→ Tromsø

January 24, 2012 by Samantha Catalyst

Arctic Frontiers, Tromsø, Norway, January 22-27, 2012

Schedule of Activities

1/27: I had the opportunity of joining the University of Tromsø, Department of Anthropology colloquium this afternoon, hearing a presentation on Murmansk Saami ideological distance between indigenous culture and pragmatic life. Last night was a lot of fun. I joined up with my forum playmate Torild Nissen-Lie and co-keynote speaking wonder Emma Wilson, hanging out at the Rica for drinks and dinner. We bumped into another DNV heavy, Bradd Libby, who of all things is working on nearly the same project that I am, but from an industry perspective, assessing how individual leaders influence the debate on arctic energy development.

Here is Bradd approaching his crab while Torild has one hand on a drink ticket at the Rica. After all said and done, Torild and I scrambled up to the second floor for a final few drinks and chat before waving a fond farewell to each other.

1/26: Thursday. Political economy of oil and gas development in the North. Peter Abo‘s talk was perhaps the most relevant, discussing the limited approaches management to oil and gas development in the North.

Now here is Emma Wilson, on stage looking fabulous, giving a talk on the limits of dialogue in arctic energy development stakeholder engagements. The evening before, we had dinner at the theater, where I caught up with Nora Hveding Bergseth, ENI Norge Research and Development Coordinator. Nora was previously on the board of Directors for the Barents 2020 grant fund, where U. Tromsø recently submitted a grant on my behalf, so I chatted up, promoting the proposal. We stayed till closing.

Here is a photo of Torild interested in a poster session, holding a glass of vino.

And of course, the conference is all about networking and mingling. I met gobs of people, some I knew from the not too distant past, like Jen Baesman, Director of Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS), and other persons entirely new acquaintances, such as Torild Nissen-Lie, Head of Environmental Risk Assessment of DNV (Det Norske Veritas).

Attended the reception last night at the ConocoPhillips suite in the Radisson. A good way to start the evening. They have been doing the reception for a while, as part of the ARCTOS network, ushering in the beginning of the Svolvær Young Scientists Forum.

1/24: Here we go. Second day at the Arctic Frontiers. And the chair is Elena Kudryashova, Rector of Northern Arctic Federal University in Arkhangelsk, who provided me with a support letter for the NSF project, via Marina Kalinina, who I just bumped into in the hallway.

Oh my lord! There is Elisabeth Harstad, Managing Director, DNV Research and Innovation, who I met at UC Berkeley as part of the CO2 workshop last year. She is talking about combining Norwegian Off-Shore and Russian On-Shore experience and create synergies.

I must get involved in these workshops that Elisabeth is talking about:

Yesterday evening, we all headed over to dinner at the Radisson BLU for dinner.

1/23: At the opening of the conference Jarle Aarbakke, Rector of University of Tromsø & Salve Dahle, Chairman of Steering committee of Arctic Frontiers just completed welcoming everyone here, talking about oil and gas development and how important U. Tromsø has been over the past 40 years since its inception to critical understandings in Norway.

Now here comes Laila Susanne Vars, Vice President in The Norwegian Saami Parliament is speaking now, giving an address to Arctic Frontiers, speaking in Norwegian, without English translation, so I am tuned into the Russian translation. Talking about the development of resources and the partners between industry and government.

Thomas B. Johansson, Co-Chair, Global Energy Assessment and prof. at Lund. He is up now setting the scene on global energy outlook and the Arctic. Pretty good stuff really, talking about the erosion of the natural capital, and the continued dearth of providing energy to the 7 to 9 billions by 2050 who are looking for modern forms of energy, affordable, healthy, and somehow avoiding continued climate change requiring major energy system change. And thinking about how to do this timely and without disruption.

Such changes bring lesser values to private investments. How to create conditions for private industry that are good for the world. Talking now about global emission pathways could be in compliance with 2 percent but only 67 percent probability. Okay — finally, we are talking about energy consumption. The PassivHaus, to create lower space heating demands.

Mike Entenza, Minnesota Governor’s aide, talking about global warming. We had a productive chat yesterday, sitting next to each other at the main performance by Saami dancers.

1/10: Working with Emma Wilson, Senior Policy Advisor, International Institute for Environment and Development, UK, to provide a Key Note Address at the Arctic Frontiers conference in Norway this January.