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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
(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.”
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.
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.
