Will gaining observer status in the Arctic Council help India in its fight against climate change?
Indian scientists are aware that the Arctic region is a key laboratory to study climate change. But even more significant for them is that the rapidly melting Arctic ice-sheet can provide a veritable treasure trove of lucrative oil reserves and rare mineral deposits.
India has beaten several non-Arctic nations in gaining observer status to Arctic Council which remains an intergovernmental organisation made up of Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the US. Six European nations, nine international groups and 11 non-governmental groups, including the WWF, already hold observer status.
The European Union applied for membership to the council as one block in this eighth meeting held last week, but were denied it largely because the Canadian government feared their ban on seal products would hinder the hunting traditions of their local tribes.
Said a senior Indian scientist, “India already has an Arctic presence with an observatory called Himadri in Norway’s northern Svalbard Archipelago. Our presence there is part of a global effort to study the decreasing glacier cover in the Arctic. The reduced ice reduces the Arctic capacity to absorb increasing carbon levels in the atmosphere, thereby, adding to global warming. This is a vicious cycle because global warming in turn rapid depletes the ice cover.”
Being granted observer status merely recognises that India’s (non-Arctic country) interests are significant enough to allow them to sit on meetings and they can exploit resources by entering into agreement with Arctic countries.
Said a senior bureaucrat, “The observers status has to do more with economics and trade. The United Nations Convention on
the Law of the Sea
will allow any country to use shipping lanes on these seas. And with the apprehension that the Arctic ice will all melt by 2030, India will stand to gain by using reduced sea routes.”