Comparing the robustness of Arctic and Antarctic governance through the continental shelf submission process

Polar Record ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-59
Author(s):  
Melissa Weber
Keyword(s):  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Regional Cooperation ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Arctic Council ◽  
Governing System ◽  
Emerging Issues ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Antarctic

ABSTRACTThe processes undertaken by Arctic states and Antarctic claimant states to submit data to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) demonstrates the robustness of polar governance. The robustness of a governing system reflects its capacity to deal with emerging issues. For the purposes of this article, robustness comprises the effective protection of rights in the absence of prejudice and participant confidence. In the Arctic, unilateral assertion of continental shelf entitlement can proceed due to the nature of the CLCS process and recognition of sovereignty. Combined with the voluntary nature of Arctic governance, the process does not hamper cooperation in scientific research, boundary delimitation or engagement in initiatives such as the Arctic Council. In the Antarctic, a coordinated approach to continental shelf delimitation protected claimant states’ entitlement to a continental shelf and the right of other states not to recognise sovereignty. States demonstrated commitment to the Antarctic Treaty and acted according to accepted norms. Though different in structure, each polar governing system has its own characteristics of robustness. State authority drives participant confidence and regional cooperation in the Arctic. In the Antarctic, norms of behaviour foster system legitimacy and resilience is reinforced by the consequences of abandoning the system. With continued acceptance of the individual governing-system dynamics, emerging issues can be accommodated in both polar regions.

Do the Continental Shelf Developments Challenge the Polar Regimes?

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 477-497
Author(s):  
Timo Koivurova
Keyword(s):  
Continental Shelf ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Law Of The Sea ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Arctic Council ◽  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Made In ◽  
Antarctic Treaty System

Abstract The article will provide a study of the continental shelf submissions that have been made in the polar regions and an evaluation as to whether these pose a challenge to the two polar regimes: the Arctic Council and the Antarctic Treaty System. This will be done by comparing these regimes, examining the development of the law of the sea as regards seabed rights and studying what sort of challenge the polar regimes face from the continental shelf activity in both polar regions and how serious that challenge is. Conclusions are finally drawn as to what types of effects may ensue for the polar regimes from the continental shelf submissions by various states.

scholarly journals BRICS in polar regions: Brazil’s interests and prospects

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 326-340
Author(s):  
Paulo Borba Casella ◽  
◽  
Maria Lagutina ◽  
Arthur Roberto Capella Giannattasio ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Legal Regulation ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Arctic Council ◽  
Public Power ◽  
Promising Tool ◽  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
International Power ◽  
Global Affairs ◽  
The Antarctic

The current international legal regulation of the Arctic and Antarctica was organized during the second half of the XX century to establish an international public power over the two regions, the Arctic Council (AC) and the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), which is characterized by Euro-American dominance. However, the rise of emerging countries at the beginning of the XXI century suggests a progressive redefinition of the structural balance of international power in favor of states not traditionally perceived as European and Western. This article examines the role of Brazil within the AC and the ATS to address various polar issues, even institutional ones. As a responsible country in the area of cooperation in science and technology in the oceans and polar regions in BRICS, Brazil appeals to its rich experience in Antarctica and declares its interest in joining the Arctic cooperation. For Brazil, participation in polar cooperation is a way to increase its role in global affairs and BRICS as a negotiating platform. It is seen in this context as a promising tool to achieve this goal. This article highlights new paths in the research agenda concerning interests and prospects of Brazilian agency in the polar regions.

