The 2023 Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference will focus on Alaska’s role leading the energy transition from established renewable sources to innovative and emerging technologies. World-renowned speakers and experts will highlight the agenda, along with breakout tracks, panel discussions, and multiple networking opportunities.

A 1987 global deal to protect the ozone layer is delaying the first ice-free Arctic summer by up to 15 years, new research shows. The paper, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is entitled "The Montreal Protocol is delaying the occurrence of the first ice-free Arctic summer."

In early May, as tensions at the state capital were beginning to simmer over the budget, Rep. Josiah Patkotak was facing a different sort of challenge: the explosive in his harpoon wasn’t igniting. “When I nicked the rope that’s attached to the toggle harpoon it stopped the momentum of the whole assembly,” he said. “The bomb didn’t get triggered.”

The Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) brings together leaders from 18 US federal agencies to enhance research in the Arctic. IARPC creates and carries out the US Arctic Research Plan and administers IARPC Collaborations, a hub for building connections and facilitating research for a thriving Arctic and Earth. We are excited to announce that IARPC's Secretariat is now supported by UIC Science. UIC Science is a subsidiary of the Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation (UIC), the Alaska Native Corporation representing shareholders from the community of Utqiaġvik, Alaska. Their expertise encompasses Traditional Knowledge, technical and logistical support, project management and strategic planning, Indigenous community outreach, and science support while understanding the politics, culture, land use issues, regulations, and environmental conditions related to scientific research in Alaska.

When scientists discovered a hole over Antarctica in 1985, countries across the globe got together and wrote a treaty designed to protect the ozone layer, which shields the Earth--and us--from harmful levels of ultraviolet radiation. The resulting Montreal Protocol, the only United Nations treaty ratified by every country in the world, was signed in 1987 and entered into effect in 1989, when little was known about its impact on the global climate. Its purpose was to reduce atmospheric concentrations of ozone-depleting substances (ODSs), materials commonly used in products such as refrigerators, air conditioners, fire extinguishers, and aerosols. For more than 50 years, it has been an important mitigation treaty, affecting many aspects of the global climate. 

The Arctic tundra ecosystem of Alaska, and beyond, is changing under the influence of climate warming and other factors. Some of the more obvious landscape changes include increasing growth of shrubby vegetation and thawing permafrost. Shrub herbivores like moose and beavers have moved into the Arctic in the last century in response to an increase in their habitat, as well as reductions in hunting and trapping. Beavers are of particular interest because they rapidly alter lowland ecosystems by damming and engineering waterways, thus changing our conception of Arctic stream ecosystems from free-flowing narrow watercourses to dynamic beaver ponds and wetlands.

Launch Alaska’s Climate Innovation Showcase celebrates the people and projects working to accelerate the energy transition in Alaska. Featuring a networking reception, project and technology exhibits, and a panel discussion featuring the next chapter of Alaska’s energy transition.

The conference will encompass all relevant aspects of permafrost research, engineering and outreach on a global and regional level during three exciting days of plenary lectures, oral presentations and posters, combined with several local field trips across the eastern Pyrenees (Cerdanya, Núria, Andorra, etc).

The 6th biennial "Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit" Conference will be held on 14-15 November 2023 in Rovaniemi, Finland, the birthplace of official Arctic cooperation. This international conference, organized by the City of Rovaniemi and the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland, gathers policymakers, academics, and other stakeholders for Arctic discussions. Due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, changes in Arctic cooperation will be prominently featured in the conference agenda, and will be explored from the point of view of national and international security, and from a regional perspective, including the Barents region.

The 52nd International Arctic Workshop will be held at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The International Arctic Workshop is a friendly, informal, and relaxed conference open to all students and professionals interested in the Arctic. Originally started at INSTAAR at the University of Colorado - Boulder, the Arctic Workshop alternates between INSTAAR and an international host. This year, University of Massachusetts with the department of Earth, Geographic, and Climate Sciences & Climate System Research center will be hosting. 

The 12^th International Conference on Permafrost will consider “Integrating Perspectives of Permafrost Thaw, Change, and Adaptation.” Event partners include the Canadian Permafrost Association, IPA, and Yukon University.

In lead up to its 35th anniversary in 2025, the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) is coordinating a multi-year planning process for the Fourth International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP IV) that will engage Arctic researchers, policymakers, residents, and stakeholders from around the world to collegially discuss the state of Arctic science, the place the Arctic occupies in global affairs and systems, to consider the most urgent knowledge gaps and research priorities that lie before us and to explore avenues to address these research needs. This event is hosted by a consortium of US institutions, including the University of Colorado Boulder, University of Northern Iowa, University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Alaska Pacific University. ICARP I, II, and III focused the attention of the world’s researchers toward the value of strategic international coordination in accelerating progress in addressing critical challenges. ICARP IV will build upon this concept by striving to achieve consensus and build collaborations among the leading scientific, academic, environmental, Indigenous and political organizations currently concerned with Arctic issues.