Understanding regional variability in water, energy, and food (WEF) security: an Arctic case-study

Arctic nations are among the most water, energy, and food (WEF) secure nations of the world. National indices can, however, mask intra-regional disparities that exist within nations. The variable conditions of remote and sparsely populated regions are at particular risk of being obscured through the aggregation of national-level reporting. In this paper, we present the results of a regional (N = 27) assessment of WEF security in six Arctic states. Our assessment found considerable variability that ranged from highly secure to highly insecure regions that differ dramatically from state-level reporting. With few exceptions, Alaska and northern Canada suffer from higher rates of WEF insecurity than the northern regions of Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland. Although logistical, demographic, and climatic conditions contribute to these differing conditions, inequitable public investment in WEF services is a major constraint to service provisioning. Whereas regions in the European Arctic enjoy conditions of relative WEF security, they too may be challenged to maintain these conditions and adapt to not only a changing climate but also geo-political uncertainties that could obstruct the delivery of WEF services. Being attentive to dynamic conditions will be a critical and necessary step to achieving sustained WEF security in all Arctic regions.