Policy

Donald Trump’s Greenland plan intends to extend U.S. control over the rest of the Arctic, positioning the United States as a dominant Arctic power.

Carney announced billions in Arctic defense spending, which could transform the region.

NATO launched Arctic Sentry on 11 February, deploying Swedish Gripen jets to patrol Greenlandic airspace while German Eurofighter jets operated overhead.

The Trump administration has fast‑tracked the environmental review for a proposed 800‑mile oil pipeline that would cross the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a move highlighted by BLM Alaska director Kevin Pendergast.

Canada is weighing canceling its F‑35 jet order as it seeks to replace aging CF‑18s and strengthen Arctic defense and NORAD commitments.

Experts found that forced birth control measures in Greenland violated women’s rights, noting the practice aimed to reduce birth rates.

Canada’s federal government has formally advanced the 800‑km Mackenzie Valley Highway by designating it a project of national interest, a move that will fast‑track federal approvals while the Northwest Territories maintains its own environmental assessment schedule. The designation underscores Ottawa’s push to strengthen northern infrastructure and diversify trade links amid U.S. tariff pressures.

The recently signed EU‑Iceland security and defence partnership places Arctic cooperation and maritime security at the core of Iceland’s European future, underscoring the strategic importance of fisheries and broader Arctic interests.

TotalEnergies will exit its stake in Arctic LNG 2, while EU and UK regulators push to tighten scrutiny of European firms still linked to Russia.

After a meeting on August 24, the Wek’èezhìı Land and Water Board said it was satisfied with PwC’s response to an earlier complaint that the receiver had continued to dump emulsion at the Ekati diamond mine despite a prohibition, while still calling for tighter oversight and clarifying that no territorial inspector authorized the dumping.

Greenland will set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate a decades‑long forced contraception campaign carried out by Danish authorities from the 1960s to 1990, a program that experts dispute as genocide. The commission will examine the impact on Greenlandic communities and aim to clarify historical accountability.

The U.S. government has cancelled its annual Arctic Report Card as Arctic temperatures rise, according to officials at NOAA’s National Snow and Ice Data Center. The move removes a key climate‑monitoring report that has guided policy and science on the region.

Russia’s Ministry of Justice has listed both the Montenegro‑based FLAS university and the Norwegian organization Pikene på Broen AS as undesirable entities. The latter runs cultural projects in the Barents region, indicating a new regulatory push that could affect Arctic cultural activities.

A small Nordic country and four other NATO members signed a pact to boost maritime security across the Arctic and North Atlantic.

China and Russia have agreed to strengthen the competitiveness of the Northern Sea Route along Russia’s Arctic coast.

Public Utilities Board temporarily approved a $6 per gigajoule increase for Inuvik Gas—below the company’s requested $10—while it reviews complaints about the firm’s planned 28%/44% rate hike. A full review of costs and storage plans will decide final rates by October.

During an Alaska Oil & Gas Association forum in Anchorage, Sen. Dan Sullivan and former Rep. Mary Peltola debated drilling policy in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and National Petroleum Reserve‑Alaska, each promising streamlined permitting if elected.

An August 29 referendum on joining the European Union—whose Habitats Directive bans whale hunting—poses an immediate threat to Iceland's last commercial whaler, Kristján Loftsson, who is seeking new markets for whale meat while his fleet has already logged over 50 fin‑whale kills this season.

The Trump administration’s Interior Department is set to publish a categorical exclusion that would allow winter seismic surveys and exploratory drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve‑Alaska without environmental review, effectively eliminating existing protections for polar bears, caribou and local communities.

Ukraine and Indonesia have agreed to a five‑year partnership that will see Indonesian scientists work at Ukraine’s year‑round Akademik Vernadsky station and aboard the research icebreaker Noosphere this December, expanding Antarctic science and potentially laying groundwork for Indonesia’s own station.

The top four gubernatorial hopefuls debated oil‑and‑gas tax reforms and a proposed North Slope gas pipeline at an AOGA conference in Anchorage, with Democrats calling for new taxes that could bring $400 million annually and Republicans opposing tax changes while accusing lawmakers of blocking the pipeline.

President Trump is weighing an environmental exemption that could allow oil drilling in the Arctic, potentially loosening regulatory restrictions on new exploration projects in the region.

A May‑announced rulemaking introduces a categorical exclusion to streamline oil and gas permitting in the Arctic.

Greenland’s parliament approved a bill that will compensate women who were implanted with intrauterine devices during Denmark's rule, marking an official response to decades of forced contraception aimed at limiting the island’s population.