Statssekretær Karin Yrvin

Kings Bay-symposiet i Ny-Ålesund

Åpningsinnlegg 2. mars 2006

Ladies and gentlemen!

Welcome to the Arctic! Welcome to Ny-Ålesund!

It is nice to be in the world’s most northern permanent settlement, in spectacular, wild and untouched nature, with time for discussions and reflections.

We have just been told about Ny-Ålesund and its interesting and dramatic history. The atmosphere of the old mining community is still intact in the buildings surrounding us.

Today, this apparently isolated and frozen location has become a vibrant and international centre for scientific arctic research and the study of our vulnerable earth.

Spitsbergen and Ny-Ålesund is in many ways a mini-laboratory for the international community. Here, people from all over the world work together to find common solutions to common challenges. Here, people also join forces to explore the opportunities that this planet provides.

Kings Bay is responsible for the infrastructure and logistics to the scientists and research stations operating here in Ny-Ålesund. Kings Bay is also the initiator and our host for the Ny-Ålesund symposium. Representing the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry, which is the owner of Kings Bay, I am honoured to be here to open the Ny-Ålesund symposium on the changing Arctic.

How do we define the Arctic region? The root of the word Arctic is the Greek word for bear. And it is a big bear we are dealing with. The Artic may be defined in several ways. According to one definition, the Arctic is the area in the North where no trees grow in the lowlands. In that case, the border of the Arctic lies between the 52 ^nd> and 71 ^st> degree north, and the area of the Arctic covers 26 million square kilometres. So, according to this definition, the Artic bear is more than twice as big as Europe and more than three times the size of Australia.

The changing Arctic. There is a certain ambition and challenge attached to the subject of this symposium. It appeals to my curiosity, as well as to my respect for the complexity that the Arctic represents. In fact, the Arctic region has a way to accentuate a matrix of historical lines, political relations and environmental concerns in a way that few other regions do.

The Arctic is changing. In what ways are these changes taking place?

First of all, the climate is changing. It is getting warmer. This development will be described for us in more detail tomorrow morning. We already know that the consequences will be vast and widespread. The environment does not respect national borders. This symposium offers an opportunity to contemplate on the effects on the international economy and our global society.

Secondly, while the physical climate is getting warmer, great changes in the political climate have taken place over the last few decades. With the end of the Cold War, the political relations in the Arctic region have strengthened. We live in a truly interconnected world.

In the Arctic, a changing political climate has generated a greater potential for balancing opportunities and challenges. As the amount of co-operation is increasing, new arenas for collaboration, such as this symposium, are emerging. International politics is another unavoidable issue for the discussions here in Ny-Ålesund.

A third category of changes in the Arctic is the economic and industrial opportunities that this region increasingly represents. The Arctic is a region with a unique surplus of natural resources, such as oil and gas, fish and other seafood. This is invaluable in a world that is becoming more resource-oriented, where energy consumption is steadily escalating.

According to a US Geological Survey, a quarter of the unexplored oil and gas resources could be located in this region. The oil and gas reservoirs in the Arctic region are increasingly subject to attention from the global community. Norway, as well as other northern nations, is virtually standing on the brink of a new industrial adventure.

Fish and seafood are lasting resources, as long as they are managed in a sustainable way. The race for short-term profit may conflict with the need for long-term management of a healthy stock of fish resources. However, the potential for feeding the globe with clean and healthy food from the Arctic is encouraging.

Tourism is another business opportunity that is slowly opening up in the Arctic. The demand for extreme and exotic adventures is growing steadily, and the Arctic is increasingly more accessible. Again, in this vulnerable area, even small-scale tourism could potentially have critical effects on the Arctic nature.

Eventually, the exploitation of natural resources such as oil and gas, as well as other economic activity in the Arctic, will lead to major industrial and commercial activity in this region.

Changes in the global climate, political relations, and economic activity are three obvious sets of issues that we need to approach at this symposium. Hopefully, we can do more than discuss the changes. I believe we should also embark upon how to deal with the changes.

Finding the balance between environmental and economic interests is always difficult. In the Arctic this may be even harder. Nevertheless, one unavoidable concern for the exclusive assembly in this auditorium is the ever-recurring issue of sustainable development.

Sustainable development goes right to the core of how we should approach a changing Arctic. And I believe that the fundamental keys to sustainable development in the Arctic are knowledge and technology.

While changes in the Arctic are already taking place, the consequences are hard to assess. So we need more knowledge.

And while economic and industrial opportunities become increasingly apparent, the capability to utilise these opportunities comes from technological development. Knowledge and technology is changing and improving our capacity to exploit natural resources at extreme conditions. Moreover, knowledge and technology enable us to find new and sustainable ways to conduct these operations.

Knowledge and technology thus form the last set of issues that need to be addressed at this symposium. The Minister of Education and Research will embark upon these issues in just a few minutes.

The signs of global problems, such as pollution, often surface first in the Arctic. New technology provides better tools for monitoring and understanding the planet. One very relevant example is satellites in space, now providing ever more and better images and data. These satellites are useful for research and surveillance of the Arctic region.

As a matter of fact, the Artic itself provides excellent locations for space activities, and satellite-based surveillance in particular.

Firstly, the satellites providing the most detailed images and data are polar orbiting satellites. That is, the Arctic is being monitored at every orbit of the satellites, making it the most frequently monitored region of the world, along with the Antarctic. This is useful both for research and for surveillance of the region, for monitoring the activities of the commercial fleet and the fishery fleet, of oil spills and pollution.

Secondly, since these satellites are polar orbiting, the Arctic is the ideal location to download the satellite data. The continuous development of the Svalbard satellite station at Longyearbyen is evidence of this.

Thirdly, particular phenomena takes place in the atmosphere above the Arctic and the Arctic Circle. The Northern Light - the Aurora Borealis - and the earth’s magnetic field are best being monitored from here. These phenomena are important in order to understand the relationship between earth and sun, and to understand what effects are manmade and what effects are external.

The matters we shall approach over a few days here in New-Ålesund are tremendously important, and complex. Changes in the Arctic are prone to have major global consequences. Changes in the Arctic represent great challenges, as well as rich opportunities.

Kings Bay offers a unique setting and an exclusive mix of people representing knowledge, politics and economics. All is set for this symposium to be a tool to reflect, discuss and develop the way we approach the changes in the Arctic region.

Dear friends, I am looking forward to hearing your views and opinions. I wish you all an excellent stay and a fruitful symposium.

Thank you!