ARCTIC CLIMATE CHANGE UPDATE 2021: KEY TRENDS AND IMPACTS

Climate change is a global problem, but many of its impacts are being felt now and most strongly in the Arctic. Extensive evidence shows that Indigenous communities in the Arctic bear substantial impacts from climate change.

Changes in the Arctic have global implications. The rapid mass loss of the Greenland ice sheet and other Arctic land ice contributes more to global sea level rise than does the melting of ice in Antarctica. Changes in Arctic ecosystems can induce feedbacks to the global climate system, although the future direction and magnitude of these feedbacks remain unclear. Wildfires in the Arctic result in carbon emissions to the atmosphere. The availability of new shipping routes; access to oil, gas, and mineral resources; and changes in Arctic fisheries have economic consequences within and outside the Arctic. Climate change also affects species that migrate between the Arctic and southern latitudes.