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© Lloyd Pikok

ACIA - An Arctic Council Success Story

May 3, 2025
Data and knowledgeClimateMonitoringAssessmentsRecommendationsArctic Monitoring and Assessment ProgrammeConservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna
How a groundbreaking report brought Arctic voices on the global stage

Article by:
Oran R. Young, University of California, Santa Barbara
Malgorzata Smieszek-Rice, UiT The Arctic University of Norway
Susan Joy Hassol, Climate Communication
Inge Thaulow, Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna;
Tom Christensen, Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna;
Gerlis Fugmann, International Arctic Science Committee
Rolf Rødven, Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme

The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) became the gold standard of regional climate assessments. The 2004 report was the first comprehensive assessment of a changing Arctic. Through skillful leadership, a diverse knowledge base, and targeted communication efforts, ACIA made global headlines. Its ripple effects can still be seen in the suite of reports and research efforts that followed.

The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA), delivered at the 4th Ministerial Meeting of the Arctic Council in October 2004, stands out as a prominent success story. It presented path-breaking insights regarding the complex coupling between the Arctic and the Earth’s climate system, and it exemplified the roles assessments can play in bringing knowledge to action. Considering the continuing relevance of ACIA’s principal messages and the lessons to be gleaned from this experience for future assessments, it’s timely to reflect on the sources of this success.

From Mandate to Report

The Barrow Declaration, adopted in October 2000 at the conclusion of the first U.S. Chairmanship of the Arctic Council (1998-2000), launched ACIA as “a joint project of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) and the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) Working Group, in cooperation with the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC).” The Declaration requests ACIA to evaluate and synthesize knowledge in order to “support policy-making processes and the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).” A notable feature of ACIA’s mandate is an explicit request that the assessment considers “… environment, human health, social, cultural and economic impacts and consequences, including policy recommendations.”

With this mandate as a point of departure, the United States provided funding to establish a project office in Fairbanks, Alaska, which coordinated effectively with the AMAP staff in Norway to provide the resources needed. The CAFF Secretariat in turn supported and coordinated relevant expert inputs and workshops. Lead authors were selected from nominations provided by AMAP, CAFF, IASC and the Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat.

The result of this effort was a series of products delivered initially at the end of the first Icelandic Chairmanship (2002-2004). Particularly notable is the report Impacts of a Warming Arctic published in late 2004, which presented the key findings of ACIA, as documented fully in the voluminous scientific evidence assembled by the ACIA team (ACIA 2004), using visually appealing images and highly accessible language.


© AMAP

Connecting the Dots

ACIA broke new ground in documenting the powerful role of Arctic processes in the Earth’s climate system. Not only does the Arctic harbor important amplifying feedback mechanisms (e.g. the increased absorption of solar radiation by open water following the melting of sea ice); the Arctic also is the locus of several major tipping elements in the Earth’s climate system (e.g. the melting of the Greenland ice sheet). Equally important, ACIA highlighted the impacts of climate change on the biophysical and socioeconomic systems of the Arctic region. Integrating social sciences and Indigenous Knowledge, ACIA provided a suite of indicators showcasing the impacts of climate change on society as well as natural systems. In the process, ACIA led the way in drawing attention to the growing importance of addressing issues of adaptation alongside issues pertaining to the reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases. These findings take on added significance given that the Arctic today is warming at a rate that is three times the global average.

ACIA did not stop at simply compiling these messages and delivering them to participants in the October 2004 Ministerial meeting. By fully integrating the contributions of natural scientists, social scientists and Indigenous Peoples, ACIA formed a broad coalition of informed contributors ready and able to take the messages to their own communities. By presenting its findings in graphic images and easily accessible language, ACIA ensured these messages would spread to audiences extending far beyond the confines of the Arctic Council. By making a conscious effort to present its findings in other key venues (e.g. the UNFCCC COP 10 in Buenos Aires in December 2004) and to brief the media, ACIA adopted a proactive approach to disseminating these messages to a variety of audiences.


© Aviaaja Schluter

ACIA’s Ripple Effect

The subsequent work of both the producers of the report and other external actors refined ACIA’s messages. AMAP pursued the global impacts of Arctic warming in two assessment reports on Snow, Water, Ice and Permafrost (AMAP 2011 & 2017); this Arctic focus was taken up in IPCC’s sixth assessment cycle in the Special Report on the Oceans and Cryosphere, further strengthening the findings from ACIA (IPCC 2019). For CAFF, the key message on the importance of tracking Arctic ecosystem change led to the establishment of the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP), and the development of four ecosystem-based and adaptive long-term biodiversity monitoring plans and associated biodiversity assessments. CAFF’s Arctic Biodiversity Assessment from 2013 was a direct follow up to ACIA, providing policymakers and conservation managers with a synthesis of the best available knowledge on Arctic biodiversity (CAFF 2013). AMAP and CAFF are now jointly investigating how climate changes impact ecosystems and how they accelerate or dampen Arctic warming.

