International Arctic Forum originally scheduled for April 11 - 13, 2022, has been postponed.
From the ARD point of view, international cooperation in the Arctic is essential for many reasons, including protection of the environment.
The Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation (AZRF) contains a quarter of the country’s domestic oil reserves and more than 70% of its gas, which are worth USD 20 trillion, according to preliminary estimates.
They could account for 20–30% of oil production by 2050. However, the vulnerability of the Arctic’s natural ecosystem as well as its harsh weather and climatic conditions, remoteness, and poor infrastructural development pose a challenge to the existing working principles and require brand new organizational and technological solutions. Hydrogen and renewable energy could become some of the most important elements in terms adapting the Arctic’s energy infrastructure to climate change. Oil and gas companies and other energy companies operating in the Russian Arctic are already incorporating the UN Sustainable Development Goals into their development strategies and highlighting a set of priority goals.
Questions that need to be addresses include:
Are the companies that are implementing projects in the AZRF prepared for the energy transition?
What resources should be used to develop green energy and what factors are hindering the development of green projects in the AZRF?
What projects in the AZRF are capable of changing the energy market over the next three to five years and becoming a component of the region’s carbon neutrality programme?
What drivers will help accelerate the development and use of technologies, including ones that aim to reduce harmful emissions from APG flaring, for projects in the Arctic?
How can we create a unified Arctic green industry cluster?
What effective practices and technology partnerships are available in the era of energy transition, and how can experience smoothly be exchanged with international green energy companies?
How Australian investments in the Russian LNG/green energy market could supplement already large Chinese investments to stimulate development of the green energy in the Arctic beneficial for all three countries?