Programme
End report
March 2011
“Educating the future leaders of the Arctic”, Bodø, Norway
In contrast to the previous conferences, where the mock focused on OPEC, the spring 2011 Arctic Dialogue commenced with a Mock Arctic Council where graduate students from both the Energy Management and Sustainable Development programs (joint programs between the Bodø Graduate School of Business and MGIMO University in Moscow, Russia) debated issues regarding resource development in the Arctic.
The conference was this year reduced to 3 days and the plan was to start in Bodø and continue to Svolvær in the Lofoten Islands with Hurtigruten. Due to bad weather conditions the whole conference ended up in Bodø only.
The Arctic Dialogue agenda for 2011 focused on:
• Resource ownership and management (historic agreement on the line of delimitation in the Barents Sea between Russia and Norway)
• Health, safety and environmental issues
• Pan-Arctic standards and best practices for resource development
Discussion centered around the 2010 Macando oil spill in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The Arctic Dialogue included speakers Fran Ulmer, Chairwoman of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission and a member of the U.S. Oil Spill Commission as well as Charlotte Randolph, President of LaFourche Parish, Louisiana, which was one of the areas hardest hit by the Macando spill.