The EU talks big on protecting the Arctic under the guise of ‘sustainable development’

• Main Authors: López, Sofía, De Botselier, Bram, Schunz, Simon
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: London School of Economics and Political Science 2018
• Subjects: HC Economic History and Conditions; HD Industries. Land use. Labor; HD28 Management. Industrial Management; Arctic; Canada
• Online Access: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/110460/; http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/110460/1/businessreview_2018_11_24_the_eu_talks_big_on_protecting_the_arctic.pdf; https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/

Half a millennium ago, the myth of a lost city of gold drove scores of Europeans to the Americas in search of wealth. Today, images of a new ‘El Dorado’ with fathomless (energy) resources are attracting players from all over the world to a very different place: the Arctic. Driven by the prospect of economic, primarily energy-related opportunities, a myriad of national governments – from Arctic (Canada) to non-Arctic (China) states – and companies are trying to establish a foothold in an extremely fragile region that is key to the Earth’s environmental and climatic system.