Briefing Note
The New Nexus of Climate & Energy Security for the
Sustainable Arctic Future
Hyo-Sun Kim
The Arctic is a prism to display history of the earth, interaction of global economy, and integration of
cross-cutting issues in sustainability. In a broad context of social policy, the nexus of climate and
energy security is critical to develop policy mix for the transition to the green economy and sustainable
development. The social dimensions of green economy require changes in patterns of investment,
technology, production associated with sustainable development.
Figure 1 displays a comparison between social indices among Arctic Council member countries, when
we set the case of US equals 1. Compared to US, Russia spends more on military expenditure and less
on health care. Canada and Norway outperform US, in terms of mitigation policy and economic
growth, respectively. However, an economic slowdown is remarkable, especially in Nordic countries
and Russia due to the low price of oil and global recession.
West Texas Intermediate (source: OPEC, IEA) fell from $73 USD per barrel in the fourth quarter of
2014 to $49 USD per barrel in the first quarter of 2015 and accordingly, consumer energy prices fell
early in the year. CBO (2015) expects that the global economy is still in the midst of a recovery and
oil prices begin to rise by the end of 2015, largely in response to rising global demand for oil, which
will lead to gradual increases in consumer energy prices.
Hyo-Sun Kim is Senior Economist at the Korea Polar Research Institute.