Mt. Ama Dablam in the Everest Region of the Himalayas, Nepal. Photo: Andrii Vergeles – stock.adobe.com.

The Arctic and the Third Pole-Himalayan region both contain important elements of the cryosphere, areas of the world that are defined by the near-permanent presence of water in a frozen state. However, as temperatures in both regions are currently warming at several times the global average, these areas are rapidly thawing, and several elements of the cryosphere are said to be tipping points in the global climate system. This will have major impacts on local communities and ecosystem, and also lead to larger-scale changes. Nevertheless, the Arctic and Third Pole are almost always considered separately, demonstrating very little knowledge about the commonalities, links, and differences between both regions.

To remedy this deficiency, the Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law in collaboration with the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, the UArctic Chair in Arctic Legal Research and Education, and the UArctic Law Thematic Network, is organising an Inter-Polar Conference in Kathmandu, Nepal, from 6-9 September 2023. This Conference is meant to be an initial starting point for a durable network that will bring together experts from both regions and explore Arctic and Third Pole topics from an inter-polar perspective.

We invite abstract submissions by scholars from the Arctic and the Third Pole regions until the 30st of June 2023 to interpolarconference2023@gmail.com.

More about requirements and the submission on the conference website.

Conference coordination committee at the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland:

• Prof. Kamrul Hussain
• Marco Volpe
• Albert van Wijngaarden