YOUTH NORTH CALOTTE SUMMIT
Text and Photo: Petter Mahrs
The three-day conference also created visions and goals on how to make northernmost of Europe to an environmentally sustainable region in year 2020. Among the participants from Finnmark, Troms, Lapland, Murmansk and Norrbotten, and a few from southern parts of the Nordic region, it also had some prominent visitors. - Even in November all our parking lots are full of cars. People never stop shopping here. Since IKEA established in Haparanda, our economic growth is number one in the Sweden with approximately 11 per cents growth every year, Haparanda's mayor Sven-Erik Bucht said in his opening speech at the North Calotte Conference. Haparanda is unique in the Barents region. Nowhere else has economic development and growth come so quickly as in Haparanda. 
The IKEA establishment has brought a large number of various malls opening in the growing shopping area, literally on the Swedish-Finnish boarder. After being a municipality dealing with increasing out-migration, large number of unemployment and a population getting older and poorer, everything turned at once when IKEA came with its mall of dreams, crowned with the huge blue-and-yellow logotype reaching for the sky.
But does this golden time of growth also have darker sides? some young participants asked. - Can economic growth be dangerous and even harmful for our region, seen with climate change as point of view? If so, who has the responsibility, and courage, to say stop to growth and yes to a more sustainable society? Martina Krüger, Greenpeace, asked. Anna Kireeva, young Russian journalist working within the Norwegian environmental organization Bellona, told about problems Russian environmentalists are facing every day. - It is hard to promote green energy and less nuclear power in Russia, our federal government has not even declared wind and solar power as sources of energy as such. In Russia the term energy is firmly connected with coal, nuclear, oil and gas. It does not get easier when the vast majority of Russian scientists and politicians reject the fact itself that climate change exists, she said. In the Nordic countries, the support and view is a bit brighter though.
Johanna Åkesson, special advisor for the Centre Party in the Swedish Parliament's Committee for the Environment had a lot of good news when it came to the Nordic work on climate change. - For instance our promotions to make people invest in a "green car" the outcome is very good. The number of green cars sold in Sweden is today 32 per cents, the number one year ago was 14 per cents. Every third new car sold is so to speak 'green', Johanna said. Even though the Nordic countries are small, with small populations, there is still a lot we can do she continues. - We can set a good example and be a role model. 
By co-operating with other countries and try new ways of thinking and working we can become test pilot for research and new green technology. That conclusion was also strongly reflected in the participants visions on how the North Calotte Region can become more sustainable in year 2020. Led by Olov Oskarsson, communication consultant at OM Communication, the participants developed these 2020-visions. The governing ideas throughout the vision developing process were, improved possibilities for higher education in the region and that the North Calotte Region shall set a good example on that a sustainable society indeed can work.
The region's basic industries are today more or less totally dependent on oil, gas, mining and forestry. Industries that directly are harmful for the environment and speed up the climate change process. Example given on ideas that was brought up: "Stimulate agriculture in the region produce more organic products. Increase funds for research on green energy, such as wind, solar and hydro, in order to keep the region free from nuclear power plants. Encourage citizens in the region to invest in green cars which would lower their costs for fuel and and at the same time make air less polluted. Put more efforts in developing non fossile fuels instead of continuing drilling oil in the Barents sea." All of it in order to make a more sustainable North Calotte Region.
The visions that came up during the conference might get further than just outside the congress centre in Haparanda. Four of the governing persons within the Nordic co-operation, the chairpersons from Norway, Sweden and Finland together with the Secretary General for the Nordic Associations, Icelandic Kristin Ólafsdóttír, visited the conference and discussed the visions with the youth. Norwegian chairperson Tove Veierød, former minister in the Norwegian government, was thrilled after her discussion with the young participants. - They have incredible ideas, so much that we really could use to develop this cooperation. We indeed need these points of view to wake up and realize that we cannot keep on dealing with these issues like they are the next generation's problems, she explained. Tove's Nordic chairperson colleagues Swedish Kristina Persson and Finnish Outi Ojala were also overwhelmed. - This was of great importance, both for us, old women and also for these young people. It was great that we just could sit down to discuss and communicate, informal and relaxed, Kristina said after the hour-long meeting with the youth.
Also the youth were satisfied with the meeting with the four chairladies. - They were very democratic and it really felt like they were listening. Great meeting! concluded Marit Rolstad from Alta in Norway who is a member of the Nordic Youth Council and active in the Labor Youth Party in Norway. The visions and goals, developed though the weekend in Haparanda will now be spread within the Nordic co-operation with the aim to reach all the way to COP15, United Nations' climate summit in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2009.
Petter Mahrs
