A growing focus on security concerns, and the coming Russian chairmanship of the Arctic Council, could make some of President Biden’s climate policy goals in the region tricky to achieve. 

During the four years of the Trump administration, U.S. involvement in the Arctic Council was largely defined — at least in public — by its push to remove language about climate change.

First at the Arctic Council’s Fairbanks ministerial meeting in 2017, and then again in the run-up to the Rovaniemi ministerial meeting two years later, the U.S. representatives sought to strip climate language from the council’s joint statements. At the 2019 meeting they succeeded, scuttling a joint declaration for the first time ever and leaving diplomatic fallout that continues to affect the council.

Now an incoming Biden administration, intent on emphasizing climate action, will seek to reverse that legacy. But it won’t be as simple as just returning to the status quo, according to several experts and observers. Read more at ArcticToday.