Green days: International Cooperation for a Sustainable Arctic

Iceland assumes the chairmanship of the Arctic Council in 2019. The Arctic is a region with rich traditions and cultures as well as many social, environmental and economical dilemmas sometimes of global importance. There has been a long standing tradition for peaceful cooperation in the region embodied in the Arctic Council.
As sustainability for the region and the world becomes an increasingly important agenda, we will be setting focus on the cooperation between the nations especially with focus on sustainability.

Representatives from Five Embassies of Arctic nations and the Icelandic Foreign Ministry will be telling about their work with sustainability in the Arctic context as well as their hopes for the cooperation on this matter. Afterwards there will be a panel discussion with Q and A.

Moderator:
Pia Hansson, Director of the Institute of International Affairs and the Centre for Arctic Studies

Panel Participants:

• Chargé d’Affaires, U.S. Embassy - Jill Esposito
• Advisor, Finnish Embassy - Andrea Tanzi-Albi
• Attaché, Russian Embassy - Mikhail Zenin
• Policy Adviser and Trade Commissioner, Canadian Embassy-Xavier Rodriguez
• Head of Greenlandic Representation to Iceland - Jacob Isbosethsen
• Deputy Senior Arctic Official of the Icelandic MFA - Adalheidur Inga Thorsteinsdottir

GAIA, the student organization for master’s students in the Environment and Natural Resources program at Háskóli Íslands, will be hosting their annual Green Days event from March 18-22nd. Many events will be held throughout the week on and around the HÍ campus in Reykjavík. This year, Green Days will be centered around the theme “Building a Sustainable Arctic” as Iceland prepares for its upcoming chairmanship of the Arctic Council.

Lots of exciting events are on the agenda for this year’s event, including a policy panel with representatives from different Arctic Nations, talks from university professors on topics ranging from the ecological value of whales to arctic shipping, a presentation of research conducted at the university through the Fulbright Arctic Research Initiative, an urban cleanup, and many more.

See the full program at Facebook.