The first-of-its-kind Arctic Pavilion at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, started its work today. The general partner of the Arctic Pavilion is the Melnichenko Foundation, the youth partner is the BRICS Youth Energy Agency. 

The work of the Arctic Pavilion was opened by the session “Unfreezing the Arctic cooperation”, where the issues of "unfreezing" the Arctic cooperation were discussed. The speakers of the session were Halldor Johannsson, Director of the Arctic Portal (Iceland), Anurag Bisen, Senior Fellow of the Vivekananda International Foundation (India), and Arseny Kirgizov-Barsky, Advisor of the BRICS Youth Energy Agency. 

“The founders of The Northern Forum laid down a mission to improve the quality of life, promote sustainable development of the regions, create conditions for partnership development, and strengthen the voice of the regions of the North and the Arctic at the global level. And we, in our turn, try to follow this mission, literally organizing events in different regions and countries every month. But COP29 is the main event of the year for us. We hope that the visibility of The Northern Forum will be significantly increased and all members of the delegation, and there are more than 30 of them from different regions and countries, will make a significant contribution to the issues of adaptation to climate change in the North and Arctic, interregional and international cooperation. Well, only forward!”, shared Vladimir Vasiliev, Executive Director of The Northern Forum. 

A session on the BRICS climate agenda was also held today, moderated by Irina Strelnikova, Associate Professor at the Higher School of Economics, and Maria Lagutina, Professor at St. Petersburg State University. It is worth mentioning the need to actively develop the BRICS theme and interaction at the regional level. Thus, climate change issues are the most attractive and promising direction.

Among other things, the Arctic Pavilion was visited by Morten Høglund, Chair of the Senior Arctic Officials of the Arctic Council. 

The Northern Forum aims at providing this platform, the dedicated Arctic Pavilion, for the outreach and collaboration at COP29 and develop it further in the framework of UNFCCC, revitalizing partnerships for sustainable development in the high north, with particular focus on the indigenous communities and youth engagement.

Watch live-streaming of all sessions on the Northern Forum Youtube channel.