RESIST partners highlight project activities, achievements and goals at Arctic gathering in Vesterålen, Norway.
The RESIST Project was given the spotlight at the Gaia Arctic Summit, which was organised by project partner Museum Nord/GaiaVesterålen between 6-7 June at Kulturfabrikken in Sortland, Norway. RESIST partners Ane Høyem, project lead at GaiaVesterålen, and Odd Are Svensen, Research Director at SINTEF Digital, took to the stage on the final day of the summit.
“We’ve been working on putting this Gaia Arctic Summit for years, it’s been a dream of ours,” Høyem said at the closure of the Summit. “We need arenas like this where we talk face to face about how we’re going to tackle the climate crisis.”
Vesterålen, located above the Arctic Circle in Norway, is one of the pilot regions involved in the RESIST Project. Paired with the lighthouse region of Central Portugal and the fellow twinned region of Extremadura, Vesterålen is an economically and technologically advanced region seeking to improve climate resilience measures.
“RESIST has really highlighted the climate issue here in Vesterålen, before we started RESIST it wasn’t really that high up on the agenda. But really, it’s going to be a before and after when it comes to Vesterålen and how they tackle climate issues just because of RESIST,” Høyem added.
INTERNATIONAL SUMMIT
The Gaia Arctic Summit provided stage for a wealth of speakers representing a variety of industries and sectors, from innovation and investment to youth climate action. The Summit kicked off on 6 June with cultural theme provided by artistic troupe Karellet and a presentation from international photography project Yderst Europe. They were followed by a welcome from the host, Norwegian singer, songwriter and journalist Haddy Njie who introduced the crowd to the first presentations by Sortland Mayor Grete Ellingsen and Executive Director of Museum Nord Geir Are Johansen.
The two days of Summit activities were split into four themes, two per day. Theme 1 centred on Raising Awareness and explore what climate changes we can expect in the Arctic regions of the world. It was moderated by Brita Staal from Smart Innovation Norway with speeches from Arne Ivar Mikalsen, Nordland County Council, Philippe Tulkens, Head of Climate and Planetary Boundaries’ unit at the European Commission, Jochen Knies, Senior Researcher at the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU), and Runa Haug Khoury, founder of North CleanTech.
Theme 2 on how climate change affects legislation and policy featured Andrea Liverani from the World Bank and Anders Jönsson from United Nations Commission for Europe, among others.
The second day opened with Theme 3, providing space for discussions prerequisites for change when it comes to finance, research and innovation. The session was moderated by Laura Wendling from SINTEF and featured André Küüsvek from the Nordic Investment Bank, Trude Glad from Sparebank 1, Marthe Haugland from Nordic Innovation and Tarjei Nødtvedt Malme from the Norwegian Research Council.
Theme 4 on connecting local with global needs opened with a musical session provided by LeNa M. Paalviiking and was moderated by Cathrine Barth from Nordic Circular Hotspot. Barth introduced Trygve Meyer from EDIH Oceanopolice. It was then the turn of Odd Are Svensen and Ane Høyem, who were able to highlight some of the activities taking place under the RESIST Project. Finally, a youth climate activist perspective was provided by Ugnē Budriūnaité of ReGeneration2030.
CONSORTIUM MEETING
The Gaia Arctic Summit took place a day after the RESIST Project held its 4th Consortium meeting. Partners gathered in Sortland to discuss project achievements thus far and forthcoming objectives. Local Vesterålen partners, the Regional Council, Museum Nord /GaiaVesterålen and Andfjord Salmon staged a number of workshops and visits. This included a visit to the Sunken House Project, which illustrates the threat of sea level rise in the region and sparked a heated local and national debate.
Among the other activities, RESIST partners were introduced to GaiaVesterålen’s high-tech and innovative interactive map of the region. The map is capable of projecting live and historic data over a downscaled accurate model of the region so that viewers can visualise a host of data sets from population trends and flood risk to fishing coordinates and even moose populations.
The next RESIST Consortium meeting is due to take place in Extremadura at the end of November 2024.