is outside the room. But trying to separate those out is a challenge. And it's something that is predominantly resolved through dialogue. And the dialogue is around what's your bottom line, what's the reason, what's your key issue. And I go back to my remarks. You've got to work to understand the other parties in a regional arrangement like the Arctic Council. There's no point in forming strong national opinions if you haven't worked to understand where the other positions are coming from. And the very same is true for something like monitoring and assessment on the effects of climate. Thanks. Thanks very much for that, Richard. Would anybody else from the panel like to come in on the... Anne, please. Yes, thank you so much. Yes. The Arctic Council has made a commitment to open up their signs and also to collaborate on results. Because as it is today, a lot of things is monitored in each country's own research area. But there is less collaboration to find... To mix the results and see how the whole Arctic is influenced, for instance, by climate change. Whether this is implemented is a question. And I think we have to work hard to make every country collaborate and to collect results that can easily be put together to make the bigger picture. So, this is something that the Arctic Council can promote. It is the member states who have to implement it and the research going on in the member states. And I think that in the future, every member of Arctic Council and also the observer states have to commit to this ideal of collecting data and then make them accessible and make analysis based on bigger data sets. This can be done by Arctic Council by regulations. But I think that the collaboration between research institutions have to do the most on the job because the focus areas of Arctic Council is not the entire picture of the signs going on in the Arctic area. So, I think also that member states institutions have to collaborate, but maybe on directive from the Arctic Council. And the University of the Arctic is a baby of Arctic Council having more than 200 members, but mainly focusing at education and maybe less at research as it is today. But this is slowly changing, so I'm looking forward to the future of the University of the Arctic. Thank you. Thank you very much, Anne. Would Audrey or Heather like to come in on this issue or else I can come to another point? Well, I'll just weigh in very, very quickly, David. I think a couple of points. In many ways, the reason that there was a need for an international science and technology agreement was, in fact, some of the challenges, particularly for US scientists, of getting access, getting visas to be able to study in Russia and research within the Russian Arctic. So, some of that was created to enhance that transparency and that access and that collaboration. I think two other points and one that Professor Hussbeck just mentioned, this is one of those future challenges for the Arctic Council. Its members financially support these incredible impact assessments, but there's no enforcement mechanism for those member states to do anything about the climate effects. So, we have this strange circumstance on the one hand, they're funding incredible science and they're conducting incredible assessments, but the members of the Arctic Council, or the observers, are required to follow and impact, regulate that and mitigate the environmental damage. So, that needs to be at some point resolved. Finally, you absolutely right, public diplomacy. The Arctic Council, through the secretariat, has certainly been more focused on trying to have a greater public awareness about all the work that the Arctic Council does. It's really tough, however, and I will say this with absolute due respect. I am not a scientist. I am a foreign policy analyst. I try to listen to scientists, environmentalists. It's really hard because we speak different languages and a lot of our role is public education. When I speak to an American audience about the Arctic, it's like an education process and you have to be able to use terms and very accessible language to help build your case and build urgency into it. So, I think we all have to do a better job of talking about the Arctic, but in terms that everyone can understand. And sometimes that's more difficult for the scientific community. It is focused on the great science that they're doing and explaining that to a general public can be really, really tough. And I think that's another area we can all do a great deal to improve. Thank you very much, Heather. Audrey, would you like to come in on that? Sure. I just have maybe one thing to say here and one of our goals in Nari is to communicate science on the Arctic to the Irish public. It's very important to us to explain why it is important that we know more about the Arctic and how Arctic climate change specifically is impacting Ireland and Irish weather and climate. So, it is definitely one of our main goals that we want to pursue. Thank you very much, Audrey. I'd now like to bring in a question from one of our audience, Paul Cunningham, who is with RTE, the Irish television. Paul directs the question to Richard and in a way it builds on what Heather was saying a moment ago about the increasing geopolitical and geoeconomic significance of the region in recent years. So, Paul's question is whether let's say if the Arctic Council expands its competence to cover issues such as economic and military expansion into the Arctic, what position might the Irish government take up on those issues? Over to you, Richard. Thank you very much, David. And thank you, Paul. And it's at times like now that I fall back and rely on the fact that I am the principal advisor for the marine environment and have absolutely no competence to speak on defence matters. But just if I look at the dynamic of the Arctic Council and regional cooperation, so you have here a really important part of the planet from a global point of view for lots of issues. So the indigenous peoples, the environment, sustainable development and so on and so forth. And now maybe you have this other additional issue that may come along. The way the Arctic Council is currently structured, it works through these working groups, so protection of the Arctic marine environment, the conservation of Arctic flora and fauna. So from my own point