Environmental ministers of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council meet in Inari
The 11th meeting of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council’s Ministers of Environment will be held in Inari, Finland, on 4-5 December 2013. The meeting will be hosted by Finnish Minister of the Environment Ville Niinistö.The meeting will focus on environmentally contaminated sites, or “hot spots”, in the Barents Region, as well as on nature protection and climate change. Participants will hear an overall assessment of the environmental activities that have been initiated at these hot spot sites over the last ten years. In addition, the results of the assessment of the Barents Protected Area Network project will be presented, as will the adoption of the new action plan on climate change in the Barents Region.
The meeting will be attended by representatives from Finland, Sweden, Norway, Russia, the European Commission, and organisations that represent the indigenous peoples of the Barents Region, international environmental financial institutions and non-governmental environmental organisations.
The Barents Euro-Arctic Council aims to promote stability and sustainable development and increase security in the Barents Region. The members of the council are the Nordic countries, Russia and the European Commission. Barents cooperation covers the northern regions of Finland, Norway, Sweden and Russia.
The Council’s environmental cooperation is promoted in the Working Group on Environment, which Finland is chairing in 2012–2013. The environmental work is focused particularly on hot spots, nature conservation, clean production and sustainable development, water issues and climate change. The Barents Sea is not part of this cooperation.
- Cooperation in the Arctic and Barents region (Ministry of the Environment)
- Barents protected Area Network
- Barents environmental hot spots
More information:
Ms. Henna Haapala, Ministerial Adviser, Finnish Ministry of the Environment, tel. +358 295 250 070, [email protected]