Reaffirming international commitment for sustained Arctic research

Climate change is exerting complex and transformative effects in the Arctic and Antarctic; regions that are essential to global climate, biodiversity, and sustainable futures. Given the polar regions’ roles in Earth’s system, a robust, coordinated, and innovative strategy to monitor and manage climate change effects is needed. Insufficient baseline data, inconsistent international collaboration, and short-term financing are obstacles to effectively monitor these changes. This hinders our understanding of biodiversity shifts, their implications for food security, and climate change mitigation. Confronting the impacts of climate change will require interdisciplinary collaboration and genuine participation of nations, including Indigenous communities. Current and expected geopolitical conflict constrain international cooperation to effectively monitor Arctic systems. Existing pan-Arctic initiatives provide a starting point for facilitating international cooperation to address scientific objectives despite political tensions. This talk will provide an overview of our recently published essay titled “A call to strengthen international collaboration to assess climate change effects in polar regions.” We will highlight international research partnerships, existing infrastructure and polar data depositories, and suggest commitments to sustained research partnerships despite geopolitical tensions. Additional recommendations include establishing regular international requirements to track progress based on available science, optimizing the use of existing infrastructure and resources, enhancing data sharing practices, and securing long-term financing to sustain research.