of view, the question is where best can Ireland add its voice? Where best can Ireland add its capacity and competency? So for me and the place I come from, it's really obvious. And then I suppose from a wider context, Ireland has to ask itself what its contribution in the other area, so what capacity can it bring? So we've heard about things like research capacity, but we have other capacities as well. So these are things we do at a national level that we maybe don't regard that highly. So how we manage kind of decision making on a regional basis, for example. But all of these issues then can have a bearing on where we engage. But as I said, I have no competency to deal with the defence matters. I'm glad of that right now. Thanks very much. Okay, thank you Richard. I have a question here from Mark Costolo who asks really about the, well, it's coming back in a way to the climate issue. The Arctic and the North Atlantic may be the fastest warming lands and seas of the world. Will there be any special initiative as to how to mitigate future global warming and adapt to climate change? Will there be any specific initiative, I suppose, focused on the Arctic region? Would anybody like to take that question? Please, Anne. Well, I think that our researchers at the university and our collaborators are looking at these things quite closely. And I think the centre that I've described that we are now about to set up will cope with exactly what you're asking. We're trying to mitigate future global warming and adapt to the climate change that has already happened. I think that in the Arctic area we need to use renewable energy wherever we are located. In the barren sea there are attempts to find oil and gas and I think it's less interest because of what we see in the future of fossil fuels all over the world and also the cost and also the safety of having operation in this far north. But what we do in the Arctic is not what is going to change the Arctic when it comes to climate change. That's a global challenge that we need to face. And that's why it is so important to have many countries collaborating in those very important issues. We try also to make our students aware of what's going on and they are in particular interested in a green future. So to do everything we can to make the Arctic resilient and that is also applicable, I think, to the whole planet. So we need to change what we are doing today with fossil fuels but also with many other things. And I think that Audrey mentioned the methane that is released from towing tundra and towing ice. It's a huge problem that will increase the climate change enormously if we let it happen. So it is not only that we need to take care of the emissions that's taking place today but we need to look into the future to see what happens if we don't change our behaviour when it comes to climate. And students are key to understanding so to make both competence and capacity in the north but in the whole planet is necessary to change the way we are going today. Thank you. Thank you Anne, thank you very much. I have a specific question for Audrey from Fiona Grant who asks, Audrey, if you can comment on how the research ecosystem in Ireland can support the further development of your NARI network of your network of Arctic research. Okay, well I suppose Ireland has a relatively small number of researchers that have existing research programmes linked to the working groups of the Arctic Council but many of us are part of large science foundation island research centres that have a big infrastructure and support or are part of large research groups that focus on the marine science of renewable energies, atmospheric climates, the geosciences or the bioeconomy. So there's a lot of capacity in Ireland in addition to NARI and NARI members can tap into that resource to act on the challenges and solutions for the Arctic I described earlier. I suppose it would also be relevant that Ireland is increasingly taking an all-island approach to climate and biodiversity from both a research and a policy perspective. So there's real ambition to develop a large-scale research and innovation initiative to improve public good policy and management decisions. Audrey, another question here in a way is linked to what you've just been describing and Tim Keenan asks whether Ireland becoming an observer in the Arctic Council can be of benefit to third-level students. So you've been talking about the research community but taking a little bit further, how can one demonstrate the benefits to those in third-level education at the moment? Well like most of our members are either lecturers themselves and are teaching and communicating their research in research-based teaching in their classrooms. We also have members that are postgraduate students or postdocs that are still learning and building their careers in Arctic science. So just by doing the research that we are doing and incorporating it into our teaching, I think it makes a difference already. So we tap that we get the students that are interested in the Arctic and take them on board that way. Thanks, Audrey. I have a question of my own just to ask all four of you. I mean the research you've been talking about obviously focuses at the moment primarily on the scientific significance of the Arctic. But coming back to Heather's point about the growing geopolitical and geoeconomic importance of the region, will we see a deepening of research in that direction or in those directions as well? I mean it may go outside for example your own immediate area, Audrey, or possibly Anne, but I'm just wondering do you see research into Arctic issues becoming much broader over the coming years? Who would like to take that? Richard? Yeah, thanks. It's just a quick reflection. So in all the work we do on things like the environment, really the work we're doing is on the relationships between different sets of humans. So we use the evidence provided by the life scientists as the evidence base for our decisions. One of the greatest challenges we see is maybe a need to develop further the political sciences, the economic and socio-economic sciences, and the behavioral sciences. So when we see global challenges like climate change, our marine litter, our biodiversity loss, we often see the public, the individual industry becoming powerless because of the