JUSTNORTH - EU Polar Cluster

New framework for Arctic economic activities: from fossil fuel & mineral extraction to transport, the Arctic is experiencing a marked increase in human activity. It is also experiencing an unprecedented level of economic prosperity. JUSTNORTH will study the viability of Arctic economic activities in view of the area’s social, economic and environmental complexities.

Bringing together 15 partners from 7 disciplines, it will evaluate 18 case studies using innovative research methodology based on interviews, comparisons and correlations. The project will draw from its findings to develop a framework that can help determine whether the viability of economic activities in the Arctic is in line with Sustainable Development Goals. It will promote the insights and views tabled by indigenous stakeholders, local businesses, state officials and NGOs.

Arctic development of the past is persistent in inequitable practices, leaving scars from the impacts of social, economic and environmental inequality. In addition, Arctic development of today is occurring alongside the adverse effects of climate change within an integrated global system deficient in mechanisms for incentivising just transitions toward sustainable development. With the goal of enhancing the governance capacity of the EU to mitigate this problem, JUSTNORTH brings together 15 partners from 7 disciplines to evaluate the viability of Arctic economic activities.

The project will merge justice theories with sustainable development goals to enable EU policy coherence toward just transitions. This will be integrated with an investigation of the empirical realities of existing Arctic economic activities in 18 case studies using innovative research methodology, through conceptual, comparative, descriptive, correlation, policy, legal and interview-based analysis techniques. Though this, JUSTNORTH will offer policy, legal and regulatory pathway recommendations, by developing a frameworks from the reconciliation of the various ethics and value systems present in the Arctic, which can serve as a cornerstone for determining the viability of economic activities in the Arctic in line with the goals of sustainable development.

Ultimately, JUSTNORTH will provide both a negotiation tool for stakeholders to Arctic development (and a potential labelling standard for just/ethical regulatory standards) in its JUSTscore framework, which will create both transparency, documentation and standardisation for sustainable development across the Arctic (and the EU market). Adhering to coproduction of knowledge with stakeholders throughout, JUSTNORTH will bring insights from indigenous, local, business, State and NGO perspectives of the social, economic and environmental complexities of the Arctic into the realm of policymaking for just sustainable development.