Progress

Special Advisory Panel – Hanna Kujala

We are delighted to announce Hanna (Finland) has agreed to become a Special Advisor to 90 North Foundation. Hanna is a Master Mariner and Associate Fellow of the Nautical Institute, with considerable experience as a Captain with Arctia Icebreaking Ltd, the Finnish state-owned company, operating in the Gulf of Bothnia and in NE Canadian waters, She is also an Ice Navigator with Martech Polar Consulting.

She holds a Masters in ‘Maritime Management’ from the Satakunta University of Applied Sciences (2017-19), and a ‘Master Mariner’ Batchelor degree from XAMK South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (1993-97). 

Special Advisory Panel – Capt David ‘Duke’ Snider

We are delighted to announce Duke (USA) has agreed to become a Special Advisor to 90 North Foundation. As one of the world’s foremost ice pilots, he’s a Master Mariner with over 30 years at sea operating naval, commercial and coast guard vessels. Coincident with full-time employment in the Canadian Coast Guard, culminating as Regional Director Fleet (Western Region), he established his own consultancy, Martech Polar Consultants, providing polar shipping and ice-navigation training as well as hands-on navigation expertise. MPC was recognized in the Shipping Industry’s Awards as the “Best” Polar Ice Pilotage and Navigation Specialists (2018 & 2019). 

Along with his book Polar Ship Operations, which has become a standard textbook for ice-navigator training, he has written many other papers on ice navigation. He holds a Bachelor of Maritime Studies degree granted by Memorial University of Newfoundland (2006); and was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal (2011), the Canada-Finland Medal for his accomplishments in the development and practice of ice-navigating standards, and Canada’s Admiral’s Medal (2023) “for competence and expertise in ice navigation, contributing significantly to the safety of shipping in Canada’s far North”. 

Duke was instrumental in the establishment of the NI Ice Navigator qualification, and incorporation of similar requirements in the IMO Polar Code; and he continues to be active in Polar Code discussions at the UN International Maritime Organization today.

Keynote Address to Marine Insurance Nordics Conference (MIN) – Oslo

90 North Foundation’s Executive Director, Pen Hadow, addressed the plenary session of MIN’s annual conference about the future of the Arctic Ocean’s biodiversity in the context of the insurance industry’s role with future shipping in the region and the ESG Agenda of insurers.

90NF thanks the conference’s organisers, Daniel and Amanda Creasey, for inviting us to present to their invited audience – the largest to date.

Special Advisory Panel – Professor Alla Pozdnakova

We are delighted to announce Alla (Latvia) has agreed to become a Special Advisor to 90 North Foundation. She is based at the Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law (Oslo), and her research interests include various aspects of the international legal regime(s) governing the global commons, especially high seas/international waters and outer space. Together with a team of authors, she is currently editing a volume Topical Legal Issues in the Arctic, Brill (2023/2024). 

In her teaching role, Alla’s subjects include: LLM Maritime Law; LLM Public International Law (Arctic and Antarctic); and A Changing Arctic.

Her other responsibilities include: Vice-Dean for International Relations (Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law); co-editor, Oslo Law Review; board member, Norwegian Society of International Law; member, Expert Committee for Space Law (Norway); and member, Northern Areas Committee (University of Oslo).

Partnership with Open Planet to Create the World’s First Free-To-Use Arctic Marine Film Bank

90 North Foundation is excited to announce it has become one of Open Planet’s partners to create the Arctic Marine Film Bank component for the first globally-accessible, free-to-use, environmental and social film archive.

The fast-growing library, launched in September 2023, features powerful footage and data-led visuals produced exclusively for Open Planet, as well as incredible cinematography contributed by world-leading filmmakers and producers, helping to build the most comprehensive free library of climate and nature footage in history.

Launched globally in 2024, Open Planet aims to revolutionise the way we can tell stories about our changing planet by enabling everyone, everywhere, access to high-quality, scientifically accurate footage – free-to-use for educational, environmental and impact storytelling. This unprecedented storytelling tool-kit will support change-makers, educators, content creators, organisations and decision-makers to tell stories that will drive the changes needed in the next decade.

