Sara Olsvig participates to the following sessions :
Building on Progress: Reflections and Aspirations from the Norwegian and Kingdom of Denmark Arctic Council Chairships
This panel highlighted what the Norwegian Arctic Council Chairship has been able to achieve in spite of the current geopolitical situation and what the Kingdom of Denmark Chairship will carry on when it takes over in May 2025.
Moderators
-
Patti Bruns
Secretary-General, Arctic Mayors Forum
Speakers
-
Morten Høglund
Norway's Ambassador for the Arctic; Chair of the Senior Arctic Officials of the Arctic Council
-
Tobias Elling Rehfeld
Ambassador, Senior Arctic Official for Kingdom of Denmark, Danish Ministry for Foreign Affairs
-
Sara Olsvig
Chair, Inuit Circumpolar Council
-
Naja-Theresia Høegh
Law Student, Board Member, AVALAK; Former Special Advisor on Youth to the EU Commissioner on International Partnerships
Critical Raw Materials and Resource Supply Chains: Tensions and Trade-offs
This panel asked, "What can the EU do to promote responsible mining in the Arctic? What is the EU willing to invest to get the CRM it needs?" With the Arctic warming up to seven percent faster than the rest of the planet, nowhere else is the need to address climate change more urgently. The key to mitigating its effects lies in the energy transition, which is inextricably linked to the mining of critical raw materials. The European Arctic offers enormous potential for mining CRMs, confirmed most recently by the new rare earths deposit adjacent to the existing Kiruna mine in northern Sweden. The European Arctic is also home to the Saami, Europe’s only indigenous peoples, a non-indigenous rural population that struggles with out-migration and extraordinary natural landscapes important for mitigating climate change while also providing business opportunities in tourism and forestry. Europe has long been at the vanguard of the sustainability movement and European policy-makers insist it can remain so as mining can and will be done responsibly. But what is responsible mining in the European context and can mining be responsible if there are communities in opposition? Who wins and who loses? And should those most directly affected have the right to say no?
Moderators
-
Pamela Lesser
Doctoral Researcher, Faculty of Social Sciences, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland
Speakers
-
Sara Olsvig
Chair, Inuit Circumpolar Council
-
Willfred Nordlund
Member of Parliament for Nordland and Chair of the Standing Committee on Business and Industry, Norwegian Parliament
-
Ellen Marie Jensen
Independent Scholar, Affiliate of the Austrian Polar Research Institute Research Group on Social and Cultural Systems
-
Pertti Lamberg
CEO & Project Manager, Sakatti, Anglo American
-
Killian Charles
President and CEO, Brunswick Exploration
Opening Keynotes
Four keynote speeches opened the symposium.
Speakers
-
Stefano Sannino
Secretary-General, European External Action Service
-
Charlina Vitcheva
Director-General, Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE), European Commission
-
Maria Varteressian
State Secretary of Norway
-
Sara Olsvig
Chair, Inuit Circumpolar Council