Forty-fifth Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting - Twenty-fifth Meeting of the Committee for Environmental Protection
Helsinki, Finland
29 May 2023 - 8 Jun 2023
From May 28 to June 8, Finland hosted the XLV Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) as well as the XXV meeting of the Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP). The meetings, organized by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, took place in Helsinki and were held in in-person format after the virtual and hybrid meetings in Paris and Berlin in 2021 and 2022. A total of 500 delegates were registered for the ATCM XXV of which 400 attended in person. The ATCM brought together the 56 States Parties to the Antarctic Treaty, as well as Observers and Experts and was chaired by Ms. Päivi Kaukoranta, the Director of the National Security Authority of Finland at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The CEP was chaired by Ms. Birgit Njåstad (Norway). In accordance with the decision of the ATCM-44 in Berlin, the first joint ATCM-CEP session on Climate Change was held in Helsinki on June 2. The day started with the inspirational kick-off session, during which the Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization, Dr. Petteri Taalas and the Executive Secretary of UNFCCC, Mr. Simon Stiell highlighted the central role of the Antarctic in the global climate system and the importance of GHG emissions reductions. The Key Note Speaker Dr. Valérie Masson-Delmotte, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group 1, emphasized seriousness, urgency and action and underlined the need for rapid environmental governance responses and research advances to inform decision-making. Concluding the climate discussions, the Consultative Parties adopted the Helsinki Declaration on Climate Change in the Antarctic highlighting the global implications of climate change and the need for urgent action to protect Antarctica. Throughout the discussions, Parties highlighted the importance of Article 7 of the Protocol on Environmental Protocol, which prohibits any activity relating to mineral resources, other than scientific research. It was emphasized that the ban on mining is one of the core provisions of the Protocol, which does not have an expiry date.
