Permafrost underlies 22% of the Northern Hemisphere's exposed land surface and is thawing at an alarming rate as a direct consequence of climate change. Permafrost thaw releases large quantities of organic matter and contaminants into the environment. Contaminants, including heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants and microbiological agents locked in permafrost, are a risk for both human and animal health. In addition, permafrost thaw dramatically impacts infrastructure in local communities with wide-ranging consequences for health, economy, and society. Yet the social, physical and health components of permafrost thaw have traditionally been studied in isolation, leading to inadequate policy options that ignore the holistic nature of the threat. There is a need for an integrated and participatory approach to the complex issues at the overlap between climate change, permafrost thaw, infrastructure damage, contaminants, health and well-being and for solutions founded on the cultural, natural and social frameworks of local communities. ILLUQ is an interdisciplinary project rooted in participatory research with local stake- and rightsholders. Its mission is to tackle this need by providing the first holistic approach to permafrost thaw, pollution, One Health and well-being in the Arctic and delivering timely products on the risks from contaminant release, infrastructure failure and ecosystem changes to stakeholders. ILLUQ’s endeavor is a direct answer to the pressing needs of communities on potentially disappearing permafrost. It targets the missing link between studies performed by scientists, engineers and consultants in local communities and solutions with local stake- and rightsholders focusing on the long-term implications of decision-making in the context of permafrost thaw, a time frame generally overlooked in existing governance frameworks.

The ICEBERG project has a two-fold aim: to comprehensively assess sources, types, distributions, and impacts of pollution in combination with chronic climate-induced stressors on ecosystems and communities in the European Arctic's land-ocean continuum using a One Health approach, and to develop strategies for enhancing community-led resilience, as well as pollution-control governance. To this end, the project focusses on three (sub)regional case studies: western Svalbard, southern Greenland, and northern Iceland. ICEBERG investigates known and emerging pollutants, including macro-, micro, nanoplastics, ship emissions, wastewater, persistent organic pollutants (Dioxins, PCBs, PFAS, PAHs, old and new generation pesticides), and terrigenous elements (heavy metals). To assess the effects of pollutant discharges from Arctic ship traffic, freshwater discharge/cryosphere meltwater, wastewater, and land-based atmospheric pollution on the marine food web the project is using model simulations and complementing these with remote sensing, in-situ observations, and measurements. ICEBERG analyses the sanitary quality of the food chain by characterising chemical contaminants using an exposomics approach, gaining a comprehensive understanding of the synergistic impacts of Climate Change and pollution on human health. It evaluates toxicological impact of micro- and nano-plastics and POPs on human digestive health. The project develops automatic marine litter detection tools combining use of drones, AI and citizen science. ICEBERG champions multi-stakeholder and gender-based approaches to assess the impacts, risks, and vulnerabilities on Indigenous and local communities and co-create scenarios of change. Scenario modelling is used to co-design local pollution-control strategies, which includes both mitigation (reducing pollution) and adaptation (reducing vulnerability to pollution). ICEBERG creates novel governance approaches pollution-control in the Arctic at multiple scales.

Arctic development of the past is persistent in inequitable practices, leaving scars from the impacts of social, economic and environmental inequality. In addition, Arctic development of today is occurring alongside the adverse effects of climate change within an integrated global system deficient in mechanisms for incentivising just transitions toward sustainable development. With the goal of enhancing the governance capacity of the EU to mitigate this problem, JUSTNORTH brings together 15 partners from 7 disciplines to evaluate the viability of Arctic economic activities. The project will merge justice theories with sustainable development goals to enable EU policy coherence toward just transitions. This will be integrated with an investigation of the empirical realities of existing Arctic economic activities in 18 case studies using innovative research methodology, through conceptual, comparative, descriptive, correlation, policy, legal and interview-based analysis techniques. Though this, JUSTNORTH will offer policy, legal and regulatory pathway recommendations, by developing a frameworks from the reconciliation of the various ethics and value systems present in the Arctic, which can serve as a cornerstone for determining the viability of economic activities in the Arctic in line with the goals of sustainable development. Ultimately, JUSTNORTH will provide both a negotiation tool for stakeholders to Arctic development (and a potential labelling standard for just/ethical regulatory standards) in its JUSTscore framework, which will create both transparency, documentation and standardisation for sustainable development across the Arctic (and the EU market). Adhering to coproduction of knowledge with stakeholders throughout, JUSTNORTH will bring insights from indigenous, local, business, State and NGO perspectives of the social, economic and environmental complexities of the Arctic into the realm of policymaking for just sustainable development.

Marine Biodiversity loss is continuing to decline despite current conservation efforts. Reversing the decline in biodiversity requires rapid roll out of effective conservation measures that can also enable a sustainable and resilient blue economy. Social-ecological systems-thinking and Ecosystem-Based Management are globally recognized tools to enable balanced marine development and conservation. Marine SABRES will co-design as Simple Social Ecological Systems approach (the Simple SES) to rapidly enable and upscale EBM across Europe and abroad. Marine SABRES will set European marine management on a course to reverse biodiversity decline, it will conserve and protect biodiversity by integrating sustainable ecosystems and a resilient blue economy; enable managers to make sustainable decisions; empower citizens to engage with marine biodiversity conservation; promote sustainable development and in coastal and marine sectors. Marine SABRES is comprised of an interdisciplinary consortium including world leaders in the field of EBM and Social Ecological System distributed across Europe and focusing demonstration of practical management efforts in three Demonstration Areas (Tuscan Archipelago, the Arctic North-East Atlantic and Macaronesia) before upscaling throughout Europe and beyond.

Most human activity in the Arctic takes place along permafrost coasts, making them a key interface. They have become one of the most dynamic ecosystems on Earth because permafrost thaw is now exposing these coasts to rapid change: change that threatens the rich biodiversity, puts pressure on communities that live there and contributes to the vulnerability of the global climate system. NUNATARYUK will determine the impacts of thawing coastal and subsea permafrost on the global climate, and will develop targeted and co-designed adaptation and mitigation strategies for the Arctic coastal population. NUNATARYUK brings together world-leading specialists in natural science and socio-economics to: (1) develop quantitative understanding of the fluxes and fates of organic matter released from thawing coastal and subsea permafrost; (2) assess what risks are posed by thawing coastal permafrost, to infrastructure, indigenous and local communities and people’s health, and from pollution; (3) use this understanding to estimate the long-term impacts of permafrost thaw on global climate and the economy. NUNATARYUK will be guided by a Stakeholders’ Forum of representatives from Arctic coastal communities and indigenous societies, creating a legacy of collaborative community involvement and a mechanism for developing and applying innovative evidence-based interventions to enable the sustainable development of the Arctic.