Studio Silverback is making world-class environmental footage freely available to content creators all over the world. We have worked in collaboration with a global network of industry-leading experts, and in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE Lab, creators of interactive, data-driven stories about our planet using the EarthTime platform, to create Open Planet.

Colin Butfield, Executive Director of Studio Silverback and Director of Open Planet, said: “As filmmakers, we know stories can be powerful agents of change, and with the window for action rapidly closing to address the planetary emergency, there’s never been a greater need for compelling, authentic storytelling. Open Planet will not only present the causes and impacts of climate change and nature loss, but also the incredible ingenuity of those driving innovation to keep crucial sustainability targets within reach.”  

Studio Silverback, famed for its production of many of the world’s best-loved natural history documentary series for the likes of the BBC, Netflix, Discovery, and NatGeo, is behind the setting up of Open Planet (Community Interest Company No 14222687). See https://www.openplanet.org/

Keynote Address to International Union of Marine Insurers (IUMI) – Edinburgh

90 North Foundation’s Executive Director, Pen Hadow, addressed the plenary session of IUMI’s annual global conference about the future of the Arctic Ocean’s biodiversity in the context of the insurance industry’s role with future shipping in the region and their ESG Agenda.

90NF thanks the conference hosts, Neil Roberts (Lloyd’s Market Association, LMA) and Dave Matcham (International Underwriting Association, IUA), for their kind invitation to the event.

90NF was also kindly granted permission to stage its international photographic exhibition, Arctic Ocean Biodiversity, sponsored by global specialty insurer and reinsurer, Inigo. The exhibition was very well received by the organisers and many conference delegates.

Special Advisory Panel – Jamie Buchanan-Dunlop

We are delighted to announce Jamie (UK) has agreed to become a Special Advisor to 90 North Foundation. He is the Managing Director of the award-winning Encounter Edu which produces teachers’ educational resources for English-speaking pupils aged 5-14 years old.

Encounter Edu has developed an educational ‘theory of change’ with UNESCO. This methodology supports audiences to move from knowledge and awareness to active engagement and behavioural change. Encounter Edu developed the acclaimed ‘Frozen Ocean’ suite of educational resources. It was used by an estimated 240,000 pupils over the last 12 months. For more information please see: https://encounteredu.com/about

Inigo Sponsors Our International Photographic Exhibition, An Ocean Revealed – Arctic Ocean Biodiversity

One of 90 North Foundation’s early phase assets was to be a portable photographic exhibition which showcased the spectacular biodiversity of the Arctic Ocean. The exhibition is designed to be able to be moved around the UK, and set-up and taken down, with relative ease.

90NF worked closely with the freelance picture editor, Joe Plimmer, to oversee the sourcing of hundreds of images for selection, with photographers contributing from across the Arctic region – x27 images were chosen.

We also worked with Duncan Dick (Devil’s Ivy Creative) to plan their presentation, using super-high quality photo-materials, recyclable A1 and A2-sized mounting boards, and easels.

Subjects ranged from the Arctic’s familiar charismatic marine mega-fauna like polar bear, bowhead whale and walrus … to the less well-known actors in this unique ecosystem’s food web like skeleton shrimps, sea butterfly and phytoplankton.

The Guardian: The desperate race to create a protection zone around the rapidly melting Arctic

When the Arctic explorer Pen Hadow had to start swimming from ice floe to ice floe, rather than walking, he experienced for himself what scientists and Indigenous peoples of the north have long known: the floating sea ice, which used to reliably cover the Arctic Ocean for most of the year, is disappearing.

Read full article here.

Special Advisory Panel – Professor David Johnson

We are delighted to announce David (UK) has agreed to become a Special Advisor to 90 North Foundation. Previously Executive Secretary to the OFSPAR Commission, the international convention for the environmental protection of the North-East Atlantic, he brings a wealth of experience in the protection of biodiversity in high seas/international waters.

