Climate change, energy security and peak oil are challenges that may lead to an increased use of Arctic resources and water ways. Professor Suzanne Lalonde of the University of Montreal discussed legal aspects of Arctic sovereignty and the emerging security issues.

On 23 November 2010, Ecologic Institute, with support from the Embassy of Canada in Berlin, hosted an Arctic Dinner on the sustainable development of the Arctic.

Suzanne Lalonde [pdf, 6 kB, English] is a professor of international law at the Law Faculty of the University of Montreal, as well as a researcher associated with the ArcticNet network in Canada and the Geopolitics in the High North programme in Norway. She holds a PhD in public international law from the University of Cambridge, King’s College (1997). From 2004 to 2008, Professor Lalonde was involved in a multidisciplinary ArcticNet research project which studied the legal and political implications of a thawing and increasingly navigable Northwest Passage. As part of her research, Professor Lalonde has travelled the Canadian and Norwegian Arctic. She is currently part of two research teams funded by ArcticNet which study Canada’s claim to jurisdiction over parts of the Arctic Ocean seabed and the emerging Arctic security environment. In addition to writing on legal issues pertaining to the Arctic, Professor Lalonde has been invited to speak about Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic to Canadian, American and other international audiences.

Topics of the discussion included:

• sovereignty in the Arctic
• potential economic activities in the Arctic
• benefits for Arctic neighbours and indigenous populations
• environmental safety in the Arctic

The discussion was moderated by R. Andreas Kraemer, Director, Ecologic Institute Berlin.