The Arctic Circle: geopolitical, legal and environmental aspects

• Main Authors: Βαλάρη, Βασιλική, Valari, Vasiliki
• Other Authors: Bossi, Mary, Μπόση, Μαρία, Σχολή Οικονομικών, Επιχειρηματικών και Διεθνών Σπουδών. Τμήμα Διεθνών και Ευρωπαϊκών Σπουδών, Ενέργεια: Στρατηγική, Δίκαιο & Οικονομία
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Πανεπιστήμιο Πειραιώς 2021
• Subjects: Arctic; Geopolitical aspects; Legal aspects; Environmental aspects; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Arctic Council; Climate change; Law of the Sea
• Online Access: https://dione.lib.unipi.gr/xmlui/handle/unipi/13868; https://doi.org/10.26267/unipi_dione/1291

By the present paper we try to give a first view on the basic geopolitical, legal and environmental aspects of the Arctic area. In the first chapter entitled “The Arctic and Geopolitics” we give a definition of the Arctic area as an ocean with uncertain geographical boundaries, including territories of various dominant states and constantly changing susceptible to climate change. We present the current governance status, where the leading role undertakes so far the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum constituted by the eight Arctic States that is assisted to its work by organizations representing Arctic Indigenous peoples, the so-called “Permanent Participants”, as well as non-Arctic States, inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations that participate by the “observer status”. Furthermore, we give a brief presentation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which is the main international treaty that sets the legal framework to resolve issues of sovereign and territorial rights regarding the Arctic area, accompanied by bilateral agreements that regulate more specific aspects of disputes that arise between Arctic states. In this part, a particular reference is made to the need for the formation of an Arctic Treaty, following the pattern of the Antarctic Treaty. By the second chapter of the present thesis, we aim to give an image of the impact of climate change on the Arctic environment as well as globally, notably stating that the Arctic functions as “a global refrigerator”. We present the current international legal framework under which efforts are made by states and international organizations to combat the human-induced climate change, that – as said above – affects and is affected by the thawing of the Arctic ice. A brief presentation is made of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, accompanied by a note on the Sixth Assessment Report published in August 2021 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Last but not least, a final section is dedicated to environmental migration, a complex phenomenon of populations’ displacements caused or triggered by impacts of climate change, trying to define who we can call an “environmental migrant” or “climate refugee”, if there is a protective legal framework and the special relation of this phenomenon with the melting Arctic.