диссертация (1169188), страница 94
Текст из файла (страница 94)
Population. First priority was given to issues of urbanization, cityplanning, living conditions, and healthcare. The programme pays special attentionto the indigenous peoples of the Arctic, to their living conditions and to theiradaptation to the new conditions brought about by climate change, globalisation,potential new business opportunities and other external developments.2. The environment and nature. Within the programme, it was suggested tomaintain efforts to collect data and information on natural processes, as well as topromote measures taken at a local and regional level to preserve the environment,nature and the seas in the Arctic region.3. Climate. The programme was focused on the collection of data andinformation on the potential ways to minimise the negative effects of globalwarming.4.
Sustainable business development. One of the directions indicated is thesupport of the sustainable use of resources; renewable energy, infrastructure,information technologies, as well as the development of the local service-,production- and processing industries. In this context, the programme focuses on415the interaction between business and society, including issues of corporate socialresponsibility.5. Education and skills enhancement.
In this area, priority was given toeducation for the sake of enlarging participation in democratic internationalprocesses, improving the competences of local governments, as well as increasingArctic youth’s understanding of the challenges and opportunities posed byglobalisation and climate change.Elaborating further on that concept, the Arctic Council also kept the prioritywith the social area. For the years 2015-2017, the SDWG adopted a working plan,also focused, as the document stresses, on the human dimension.This plan covers a number of promising areas and acute social issues. Theseinclude, in particular, reliable energy supply to remote settlements in the Arctic(such settlements usually use diesel fuel which is very expensive to transport andthe smoke from burning is harmful to both the environment and human health).
Itis planned to replace diesel fuel with renewable energy, as well as to find ways touse energy more efficiently. At the very least, work in that direction includes aproject under the aegis of the US called “Remote Communities RenewableEnergy” (RCRE). This project is intended to develop modules using energy fromrenewable energy sources, for instance, wind turbines, and diesel generators, aswell as micro power units for smaller communities.In Arctic Adaptation Exchange: Facilitating Adaptation to Climate Change,an initiative was adopted to further the development (in cooperation with theUniversity of Alaska Fairbanks) of an online portal to exchange experience andapproaches on adaptation to climate change.
Within that initiative, states, as issuggested, shall open their databases for use and connect them to the portal.Another area is the development of water quality assessment. Its purpose isto equip communities/settlements with tools to assess their drinking waterresources. This data is accumulated in a special database (the Arctic AdaptationExchange Portal) and may be used by administrations and researchers for measures416to assess the vulnerability and supply drinking water.
An important componenthere is water purification, recirculation and increasing water use efficiency.An entirely new topic in terms of the sustainable development concept wasthe implementation of the interdisciplinary “One Health” approach to studying theinterconnection and interdependence of the humanity, fauna and ecosystems. In thefuture, this approach should be adopted in the entire region.
It is planned, inparticular, to draw coordinated checklists to assess implementation progress.A relevant social area for the Arctic region is preventing suicides among theindigenous peoples. In this regard, the Arctic Council adopted a specialprogramme (the RISING SUN project – Reducing the Incidence of Suicide inIndigenous Groups – Strengths United through Networks), whose aim is toelaborategeneralscientificallysupportedparametersindicatingtheinterdependence of mental health, various influences and their effects in the Arcticstates.
It is anticipated that such parameters could be used in healthcare, as well asby state authorities to collect and exchange data and assess progress in that area.The ECONOR III suggests constant updates on the economy, social,economic conditions and environmental aspects in the Arctic Region from thestandpoint of the impact on the global economy and climate change. Harmonisingthe social and economic statistical data at the national and regional levels, theproject purports to improve the database for natural resource management andsocial development.A completely new area opened by the Arctic Council is seeing the Arctic asa food supplying region.