Governing the antipodes: international cooperation in Antarctica and the Arctic

Polar Record ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oran R. Young
Keyword(s):  
Effective Means ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
Arctic Council ◽  
Governance Systems ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Face ◽  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
The Antarctic

ABSTRACTThe Arctic and the Antarctic appear to be polar opposites with regard to many matters, including the systems of governance that have evolved in the two regions. Antarctica is demilitarised, closed to economic development, open to a wide range of scientific activities, and subject to strict environmental regulations under the terms of the legally binding Antarctic Treaty of 1959 along with several supplementary measures that together form the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS). The Arctic, by contrast, is a theatre of military operations, a site of largescale industrial activities, a homeland for sizable groups of indigenous peoples, and a focus of growing concern regarding the environmental impacts of human activities. The Arctic Council, the principal international body concerned with governance at the regional level, operates under the terms of a ministerial declaration that is not legally binding; it lacks the authority to make formal decisions about matters of current interest. Digging a little deeper, however, one turns up some illuminating similarities between the governance systems operating in the antipodes. In this article, I pursue this line of thinking, setting forth a range of observations relating to (i) the history of governance in the antipodes, (ii) institutional innovations occurring in these regions, (iii) issues of membership, (iv) jurisdictional concerns, (v) the role of science, (vi) relations with the UN system, (vii) institutional interplay, and (viii) the adaptiveness of governance systems in the face of changing circumstances. The governance systems for the polar regions are not likely to converge anytime soon. Nevertheless, this analysis should be of interest not only to those concerned with the fate of Antarctica and the Arctic but also to those seeking to find effective means of addressing needs for governance in other settings calling for governance without government.

Protecting Polar Wilderness: Just a Western Philosophical Idea or a Useful Concept for Regulating Human Activities in the Polar Regions?

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kees Bastmeijer
Keyword(s):  
The Arctic ◽  
International Governance ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Arctic Council ◽  
Multilateral Environmental Agreements ◽  
Commercial Activities ◽  
Governance Systems ◽  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
The Right ◽  
Antarctic Treaty System

Abstract This article focuses on the question to what extent wilderness protection receives attention in the international governance systems for the Polar Regions (Arctic Council and Antarctic Treaty System). First, on the basis of a definition of the term ‘wilderness’, the role of law in protecting wilderness is discussed. Next, attention is focused on wilderness protection in the Arctic and Antarctic. It is concluded that the international governance systems pay very little attention to the preservation of the Polar Regions as the last relatively untouched wildernesses on earth. The applicability of various multilateral environmental agreements (particularly the Arctic) is not very helpful in this respect as wilderness protection does not receive substantial attention in these legal instruments either. In view of the broad acknowledgement of the wilderness values of the Polar Regions and the fast increase of commercial activities in these regions, the author urges stakeholders involved in the Arctic Council and the Antarctic Treaty System to open the debate on relevant questions: What are wilderness values in the context of the Polar Regions and when would these values be affected? For the Arctic, how could wilderness protection be integrated in the efforts regarding sustainable development to ensure the right balance between wilderness protection and the protection of indigenous peoples rights? The questions are certainly complex; however, excluding these questions from the international governance debate with the argument that the concept is too vague, subjective or sensitive will most certainly result in a continuing loss of untouched nature, both in the Arctic and Antarctic.

scholarly journals Evolution in the cold

2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Antarctic Fish ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Evolutionary Studies ◽  
Adaptive Radiations ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Insight Into

Theodosius Dobzhansky once remarked that nothing in biology makes sense other than in the light of evolution, thereby emphasising the central role of evolutionary studies in providing the theoretical context for all of biology. It is perhaps surprising then that evolutionary biology has played such a small role to date in Antarctic science. This is particularly so when it is recognised that the polar regions provide us with an unrivalled laboratory within which to undertake evolutionary studies. The Antarctic exhibits one of the classic examples of a resistance adaptation (antifreeze peptides and glycopeptides, first described from Antarctic fish), and provides textbook examples of adaptive radiations (for example amphipod crustaceans and notothenioid fish). The land is still largely in the grip of major glaciation, and the once rich terrestrial floras and faunas of Cenozoic Gondwana are now highly depauperate and confined to relatively small patches of habitat, often extremely isolated from other such patches. Unlike the Arctic, where organisms are returning to newly deglaciated land from refugia on the continental landmasses to the south, recolonization of Antarctica has had to take place by the dispersal of propagules over vast distances. Antarctica thus offers an insight into the evolutionary responses of terrestrial floras and faunas to extreme climatic change unrivalled in the world. The sea forms a strong contrast to the land in that here the impact of climate appears to have been less severe, at least in as much as few elements of the fauna show convincing signs of having been completely eradicated.

