Summary: | The Arctic Council was founded in Ottawa in 1996 following the so-called Rovaniemi process. By approving the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS) in Rovaniemi, Finland, in 1991, the Rovaniemi process started an overarching international cooperation for the protection of the Arctic environment. The Council’s key missions came to include the environment and sustainable development in the Arctic Regions. Until now, the Arctic Council has addressed Arctic transportation issues only marginally. Nevertheless, the Council strongly feels that also transportation development in the Arctic must be seen in the context of sustainable development as defined first in the Brundtland Report in 1987. The Report, also known as Our Common Future, provided the key statement on sustainable development defining it as: “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”" /./
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