ACIA Symposium
The ACIA International Scientific Symposium on Climate Change in the Arctic, held in Reykjavik, Iceland, 9-12 November 2004, addressed a variety of issues connected to climate change in the circumpolar Arctic and its environmental and societal consequences, including:
- the Arctic climate system and its role in the global climate system;
- past, present and future changes in physical and biological systems;
- impacts of a changing climate on human activities, such as health care, fisheries agriculture, forestry, infrastructure, hunting and gathering;
- impacts on wildlife and other conservation issues;
- possible feedbacks on the global climate system.
Identification of knowledge gaps and priorities for new research and monitoring were an important issue at the symposium.
The ACIA scientific results and their background, including indigenous peoples' perspectives and observations, were presented and discussed in an integrated circumpolar context. The ACIA assessment was also discussed within the context of global, regional and sub-regional environmental management and policy development. Presentations of significant national, bilateral and multilateral activities that have contributed to ACIA, and presentations of topics of relevance to climate change in the Arctic that are not directly dealt with by ACIA were all welcomed.
The symposium also formed an important part of the process by which ACIA communicated its results and conclusions to Arctic stakeholders and to politicians. A brief summary report from the discussions and presentations at the symposium was delivered to the Ministers at their meeting the week following the symposium.
Climate variability and change, and more recently, notable increases in UV radiation, have become important issues in the Arctic region over the past few decades. These issues have also prevailed in the international scientific and political scene for over a decade through major programmes of scientific research (e.g., WCRP), through intergovernmental assessments (e.g., AMAP, IPCC, and WMO), and through international treaties, protocols and conventions.
The results of scientific research and indigenous peoples' traditional knowledge have increasingly documented climatic changes in the Arctic. Models indicate that these changes will be more pronounced in the Arctic region than in other regions of the world and will be critical to our understanding of global-scale climatic processes.
The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) was formally adopted at the Ministerial Conference of the Arctic Council at Point Barrow, Alaska, in 2000. Two of the Arctic Council's working groups, the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) and Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF), in association with the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), were given the task by the ministers to conduct the ACIA. As specified in the Barrow Declaration, the goal of the ACIA is to "evaluate and synthesize knowledge on climate variability and change and increased ultraviolet radiation, and support policy-making processes and the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change." The assessment is to address "environmental, human health, social, cultural and economic impacts and consequences, including policy recommendations."
More than 250 scientists and six circumpolar indigenous peoples' organisations participated in the ACIA. The Synthesis/overview document, a popular version of the scientific document aimed at communicating the science and the traditional knowledge of climate change in the Arctic to the general public, was delivered to Ministers at the Arctic Council Ministerial Conference in Reykjavik, Iceland, in November 2004.