The University of the Arctic: From Vision to Reality

This paper outlines the origins of UArctic from idea and inception through its early days and launch, with observations on the politics of building circumpolar cooperation in Northern education. It then discusses the evolution of three key program areas that aimed to meet the new university’s professed goals of building human capacity and regional identity in the Circumpolar North through international education, namely, the undergraduate Circumpolar Studies Program, the student mobility north2north Program, and the Arctic Learning Environment. The final section of the paper offers some observations on the challenges that lie ahead for the future development of UArctic

Enhancing Energy justice in the Arctic: An appraisal of the participation of Arctic indigenous peoples in the transition to renewable energy

Chapter 10 explores the extent to which Indigenous communities participate in the transition to renewable energy in the Arctic region. Using the concept of energy justice, this chapter provides legal and empirical arguments to demonstrate the need to consider energy justice in order to ensure that the transition to renewable energy in the Arctic region addresses the rights of Indigenous peoples. In so doing, the authors outline the importance of renewable energy as a means to achieving sustainable development and to fulfilling human rights in accordance with the international commitments of Arctic states adopted under the auspices of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. Second, the chapter outlines the broader contexts and corresponding patterns of renewable energy development in the Arctic. Against this backdrop, the chapter examines the actual state of play of the energy transition and its impact on Indigenous peoples in the Arctic based on illustrative examples. For this purpose, the chapter includes examples from Canada, Alaska, Russia, and in the Nordic countries of Norway and Sweden. Based on this appraisal, the authors offer recommendations for policy makers and business leaders to achieve greater justice for the Arctic Indigenous peoples during this current period of global energy transition.Non peer reviewe

Local Capacity for Energy Transition in Northern and Indigenous Communities: Analysis of Gwich’in Communities in Northwest Territories, Canada

Introducing local renewable energy solutions into the fossil fuel dominated energy mix of many northern and off-grid Indigenous communities has the potential to create new socio-economic opportunity and address historical energy injustices. However, energy systems are comprised not only of technology and infrastructure but also the communities who generate, use, and benefit from energy. The design of local energy systems that are community appropriate thus requires an understanding of a community’s socio-technical capacity, coupled with an understanding of the social processes that stimulate and sustain transitions and the longer-term, desired outcomes from local energy. This paper explores the socio-technical capacity for renewable energy transitions in northern and Indigenous communities, based on a case study of four Gwich’in communities in the Northwest Territories, Canada. Results show that the foundational attributes of socio-technical capacity for energy transition in northern communities are interconnected, and strengths or challenges in one area often reflect strengths or challenges in another. Several capacity strengths already exist to support energy transition, including community energy values inclusive of community vision and the embedded and transferable skillsets of communities, coupled with next generation leaders. In turn, there are areas where significant capacity building is required, including supports for local energy champion(s) and enabling inter-local energy networks. Results also demonstrate that recent scholarly literature regarding local capacity for community energy does not tightly align with, or reflect the nuances of, energy transition needs in northern and Indigenous communities

The Impact of Local Participation on Community Support for Natural Resource Management: The Case of Mining in Northern Canada and Northern Sweden

Due to its oftentimes complex, contested, and multi-scale character, natural resource management (NRM) tends to be a challenging task that has been met with various political approaches in order to meet demands for legitimacy. One approach to enhancing the legitimacy of NRM that has gained increased attention within the academic literature is the adoption of local participatory democracy in decision-making processes. Advocates of participatory democracy in NRM propose that local participation achieves the following outcomes: increased legitimacy because it ensures that local needs and priorities are successfully met; decision-making based on more complete information, which helps avoid unexpected negative outcomes; and a sense of belonging and influence among the public, leading to increased perceptions of support and partnership, as opposed to NRM which is imposed on the community. Nevertheless, comprehensive empirical studies that document how public participation affects legitimacy remain rare. Using 2015 data collected on people’s attitudes towards mining in northern Saskatchewan, Canada, and Norrbotten and Västerbotten counties, Sweden, this paper empirically assesses whether and how perceptions of local participation affect the legitimacy of mining development. In turn, this paper finds that perceived public participation does affect the public’s propensity to support mining development and this propensity is mediated by people’s perceptions of the interests present in the decision-making process, their normative beliefs concerning which actors should be allowed to participate in the decision-making process, and certain individual-level and contextual-level factors

Advancing local energy transitions: A global review of government instruments supporting community energy

The adoption and encouragement of community energy, that is, the incentive to develop renewable energy projects with community participation and ownership, is a key ingredient of energy transition. Government policies and other instruments can pose both barriers and opportunities for community energy development; however, there has been little analysis of the state of research on the range of government tools to facilitate energy transition and the implications of these instruments for community energy. This paper analyses the current scholarly research on government instruments for community energy, focusing on the multiple scales of governance. Our analysis identified 108 articles addressing government instruments and community energy. Research addressing government instruments and community energy has increased substantially in recent years, with most of the emphasis on national or state instruments, situated in the European context, and focused on grid-connected communities. We identified four global categories of government tools designed to support community energy: payment-based, grid access, environmental protection and community planning and capacity. Within these categories, nineteen different government instruments emerged with tools for financial support, feed-in-tariffs, grid services, and fiscal incentives receiving the most attention. Findings emphasize the need for further research on community-focused instruments for renewable energy, the importance of coordination between levels of government to support such instruments, and analysis of the suitability of current instruments for community-appropriate energy solutions in remote and off-grid communities."This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Grant no. 895-2019-1007, and Mitacs. We wish to acknowledge the Community Appropriate Sustainable Energy Security (CASES) partnership for supporting this work."https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221462962100441