Who Writes Our Climate Narratives? A Report Back from the Arctic Circle Assembly

From October 19th-21st, the 2023 Arctic Circle Assembly gathered world leaders, policymakers, Indigenous organisers, students, and youth from all over the world at Harpa. Their aim was to discuss diverse Arctic issues and address ongoing impacts of climate change in northern communities. The 3-day assembly featured over 150 panels and events with a massive array of topic areas, and some distinctly wide-ranging views on climate change and Arctic futures.

More than 80 HÍ students from various departments attended as part of UAU018M The Arctic Circle, and select graduate students also presented research gathered over the past year as part of the 10-credit ARCADE program (Arctic Academy for Social and Environmental Leadership).

The conference’s combination of intimate, diverse breakout sessions and large, limited-seating plenary sessions featuring global leaders followed a predictable through-line: formal leadership and politicians seemed to value diplomacy over addressing complex issues directly while youth, Indigenous leaders, and scientists discussed the complexities of technology, sovereignty, and intersectional climate justice in their own communities.

Photograph: The Arctic Circle

For example, the panel Climate Justice, Permafrost Thaw, and Community-Based Monitoring shared the importance of addressing root causes of climate change and social issues that keep us in a fossil fuel dependent economy. Michaela Stith, Climate Justice Director at the Alaskan organisation Native Movement, shared the fundamental notion that we do not all produce carbon emissions equally.

“We know that climate change is caused by carbon emissions, but we do not have equal responsibility for producing them. The top 10% wealthiest people in the world produce nearly half of all greenhouse gases… Climate justice is about redistributing decision-making power from the very wealthy to Black and Indigenous people most impacted by climate change.” 

The same day, Mariam bint Mohammed Saeed Hareb Almheiri, Minister of Climate Change and Environment for the United Arab Emirates, directly avoided addressing attendees’ questions about the process of ending a fossil fuel dependent global economy. Instead, she pushed for “net-zero” emissions. While net-zero may be considered a realistic standard for the next fifty years by global leadership, it must be presented alongside an intentional, concrete accountability plan for implementing a transition to true zero, as curbing emissions in some industries could promote harmful emissions elsewhere.

On day 2 of the assembly, Ungir Umhverfissinnar (Icelandic Youth Environmentalist Association) hosted a climate strike demonstration just outside the front doors of Harpa. Ungir Umhverfissinnar is a non-governmental organisation with the primary objective of giving youth a platform to positively influence the way society interacts with nature, ensuring young people’s voices are heard in policy and decision-making. In the wind and rain, people gathered and listened as youth from across the Arctic shared their frustration at the lack of actionable commitments being displayed by world leaders inside.

Cody Alexander Skahan, a Climate Representative for Ungir Umhverfissinnar and who organised the strike, explained:  “As with many of these yearly conferences, we saw a lot of greenwashing… Most of the politicians who take part don’t care that much. The event included a handful of youth panels and Indigenous leadership panels, but they felt mostly performative, based on conversations I overheard and other panels I attended. Although the Arctic Circle is supposed to cover issues other than Indigenous rights and the environment ‒ security and the future of the Arctic for example ‒ you can’t address the future of the Arctic without addressing environmental issues and the people who live there in a manner that actually takes into account their interests, their needs, and the science.”

Speakers at the climate strike included Indigenous youth from Greenland and Alaska and organisers from Iceland, with participants chanting “climate justice now” and sharing stories of coastal erosion and the implications of disappearing Arctic sea ice.

Meanwhile, inside, Lisa Murkowski, U.S. senator from Alaska, spoke on the divisiveness of projects like Ambler Road, a proposed mining and development road through delicate roadless permafrost currently undergoing a contentious public comment period.

“We organised the strike to bring awareness, vent, and exhibit our frustration – we feel these conferences do not take human rights of Indigenous peoples and environmental justice very seriously. If they did, conferences like this would look very different,” Cody added.

Steinunn Eyja Halldorsdottir, student attendee from the Arctic Circle course, was particularly impacted by the important role of language preservation in climate justice.

“I had a profound experience at the Arctic Circle Assembly,” Steinunn said. “Nadine Kochuten, executive secretary of the Aleut international Association, spoke about her Native language and culture. When giving her talk, she could not hold back her tears. Her Native language is actively becoming extinct. Aleut or Unangam Tunuu, only has 20 fluent speakers left and some dialects have already been lost due to the recent passing of the last fluent speaking people of that dialect. Kochuten presented a video where Unangam Tunuu was spoken. Being able to hear the language was a profound and special experience.”

Overall, a key takeaway from the Arctic Circle Assembly was that the dominant climate narratives have authors, and it is important to recognize who those authors are. Are the narratives surrounding climate change authored by policymakers, corporations, or politicians? And would those narratives be different if they were authored by community members, youth organisers, and Indigenous leaders? The environmental narrative does not have to be “no to all future development,” but decision-makers must be stakeholders, community consultation must be paramount, and the authors of our climate narratives must be those who actually live in and steward the Arctic for the prosperity of future generations.