David’s reports have included recommendations for the establishment of the world’s first network of marine protected areas in Area Beyond National Jurisdiction (2010/2012); and he has convened Ministerial meetings for both the OSPAR Commission and the Bonn Agreement, moderated sessions for both the United Nations Environment Programme and the Convention on Biological Diversity, and has presented at many high-level meetings including the UN Working Group, Preparatory Committee and subsequent Intergovernmental Conferences on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction. He has also successfully concluded and operationalised partnership arrangements between OSPAR and the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission, the UN International Maritime Organization and the International Seabed Authority. 

He is currently: a registered expert with GESAMP (the group of independent scientific experts that provides advice to the UN system on scientific aspects of marine environmental protection); is a Visiting Professor at the World Maritime University in Sweden; is the Coordinator for the Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative (GOBI); and leads the science-policy interface work in the EU ATLAS Project.

Inigo Announces Partnership with 90 North Foundation

(London, 12 July 2023): Inigo Limited (“Inigo”) is delighted to announce a strategic partnership with the 90 North Foundation, the conservation non-profit dedicated to safeguarding the biodiversity, marine habitat, and ecosystem services of the Central Arctic Ocean which surrounds the North Pole. In keeping with Inigo’s underlining principle of surfacing the science, Inigo is supporting the academic research to understand the impacts and risks associated with future surface vessel activity in the area. 90 North Foundation’s objective is to minimise the risks to the vulnerable biodiversity of these international waters, as the receding sea ice results in a newly accessible ocean.

Despite the Arctic Ocean being the world’s smallest ocean, it covers 14 million square kilometres, comparable in size to Antarctica, and encompasses over 10% of the northern hemisphere’s marine environment. However, climate change has led to a significant decline in sea ice, shrinking at a rate of 12.6% per decade since 1980. This presents new commercial opportunities for the shipping industry but also poses severe consequences for the rapidly changing marine ecosystem, which is among the world’s least disturbed.

The partnership aims to fulfil 90 North Foundation’s mission of establishing the North Pole Marine Reserve. The delivery of this ambitious plan will be supported by data, analysis, and insights from scientific research programs inspired or funded by the 90 North Foundation.

Inigo, with expertise in underwriting and a strong advocacy for preventative measures against climate change-induced catastrophes, will employ its experiences, relationships, and understanding of risk within the insurance and shipping sector to encourage business practices that are more sustainable and less harmful to the marine ecosystem in the area. In addition to undertaking a key role in providing strategic research and raising awareness amongst key stakeholders, Inigo will also provide guidance in proposing working regulatory frameworks.

James Power, Head of Marine & Energy of Inigo said: “We are thrilled to announce our partnership with 90 North Foundation, furthering our commitment to sustainable practices and advocacy. Together we hope to bridge the knowledge gap between the shipping industry’s potential impacts and the vulnerability of the Arctic Ocean’s marine ecosystem.”

Pen Hadow, Founder and Executive Director of 90 North Foundation said: “The 90 North Foundation welcomes Inigo’s support in protecting the Arctic Ocean’s marine biodiversity. The international waters of the Central Arctic Ocean remain one of the world’s least explored and researched areas. However, together, we hope to raise awareness of the risks of future, unregulated shipping routes, unmanaged commercial fishing areas, and damaging seabed mining activities, and foster the key research to provide the best conservation measures.”

UN High Seas Treaty Symposium: From Negotiation to Implementation – Edinburgh

Executive Director, Pen Hadow, attended the two day symposium, attended by x600 delegates, which revealed the administrative challenges ahead for the Secretariat to the Treaty (aka UN Convention on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction).

It was revealed that since UN member nations could sign the convention on 21 Sept 2023 over 80 had already signed, thus passing the minimum required number of 65 signatories. Now all signatories need to ratify their commitment with their individual home parliaments. Once at least 65 such parliaments have endorsed their representatives signatures by 21 Sept 2028, the Treaty will immediately come into force.