scholarly journals A global high-resolution data set of ice sheet topography, cavity geometry and ocean bathymetry

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janin Schaffer ◽  
Ralph Timmermann ◽  
Jan Erik Arndt ◽  
Steen Savstrup Kristensen ◽  
Christoph Mayer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Antarctic Ice Sheet ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
Surface Topographies ◽  
The Antarctic

Abstract. The ocean plays an important role in modulating the mass balance of the polar ice sheets by interacting with the ice shelves in Antarctica and with the marine-terminating outlet glaciers in Greenland. Given that the flux of warm water onto the continental shelf and into the sub-ice cavities is steered by complex bathymetry, a detailed topography data set is an essential ingredient for models that address ice-ocean interaction. We followed the spirit of the global RTopo-1 data set and compiled consistent maps of global ocean bathymetry, upper and lower ice surface topographies and global surface height on a spherical grid with now 30-arc seconds resolution. We used the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO_2014) as the backbone and added the International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean version 3 (IBCAOv3) and the International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean (IBCSO) version 1. While RTopo-1 primarily aimed at a good and consistent representation of the Antarctic ice sheet, ice shelves and sub-ice cavities, RTopo-2 now also contains ice topographies of the Greenland ice sheet and outlet glaciers. In particular, we aimed at a good representation of the fjord and shelf bathymetry surrounding the Greenland continent. We corrected data from earlier gridded products in the areas of Petermann Glacier, Hagen Bræ and Sermilik Fjord assuming that sub-ice and fjord bathymetries roughly follow plausible Last Glacial Maximum ice flow patterns. For the continental shelf off northeast Greenland and the floating ice tongue of Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden Glacier at about 79° N, we incorporated a high-resolution digital bathymetry model considering original multibeam survey data for the region. Radar data for surface topographies of the floating ice tongues of Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden Glacier and Zachariæ Isstrøm have been obtained from the data centers of Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Operation Icebridge (NASA/NSF) and Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI). For the Antarctic ice sheet/ice shelves, RTopo-2 largely relies on the Bedmap-2 product but applies corrections for the geometry of Getz, Abbot and Fimbul ice shelf cavities. The data set is available in full and in regional subsets in NetCDF format from the PANGAEA database at https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.856844.

The Polar Regions and the Development of International Law: Contemporary Reflections and Twenty-First Century Challenges

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 233-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald R. Rothwell
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Foundational Research ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Legal Frameworks ◽  
Global Affairs ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The polar regions are increasingly coming to the forefront of global affairs in ways that are beginning to approach the prominence given to the polar regions during the ‘heroic era’ of exploration at the beginning of the twentieth century. This contemporary focus is, however, very much upon governance and the capacity of the existing and future legal frameworks to govern the Antarctic and Arctic effectively. This article revisits foundational research undertaken in 1992–1993 and reassesses the impact of the polar regions upon the development of international law. Particular attention is given to environmental management, living and nonliving resource management, the regulation and management of maritime areas, and governance mechanisms and frameworks. The article seeks to critically assess whether the existing legal frameworks that operate in Antarctica and the Arctic are capable of dealing with their increasing globalisation, or whether there will be a need for new legal and governance regimes to be developed to address twenty-first century challenges.

Polar tourism regulation strategies: controlling visitors through codes of conduct and legislation

Polar Record ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 33 (184) ◽  
pp. 13-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret E. Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Codes Of Conduct ◽  
Specific Area ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Regulation Strategies ◽  
Area Of Concern ◽  
Tourist Behaviour ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Further Development