overwhelming nature, the existential nature of these issues. So a real area for growth, a real area where we can unlock more potential and the key to having faster decision making, turning into faster sets of actions is to consider how the humans are interacting with each other. So when I say humans, I just mean the people. So it's all about the people, that's what I would say. And in all the work I've done on the marine environment, it has always been the people. And it's how you work with people. And that is the thing I think when you think about Ireland's key contribution, whether it's at a European Union level or yourself as a moderator where you talk about your work on the sustainable development goals, it's this ability to deal with people and opposing views. This is one of the key things that Ireland brings outside of scientific capacity to the work we do on this issue, whether it's on my area, the marine environment, on wider challenges that the region faces. But these are areas where we can grow our capacity and our understanding. Thanks. Thank you very much, Richard. As we're running out of time a little bit, I might just ask the three other panelists if they could reflect finally on what value they see Ireland bringing as an observer to the Arctic Council, assuming that we get into that position. Heather, could I begin with you? How would you sum up the usefulness of Ireland becoming an observer? Well, I'm delighted to respond to that. I just want to offer just a couple of very, very brief reflections to the excellent questions. Look on the economic science underpins all economic development in the Arctic, it must. So it's an absolute, whether you're thinking about the blue economy, diversifying from use of fossil fuels, renewables, science underpins everything that happens in the Arctic. So I just want to underscore the importance of that. And then the other I feel, Richard, I feel actually a little guilty. I was responsible for Paul's question to you. So I want to rescue you and say that the Arctic Council is forbidden by the founding declaration to deal with hard security in any form. So and there is no political will to change that. So the Arctic Council will not address any hard security issues. However, that framework of those eight countries formed an international search and rescue agreement that we would hope if there would be a search and rescue asset that Ireland would be able to use to help, of course they would. So that's the type of rescue and environmental remediation and protection that we would see in the security place. And I'm going to answer your question by using the example of the question or the talked about the North Atlantic, what we call the Western Arctic. And this is where I think Ireland's value comes in. As Mr. Covney noted, you know, as a Ireland is part of the wider Arctic neighborhood. And what we're seeing is in the sub regional areas of the Western Arctic, this is the calving of the Greenland ice sheet. Some of the dramatic changes that are happening in the composition, ocean acidification, whether that's microplastics. This is where Ireland is so geographically well positioned to play a strong role in science, in environmental protection and assessment. And as we continue to see much more proactive regional action between Canada, the United States, the Kingdom of Denmark, Greenland, that that's a subunit that can really focus very much on regional issues. So exciting opportunities, strong science, strong international collaboration and effective multilateralism. That's what the Arctic Council is all about. Thank you very much. And would you like to come in on that question? Yes, thank you. I think I firmly believe in dialogue and to talk to each other and to stay with each other around the table, whether you are a real member or an observer. I think it is important to participate in the international dialogue about Arctic and to influence with the springs of a country like Ireland. I think it's good. The Arctic Council is perhaps not the only place, but one of the few places where you have strong international countries on each side of the table. And Russia is going to take over the chairmanship from May this year, which is interesting, because then Russia is the chairman of a very important international organization, where I think everyone connected in one way or another to the Arctic is both interested and important. So I see collaboration as a strong part of Ireland's presence in other forum. And I think the peacekeeping sort of capacity will also be part of the science diplomacy and the other part of diplomacy that take part in the Arctic Council. Thank you. Great, Anne. Thank you for that, Audrey. Final words. Thank you. Well, from the perspective of Nari for this network of Arctic researchers in Ireland, we are very young. We're just getting to know each other. We are very eager to contribute to the emerging challenges in the Arctic. We want to not only collaborate within our own working groups, we want to collaborate between each other as well to really merge the challenges that are interdisciplinary and affect the marine, the terrestrial, and the humanities. So there's a lot of capacity that is developing at the moment. And we are very excited to be part of this and hope that Ireland's application is successful. Thank you. Thank you very much, Audrey. Thanks a lot. Well, unless there are any further points which the panelists would like to make, I think we've probably come to an end of the discussion. I'd like to thank everybody very, very warmly for finding the time to take part. I know that Simon Coby would have liked very much to be able to be present in person, but there were scheduling complications. And that's why his contribution had to be pre-recorded. But there's no doubt it's an important issue for the Irish government. You have helped to illustrate the potential of the Arctic region from many different points of view and the value of Ireland becoming an observer as we all hope will happen. So on behalf of the IAEA and the Department of Foreign Affairs, I'd like to bring the event to a conclusion and to thank everybody who took part in it, both the panelists and our questioners from the audience and Minister Simon Coby. Thank you very much, everybody. I look forward to seeing you again sometime. Thank you. Bye-bye.