Looking North: Northern England and the National Imagination (Studies in Popular Culture)

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We will continue to strengthen our cooperation with Canada in the Arctic to contribute to achieving shared objectives, allowing the UK to learn from Canada’s expertise as an Arctic nation. Finland is an important like-minded partner on climate change, having passed one of the world’s most ambitious climate targets into law. We have for many years committed to maintaining the Arctic as an area of high cooperation and low tension, and this remains the UK’s long-term strategic aspiration, but changes in the Arctic are bringing increased interest from Arctic and non-Arctic States alike. The UK has strong and multidimensional relationships with our Arctic partners and Allies, working with them bilaterally and in multilateral fora to achieve common objectives. Heightened competition between both state and non-state actors across the Euro-Atlantic and beyond mean the era of Arctic exceptionalism may be ending.

We recognise the potential implementation risks that could be involved in delivering the Belt and Road Initiative. The UK is also a Contracting Party to AEWA, a multilateral environmental agreement which aims to coordinate international effort for the conservation and management of migratory waterbirds including seabirds. It was granted Observer status at the Arctic Council in 2013 and published its first Arctic Policy in 2018. The UK supports a treaty that will restrain the production and consumption of plastic to sustainable levels, address plastic design and encourage more recycling and re-use of plastic. The UK fully respects the sovereign rights of the eight Arctic States and Indigenous people of the region, and is keen to play its part in ensuring the region remains peaceful.

In the underdeveloped and remote parts of the Arctic, including at sea, the technological challenge is greater. These principles endured through the UK’s updated policy framework that was published in 2018, ‘Beyond the Ice’.

Furthermore, the UKHO is developing marine capability in geospatial information management to support the UK’s Arctic interests. The UK is strongly opposed to the hunting of any cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises), other than some limited activities by Indigenous communities for clearly defined purposes.The UK recognises the importance of the Arctic environment for a wide variety of species and for the livelihoods of the people who live there.

This new framework aims to represent evolution, rather than revolution, in the UK’s approach to the Arctic. We know that changes in the Arctic environment are already affecting the UK through global sea-level rise, changes to our climate and weather patterns, and threats to our shared biodiversity. The UK also welcomed their decision in June 2022 to implement a limited resumption in their work in the Arctic Council, in projects that do not involve the participation of the Russian Federation.UK scientists make prominent contributions to the work of the Arctic Council Working Groups, as well as other international Arctic fora.

As a result of absorbing excess heat and human CO2 emissions, negative impacts on the ocean and associated ecosystems are being seen. We share the vision of the recently published US National Strategy for the Arctic Region, for a region that is peaceful, stable, prosperous, and cooperative, where guardrails will manage competition and resolve disputes without force or coercion. Limited exceptions exist for subsistence products from traditional hunts conducted by Indigenous communities and items for travellers’ personal use. The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) ‘Arctic Climate Change Update 2021 report’ [footnote 2] highlighted that the increase in Arctic annual mean surface temperature between 1971 and 2019 was three times higher than the increase in the global average during the same period.

This made clear that ‘the High North and maintaining security in the defence of the North Atlantic remains of great importance’.