| Summary: | Global warming – causing the climate to change – is one of the most pervasive global concerns, because it is increasingly impacting everyone’s live. The main contributors to global warming are carbon dioxide and BC (black carbon) emissions, both deadly air pollutants. BC emissions, that are a product of the combustion of biogenic and fossil fuels, have a high mean radiative forcing, and thus, they are one of the most dangerous climate forcers. Arctic area is where the impacts are the most visible, because the region’s ice surfaces are rapidly melting, which does not only impact humans living in the area, but also the ecosystems. BC emissions cause similar impacts across the world. Arctic Council, a high-level intergovernmental forum, addresses these issues in cooperation between member states, permanent participants and observers. One of the main focus points of the council is to protect the sensitive Arctic environment, which is impacted by global behaviour, for example, through the amount of emitted BC to the atmosphere. 2017-2019 marked Finnish chairmanship in the Arctic Council during which high emphasis was placed on explaining why reducing BC emissions is critical and facilitating action to reduce the emission. BC emission reductions were – and are still – considered as a Finnish national goal, which is strengthened by President Sauli Niinistö’s emphasis on the topic. “If we lose the Arctic, we lose the globe”, is one of the sentences that President Niinistö often includes in his speeches when discussing global warming. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore Finnish contributions to the decision-making in the Arctic Council in terms of sustainable development whist focusing on BC emissions. In particular, it is investigated why BC emissions are a topic of utmost importance for the Finnish state, gauged what kind of a message on dangerous BC emissions is spread within the Arctic Council and explored what kind of perceptions the member states, permanent participants and observers have about the ...
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