Food manufacturers here face great difficulties due to aharsh nature, climate change, poor or expensive infrastructure, remoteness fromexternal markets. The project is to assess opportunities for expanding foodproduction in the context of the general goal of bettering economic and socialconditions for local communities.Another close project is the EALLU, Arctic Indigenous Youth, ClimateChange and Food Culture. It is aimed at developing sustainable deer farming in theconditions of climate change and globalisation.417A project related to using traditional and local knowledge pursues the aim ofusing this knowledge in the Arctic Council’s work.Plans to achieve sustainable development also include Assessing,Monitoring and Promoting Arctic Indigenous Languages.Along with this socially-oriented perception of sustainable development, theArctic Council is working on this concept in another direction as well, towardsapplying it to a specific activity, namely to the regulation of oil and gasexploitation in the Arctic.
The Council produced the 2002 Arctic Offshore Oil &Gas Guidelines, taking into account both the treaties applicable to this area (theUNCLOS, MARPOL 1973/78, 1972 London Convention), and the respectivedomestic laws of the Arctic states. The Guidelines set out the main areas ofenvironment-oriented regulation of oil and gas production in the Arctic, as well asthe principles and mechanisms applicable here. According to the Guidelines,planning offshore production and use of the Arctic oil and gas resources should bedone so as to avoid adverse impact on the climate, weather, quality of air and themarine environment, as well as the ice sheet; animal populations and habitats;harm to disappearing and protected species, or a risk to the existence of cultural,scientific, historical or aesthetical sites; negative impact on living conditions,culture and traditional lifestyle of the indigenous peoples of the North.
Regulationof oil and gas development in the Arctic, among others, includes the principle ofsustainable development. The Guidelines are, so far, a rare international document(of a non-treaty nature) that partially elaborates what this principle means whenapplied to a specific activity.Given the above, if one is to summarise the perception of the Arcticsustainable development model in Anglo-American doctrines, it would be asfollows:- protection of biodiversity in the Arctic Ocean and the Arctic as a whole;- the obligation not to transfer, directly or indirectly, the harm caused in onemaritime area to another, and not to transpose one type of pollution for another;418- promotion of using the best available technologies or equipment andenvironment protection practices in the region;- the obligation to cooperate at the regional level to protect and conserve themarine environment subject to the unique characteristics of the Arctic;- maintenance of the level of production of hydrocarbons subject to efficientenvironment protection measures, so as to minimize the impact on the particularlysensitive environment of the Arctic;- meticulous observance of legal requirements; non-compliance or failure toforesee changes of the legal regime (at the national and international levels) shouldresult in tangible financial losses;- adherence to the idea of conservation of the environment in the Arctic; itgoes beyond the narrow commercial interest and becomes a moral duty.
569Therefore, sustainable development in the case of the Arctic meansessentially two aspects of this idea. Sustainable development as a social andeconomic concept determines the priority areas and cooperation spheres. In thatsense, the “Arctic option” has its specifics:- the number of targets and areas is limited, only priorities are selected;- the targets are set clearly and reflect a common interest;- the social component is pushed to the first place;- great attention is given to developing parameters or indicators ofrealization of this or that target (which makes the “Arctic option” radicallydifferent from the “global” one);- the option emphasizes the need for information support, creating databases,information exchange (which also turns the “Arctic option” from a “global”preference list into a list of practical tasks and relevant areas of action).The other aspect of sustainable development here is the legal one.Sustainable development is viewed as an international legal principle in a specificarea of activity that represents a common regional interest.
Its implementation isensured via specific legal methods and procedures.569Spedding L. Environmental Management for Business. John Willy & Sons, 1996.419One can suppose that in the future, it will become necessary to makesustainable development specific in terms of new areas of international cooperationin the Arctic; possibly, within the Arctic Council. For instance, these could be suchareas of cooperation as renewable energy, water use, conservation of migratoryspecies, prevention of transboundary pollution and other. A unique Arcticsustainable development model may thus emerge, having an evident humanisticorientation and a clear legal meaning in a specific cooperation area.§ 4.
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