Protection Of The Arctic Marine Environment Working Group Arctic Offshore Oil Gas Guidelines

Global energy problems will remain a challenge in the coming decades. The impact of climate change and the melting of polar sea ice opening up access to offshore hydrocarbon resources in the Arctic Ocean, raises questions for both civil society and the scientific community over drilling opportunities in Arctic marine areas. Disparities in approach to the governance of oil and gas extraction in the Arctic arise from fundamental differences in histories, cultures, domestic constraints and substantive values and attitudes in the Arctic coastal states and sub-states. Differing political systems, legal traditions and societal beliefs with regard to energy security and economic development, environmental protection, legitimacy of decision making, and the ownership and respect of the rights of indigenous people, all affect how governance systems of oil and gas extraction are designed. Using a multidisciplinary approach and case studies from the USA, Norway, Russia, Canada, Greenland/Denmark and the EU, this book both examines the current governance of extraction and its effects and considers ways to enhance the efficiency of environmental management and public participation in this system.

Master's Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Environmental Sciences, grade: 2:1, Robert Gordon University Aberdeen, course: Oil and Gas Law - Environmental Law, language: English, abstract: Melting of the Arctic ice, caused by global warming and energy security issues, has led Arctic states to prospect further North for new petroleum opportunities. Consequently, the already fragile Arctic marine environment has been further compromised. The Arctic coastal states, under the Ilulissat Declaration, agreed that UNCLOS will provide a legal basis for the regulatory framework in the Arctic, supplemented by Arctic Council soft-law. Consequently, the environmental issues in the Arctic, arising as a result of O&G activities, mainly have to be dealt under the discretion of the Arctic coastal states' regulations. By analysing current environmental regulation in the Arctic, the paper aims to discover if the framework can ensure that petroleum activities are carried out in an environmentally safe fashion. To make sure that the Arctic states can address the aforementioned issues, under national legislation, the paper will examine Russia's and Norway's petroleum regulations applicable to the Arctic. In the light of the performed analysis, the paper will propose to address the regulatory gaps created as a result of environmental issues arising from petroleum activities in the Arctic under the Arctic Framework Treaty. To address topical issues at the sub-regional level, an ecosystem-based management plan will be analysed, and suggesting its implementation on the Russian continental shelf.

This book contains an inclusive compilation of perspectives about the Arctic Ocean with contributions that extend from Indigenous residents and early career scientists to Foreign Ministers, involving perspectives across the spectrum of subnational-national-international jurisdictions. The Arctic Ocean is being transformed with global climate warming into a seasonally ice-free sea, creating challenges as well as opportunities that operate short-to-long term, underscoring the necessity to make informed decisions across a continuum of urgencies from security to sustainability time scales. The Arctic Ocean offers a case study with lessons that are especially profound at this moment when humankind is exposed to a pandemic, awakening a common interest in survival across our globally-interconnected civilization unlike any period since the Second World War. This second volume in the Informed Decisionmaking for Sustainability series reveals that building global inclusion involves common interests to address changes effectively “for the benefit of all on Earth across generations.”

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The Arctic is particularly affected by climate change; over the past few decades, temperatures in this area have risen twice as fast as the mean global rate. The most prominent effect of global climate change in the region is the melting sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, which enables a multitude of ocean uses to be initiated and extended, such as shipping, fishing and oil and gas extraction. Unlike in the Antarctic, there is currently no single comprehensive legal regime for governance of the Arctic. Instead, the region is regulated by a patchwork of international treaties, above all the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), various regional and sub-regional agreements, national laws and soft-law agreements. This treatise provides an evaluation of the governance regime that regulates the use of the Arctic marine environment and its readiness to protect these fragile ecosystems in light of the consequences of climate change.

Offshore Oil and Gas Development in the Arctic under International Law explores the international legal framework for hydrocarbon development in the marine Arctic. It presents an assessment of the careful balance between States’ sovereign rights to their resources, their obligations to uphold the rights of Arctic inhabitants and their duty to prevent injury to other States. It examines the rights of indigenous and other Arctic populations, the precautionary approach, the environmental impact assessment and the duty to monitor offshore hydrocarbon activities. It also analyses the application of the international law of responsibility in the event that the State fails to meet its primary obligations in the absence of a State’s wrongful conduct.