90NF is deeply appreciative of the efforts made by the event’s Organising Committee to make it possible for us to attend – and to be actively introduced to so many individuals and organisations working closely on the development of the Treaty.

Additionally, 90NF was kindly granted permission to stage its international photographic exhibition, An Ocean Revealed – Arctic Ocean Biodiversity, sponsored by global specialty insurer and reinsurer, Inigo.

Special Advisory Panel – Peter Webb

We are delighted to announce Peter (UK) has agreed to become a Special Advisor to 90 North Foundation. He now combines his work as an independent consultant on policy, strategy and advocacy on energy, finance and climate, together with being a visiting OIES-KAPSARC Research Fellow (Oxford Institute for Energy Studies/King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center), currently working on carbon markets and sequestration.

He has almost three decades of experience working across both the traditional (oil and gas, refining, oil products marketing) and new energies (low carbon energy solutions) supply chains. He worked first with Schlumberger (now SLB) as a downhole wire-line engineer, and then with Shell International in mostly downstream finance and commercial roles, before moving into government relations, policy and advocacy and the area of climate finance from the real economy perspective.

In that capacity he joined a team collaborating with the China Government DRC looking at future energy systems for China and led the international work for two chapters: the first on international governance, the second on financing infrastructure. Peter also worked for two years in the UK Government Department DESNZ (then known as DECC, the Department of Energy and Climate Change) building the evidence base for the UK government’s ‘refining and importing strategy framework’.

Shackleton Medal Awarded to Pen Hadow

90 North Foundation – FORE Partnership announcement

Special Advisory Panel – Di Gilpin

We are delighted to announce Di (UK) has agreed to become a Special Advisor to 90 North Foundation. Di Gilpin is the founder and CEO of the Smart Green Shipping Alliance (SGSA) – a collaborative industry initiative created to build technically, commercially and environmentally superior systems solutions for the shipping sector.

To this end, the SGSA has brought together experts from 170 countries with the aim for all shipping reaching the UK to be powered by renewable energy by 2030, ahead of the shipping industry’s target of 50% by 2050. Its approach involves accelerating projects through co-creation – transferring technology and knowledge from offshore yacht racing, Formula One, renewable energy, aviation and defence – to complement commercial maritime expertise.

Di also sits on the UK Department for Transport’s Clean Maritime Council and the EU’s Waterborne Green Shipping Expert Group. She was also recently included in BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour programme’s ‘Power List’.

Launch of £30m Central Arctic Ocean (Biodiversity) Research Programme

On 5 September 2022 we launched the first funding round for the world’s first research programme focused exclusively on the biodiversity, ecosystem and ecosystem services of the Central Arctic Ocean surrounding the North Pole.

The target is to secure £3.5m per year as soon as possible for the next eight years to deliver a £30m research effort by 2030. And why the hurry? Because we’re seriously running out of time to protect marine biodiversity in international waters.

This research is mission critical to providing the evidence underpinning the merit of protecting the region, as no conservation status will be agreed by the international community without such evidence.

Initially, the research will be undertaken exclusively through the Central Arctic Ocean Research Unit based at the University of Exeter. With a professorial chair established, s/he will develop a multi-disciplinary international research programme involving researchers from around the world.

Special Advisory Panel

Prof Dan Laffoley (Bt), previously the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN’s) Principal Advisor to the UN Global & Polar Oceans Conservation Programme, has kindly made his expertise available throughout the formative phase of the 90 North Foundation. We are honoured and absolutely delighted Prof Laffoley has confirmed his acceptance to become the first advisor on the Foundation’s Special Advisory Panel.

Laffoley is a well-respected leading global expert on ocean conservation, and is currently Emeritus Marine Vice Chair of the (IUCN)’s World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA). He also chairs the Hope Spot Council, and is an Emeritus Board Member of Mission Blue. In March 2021 Dan was awarded the Fred Packard Award by IUCN and WCPA in recognition of having dedicated his life and career to conservation, and especially as an outstanding and inspiring figure in global marine protected areas.