AbstractControlling visitor impacts in polar regions continues to be important in both the Antarctic and Arctic. Concerns relate to impacts on the physical environment, cultural heritage, and host communities or scientific bases, as well as a recognition that safety and liability are major issues for governments, commercial operators, and local populations. Strategies for controlling tourists include visitor and operator codes and formal legislation. This paper summarises several approaches to visitor regulation in polar regions in order to illustrate the ways in which concerns about tourist impacts are being addressed. Similar issues arise throughout the polar regions, although in some places a particular emphasis might indicate a specific area of concern for a community, region, nation, or segment of the tourism industry. While a comprehensive strategy might be appropriate in many respects in the Arctic, it is also important to acknowledge the significance of more specific concerns. This paper first describes regulation of tourist behaviour and considers general issues of strategy effectiveness. Then it examines the approaches to visitor regulation used in the Antarctic and on S valbard as examples that may be of use in the further development of strategies in the Arctic. The paper then discusses an evolving strategy for control in the Northwest Territories, Canada. This strategy differs from these other approaches in that it targets a specific segment of the visitor population: those undertaking adventure expeditions.

scholarly journals Detecting changes in Arctic methane emissions: limitations of the inter-polar difference of atmospheric mole fractions

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (24) ◽  
pp. 17895-17907 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar B. Dimdore-Miles ◽  
Paul I. Palmer ◽  
Lori P. Bruhwiler
Keyword(s):  
Mole Fraction ◽  
Atmospheric Chemistry ◽  
Transport Model ◽  
Atmospheric Transport ◽  
Random Noise ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Annual Growth Rate ◽  
Continuous Version ◽  
The Antarctic

Abstract. We consider the utility of the annual inter-polar difference (IPD) as a metric for changes in Arctic emissions of methane (CH4). The IPD has been previously defined as the difference between weighted annual means of CH4 mole fraction data collected at stations from the two polar regions (defined as latitudes poleward of 53∘ N and 53∘ S, respectively). This subtraction approach (IPD) implicitly assumes that extra-polar CH4 emissions arrive within the same calendar year at both poles. We show using a continuous version of the IPD that the metric includes not only changes in Arctic emissions but also terms that represent atmospheric transport of air masses from lower latitudes to the polar regions. We show the importance of these atmospheric transport terms in understanding the IPD using idealized numerical experiments with the TM5 global 3-D atmospheric chemistry transport model that is run from 1980 to 2010. A northern mid-latitude pulse in January 1990, which increases prior emission distributions, arrives at the Arctic with a higher mole fraction and ≃12 months earlier than at the Antarctic. The perturbation at the poles subsequently decays with an e-folding lifetime of ≃4 years. A similarly timed pulse emitted from the tropics arrives with a higher value at the Antarctic ≃11 months earlier than at the Arctic. This perturbation decays with an e-folding lifetime of ≃7 years. These simulations demonstrate that the assumption of symmetric transport of extra-polar emissions to the poles is not realistic, resulting in considerable IPD variations due to variations in emissions and atmospheric transport. We assess how well the annual IPD can detect a constant annual growth rate of Arctic emissions for three scenarios, 0.5 %, 1 %, and 2 %, superimposed on signals from lower latitudes, including random noise. We find that it can take up to 16 years to detect the smallest prescribed trend in Arctic emissions at the 95 % confidence level. Scenarios with higher, but likely unrealistic, growth in Arctic emissions are detected in less than a decade. We argue that a more reliable measurement-driven approach would require data collected from all latitudes, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a global monitoring network to observe decadal changes in atmospheric greenhouse gases.

Arctic shipping guidelines: towards a legal regime for navigation safety and environmental protection?

Polar Record ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Øystein Jensen
Keyword(s):  
The Arctic ◽  
Legal Issue ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
International Polar Year ◽  
Safety Standards ◽  
International Polar ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Arctic Ice ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Near Future

ABSTRACTWith the International Polar Year (IPY) having commenced in March 2007, key issues relating to the polar regions are again in focus. This article reviews one central legal issue re-emerging in the Arctic: global regulation of safety standards for international shipping. The ‘Guidelines for ships operating in Arctic ice-covered waters’ are examined, with a view to the probable expansion of shipping in the Arctic in near future. Following an introduction to navigational issues within the Arctic context, the article describes how the guidelines came into being, and then analyses key elements and structure of the regulations and shortfalls of today's arrangements. The possible relevance of the guidelines to the Antarctic is also discussed briefly. Finally, the article inquires into the key repercussions of introducing binding regulations.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document