Polar Regions (2020)

Abstract

2020 was characterised by the fight against the covid-19 pandemic, which at the time of writing1 has affected more than 100 million people and claimed more than 2 million lives worldwide. In 2020, the sars-CoV-2 virus reached the remotest parts of the planet, including small communities in the Arctic2 and even Antarctica.3 In polar regions, the limited health care infrastructure poses a particular challenge when dealing with the pandemic. The ability of regulators to improve the existing infrastructure with the speed the pandemic calls for is rather limited. While some countries have been able to construct hospitals for covid-19 patients in a very short amount of time, the regulatory approach, especially in the Arctic, has been different. Instead of trying to compensate for structural weaknesses, which are based on geography, history, economy and colonial heritage in administrative settings, many Arctic communities have built on their strengths, such as flexibility, resilience, relative independence and mutual cooperation within communities. Success stories include Iceland4 and Greenland,5 which were able to limit the spread of the disease. As Greenland severely limited passenger flights into the country6 and brought citizens back to the island,7 the importance of the transport of goods by ship has become even more relevant. This, in turn, increased Greenland’s dependence on ship transport and emphasised