Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic – part C. Terms of Reference for Regional Implementation Teams. Draft 1 October 2013.

Abstract

The project “Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic – part C”, AACA-C, was adopted by the 2013 Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting. The AACA project is divided into three different parts; part A is an overview of assessments performed by AC working groups over the past 10 years led by SDWG, part B is an overview of exiting adaptation actions taken in the Arctic led by Canada and Russia. These were reported out to the Ministerial meeting May 2013. The AACA-C aims to consider Arctic-focused climate and integrated environmental frameworks and models that can improve predictions of climate change and other relevant drivers of Arctic change. There are three pilot regions covered by AACA-C: Barents, Davis Strait/Baffin Bay and Bering/Chukchi/Beaufort. All three regions include both marine and terrestrial areas. These terms of reference cover all three Regional Implementation Teams. Each Regional Implementation Team has flexibility regarding the size of the specific team and tasks to be undertaken. Coordination of efforts across the regional implementation teams will take place in an overall integrations team (INT) with representatives from the regional integration teams. It is, however, important that each Regional Implementation Teams secures a close cooperation with the Integration Team, the other Regional Implementation Teams and the AC working groups.