Prior to these appointments and up until 2022 Dan was Principal Advisor, Marine Science and Conservation for the IUCN’s Global Marine & Polar Programme, and held the global honorary role as Marine Vice Chair for the WCPA for 17 years, providing a world-wide lead on ocean protection. For over 35 years Dan has been responsible for the creation of many national, European and global partnerships and alliances that underpin modern-day marine conservation. He served as chief scientific advisor for the marine environment in Natural England, for over a decade headed-up the marine conservation programme for English Nature and has also worked in a variety of other roles including special marine environmental advisor for the Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Strategy Unit, and for the European Commission.

Formation of the Central Arctic Ocean Research Unit

Prof Brendan Godley, (previously the University of Exeter’s Director of the Centre for Ecology & Conservation) set in motion the next step in the University of Exeter’s collaboration with the 90 North Foundation by securing approval to set up a specific unit, the Central Arctic Ocean Research Unit, to deliver the research. Some of its researchers will be based in the University’s stunning new Stella Turk Building (see above).

Within weeks over 30 scientists from several of the University’s faculties had responded to his notification of its formation, each offering to deliver research through our new research unit. Since then, fifteen professors and researchers have submitted research projects under the seven research themes: Changing Oceanography; Ecosystem; Habitats; Biodiversity; Ecosystem Services; Emerging Impacts & Threats; and Governance & Conservation Policy.

Speech at UNFCCC COP26 (Green Zone)

Savills plc hosted an event in the Green Zone of COP26 (Glasgow) focused on the urgency for owners to strive to reach net carbon zero for their built and rural estates.

Savills is highly focused on this issue with its in-house team of over 120 sustainability experts working within its Savills Earth facility. One of the contributors to their COP26 event was Pen Hadow who gave a talk about the world’s fastest changing environment, the Central Arctic Ocean, and the existential threats this was causing not only to the region’s wildlife and the ecosystem services it provides, but to the UK and the wider global community. The video recording of the talk, made available on Savills’ online channel, received its highest recorded viewership – and inspired a number of organisation’s to approach Savills for an introduction to the 90 North Foundation.

First Corporate Supporter – Polar Capital

Within weeks of its registration as a charity in May 2021, the Foundation has reached out to Polar Capital, an early corporate supporter of Pen Hadow’s Catlin Arctic Survey in 2009. The management team swiftly decided to support the vision and work of the nascent 90 North Foundation. However the consequences of COVID-19 throughout the UK economy has delayed the launch of the Foundation’s first major initiative, its Central Arctic Ocean biodiversity research programme, by one year to mid-2022. So the Foundation is especially appreciative of Polar Capital’s patience as we get underway.

NB. Catlin Arctic Survey was undertaking sea-ice thickness measurements, working with Prof Peter Wadhams (Dept of Applied Mathematics & Theoretical Physics, Cambridge University) to assess the volume of sea-ice cover on the Arctic Ocean, and thereby fine-tune forecasts for sea-ice loss.

Collaboration with University of Exeter

Prof Sir Steve Smith, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Exeter, hosted one of the University’s alumni events in London when he heard Pen Hadow (holder of an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University), speak about his vision for the 90 North Foundation. Just three weeks later Sir Steve set up a meeting for Hadow with his senior management team to agree how they could provide research support. It was agreed a number of research posts, including a professorial chair, doctorates (PhDs) and Masters of Research, would be offered to the Foundation up to 40% below the full economic cost to the University, if the Foundation could secure the balance for each post.

It was Sir Steve’s leadership that proved critical. On realising the University’s vision to build its marine research capability to solve real world issues was closely aligned with the 90 North Foundation’s vision to undertake research to build the case for conservation of the Central Arctic Ocean, he inspired the start of our collaboration. His successor, Prof Lisa Roberts, wrote of her support of the collaboration as recently as July 2022.

University of Exeter is considered a world leader in ecology (11th, Shanghai Global Ranking 2023) with over 400 researchers working on marine topics.