societal-impacts

The impacts of climate change differ between different parts of the Arctic (e.g. on Baffin Bay / Davis Strait region: AMAP 2018). Hence also views on climate adaptation and any countermeasures may differ. In research on climate interventions, the need to involve Arctic (and other) local residents and indigenous groups has been noted (e.g. Corry 2017), but thus far few studies exist. Wibeck et al. (2015) conducted a study in Sweden, Carr and Yung (2018) compared views on climate engineering in South Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa, and North American Arctic, and Buck et al. (2019) co-produced scientific knowledge on solar geoengineering in Finnish Lapland. These do not yet constitute an Arctic view on traditional solar geoengineering, and in the case of targeted interventions and ice sheet conservation the question is very different anyway.

Studying ice sheet conservation in Greenland requires the inclusion of community viewpoints and impacts assessments in the ice sheet conservation designs. Also the decision-making on any deployment of targeted interventions would be in the hands of Greenlanders as the deployment is within the national jurisdiction (Moore et al. 2020). Co-production of knowledge will take place by a three-stage research design, where researchers/scientists and locals co-produce knowledge on different designs of ice sheet conservation for incorporating local interests and concerns.

Photo: Ilona Mettiäinen

Producing knowledge on the regional impacts of different climate interventions is vital for meaningful participation in any future governance processes on targeted or other climate interventions. In this way, the project would serve the local communities and particularly Greenland Government. The results of the project will be brought back to Greenland during the 2nd round of community workshops and other methods seen as appropriate by the Greenland Government, ICC Greenland, local communities, and as advised by the International Arktik Hub.

When studying community perspectives and co-producing knowledge on the possible designs of targeted interventions in Jakobshavn Glacier in Greenland, youth are in an essential role. We will pay special attention to inviting youth to the community workshops, for instance through schools and free time organisations. An art competition will be organized on the theme of illustrating the youth’s imaginaries on the future impacted by climate change and/or their wishes and concerns on the impacts of ice sheet conservation.

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Photo: Ilulissat centre, towards the icebergs in the Ilulissat fjord by Ilona Mettiäinen.

The project has a three-stage design.

In the 1st stage, a community workshop is organized, where the concept and modelling of ice sheet conservation for protecting the Jakobshavn Glacier are presented and locals’ views, concerns, and questions on climate change’s impacts and ice sheet conservation are collected in focus group discussions. Additional interviews are conducted on the impacts on local and national levels, and the youth art competition is launched.

Based on the community focus group discussions, in the 2nd stage, modelling is done based on findings from the 1st round of community discussions, and monetization possibilities (e.g. Payments for Ecosystem Services, PES) in Greenland for the conservation of the Jakobshavn Glacier are studied. A possible point of comparison to the PES approach could be compensations for forest owners for not logging forests important for tourism activities in Northern Finland.

In the 3rd stage, the research team returns to the community with results from the intermediate modelling. The results of the modelling are discussed with the locals, and also national decision-makers are invited. After analysis of the meetings, the results will be shared via traditional and social media and translated into Danish & Greenlandic and send results in white papers direct to decision makers. The youth art competition winners are announced and the exhibition is inaugurated in Greenland (possibly at the Ilulissat Iceberg Centre) and then in Arktikum Science Centre in Finland.

The 1st community workshop will take place in early 2022 in Greenland. The 2nd workshop will take place during the 2nd year of the project, in the Spring 2023.