The collaboration with IASC has continued through the decadal International Conferences on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP) coordinated by IASC in collaboration with many international partners (including AMAP and CAFF) to identify priorities and needs for Arctic research for the upcoming decade. The outcomes of ACIA contributed to ICARP II in 2005 and to projects within the 4th International Polar Year in 2007-08. ACIA’s legacy is continuing to influence the current ICARP IV process (2022 – 2026) and planning for the next International Polar Year in 2032-2033.

Communicating ACIA

ACIA broke through the noise of the daily news cycle, putting climate change on the front page and at the top of the news. This did not happen by accident. The ACIA team made an intentional effort to communicate the findings of this assessment much more broadly and effectively than had been the case for other scientific assessments.

ACIA chair Robert (Bob) Corell understood and elevated the importance of effective communication from the start. He brought in climate science writer Susan Joy Hassol and graphic designer Paul Grabhorn early in the process, enabling these professional communicators to help shape the excellent science into words and images that would resonate with policymakers and the public. The team pioneered new ways of synthesizing key findings and other material across disciplines, telling the story of Arctic climate change in compelling new ways.

The team recognized the importance of engaging intensively with media. They held a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC and did countless interviews, radio talk shows, call-in shows, and more. ACIA’s leaders testified about the report’s findings before the United States Senate. The ACIA release event in Iceland brought international attention. 

The thoughtful and extensive inclusion of Indigenous Knowledge and perspectives was another important aspect of ACIA. The beautiful photographs of Bryan and Cherry Alexander and others highlighted Arctic communities and brought the words to life. 

The Key to Success

What accounts for the success of ACIA? Timeliness is certainly one factor. ACIA presented an important message at the right time. The availability of sufficient resources to produce high quality work is another factor. A critical factor is that ACIA was a team effort, which combined the importance of presenting and communicating the key messages with the commitment to deliver a high-quality analysis from the outset. Tying these factors together was the brilliant leadership that Bob Corell provided as chair of the ACIA Assessment Steering Committee.

Bob Corell – A Brilliant Leader

One condition essential to the success of an enterprise like ACIA is the presence of effective leadership. All agree that in the case of ACIA, Bob Corell as the chair of the Assessment Steering Committee played this role brilliantly.

In part, this is a matter of enabling leadership. With Bob’s guidance, ACIA assembled from the outset a remarkable group of natural scientists, social scientists and Indigenous Knowledge holders on the one hand and science writers and graphic artists on the other hand. The trick was to forge a powerful sense among all participants to be part of a team dedicated to achieving a common goal. Rather than drawing attention to himself, Bob found ways to create and sustain a sense of vitality and dedication among all members of the team.

In part, it’s a matter of representational leadership, explaining ACIA to various constituencies and disseminating key messages to policymakers and members of the attentive public. In the run-up to the 2004 Reykjavik Ministerial, Bob was able to alleviate concerns in Washington D.C. regarding ACIA’s findings on climate change. Following the delivery of the report, Bob worked tirelessly to disseminate ACIA’s findings widely.


© Active Philanthropy

© Active Philanthropy

The ACIA success story doesn’t provide a simple formula for producing effective assessments. But it does offer important insights about the roots of success in integrating knowledge and action. Critically, success requires an end-to-end engagement rather than expecting members of the knowledge community to deliver their findings and then leaving it to the policy community to turn these findings into actions. This kind of active engagement is needed today more than ever.

References

ACIA (2004). Impacts of a Warming Arctic. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. https://www.amap.no/documents/doc/arctic-arctic-climate-impact-assessment/796

AMAP. (2011). Snow, Water, Ice and Permafrost in the Arctic (SWIPA): Climate Change and the Cryosphere. https://www.amap.no/documents/doc/snow-water-ice-and-permafrost-in-the-arctic-swipa-climate-change-and-the-cryosphere/743

AMAP. (2017). Snow, Water, Ice and Permafrost in the Arctic (SWIPA). https://www.amap.no/documents/doc/snow-water-ice-and-permafrost-in-the-arctic-swipa-2017/1610

Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (2004). Impacts of a Warming Arctic. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. https://www.amap.no/documents/doc/arctic-arctic-climate-impact-assessment/796

CAFF. (2013). Arctic Biodiversity Assessment. http://hdl.handle.net/11374/223.

IPCC. (2019). IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (H.-O. Pörtner, C. Roberts, Debra, V. Masson-Delmotte, P. Zhai, M. Tignor, E. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A. Andrés, M. Nicolai, A. Okem, J. Petzold, B. Rama, & N. M. Weyer, Eds.).

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