SPAIN

ARCTIC COUNCIL: OBSERVER

ARCTIC POLICY

CONTRIBUTION TO THE ARCTIC

The national polar authority of Spain is the Spanish Polar Committee , which includes a technical secretariat. Spain’s Navy administers its polar research vessel, R/V Hesperides and the support vessel Las Palmas. The National Polar Data Centres is an infrastructural initiative that ensures long term archiving of data.. More than fifteen Spanish research institutes research groups with Arctic projects currently running.

SELECTED EU-FINANCED PROJECTS

• Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya is partner to ACCESS (Arctic Climate Change, Economy and Society /Climate Change and the Arctic environment WG), a project aimed at evaluating the Arctic climate change scenarios and their impact on specific economic sectors and human activities over the next decades.The project is fully financed buy the EU by the 7th Framework Programme and Ocean of Tomorrow.
• Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas is parner partner to Arctic Tipping Points, a project aimed at identifying the elements of the Arctic marine ecosystem likely to show abrupt changes in response to climate change, and establish the levels of the corresponding climate drivers inducing regime shift in those tipping elements. In addition, determine the effect of crossing those thresholds for the Arctic marine ecosystems, and the associated risks and opportunities for economic activities dependent on the marine ecosystem of the European Arctic. Arctic Tipping Points is partially financed by the EU by the 7th Framework Programme.
• Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation is partner to SIOS, (Svalbard Integrated Earth Observing System) a project for the creation of an optimized observational infrastructure which can match advanced Earth System Models with observational evidence and provide near--‐real--‐time information on Arctic Change to relevant stakeholders. SIOS is partially financed by the EU by the 7th Framework Programme.
• Navantia S.A. and Balearia Eurolineas Maritimas SA, and Universitat Politecnica de Madrid are partners to partner JOULES (Joint Operation for Ultra Low Emission Shipping), a project aimed at significantly reducing the gas emissions of European Built ships. JOULES is partially financed by the EU by the 7th Framework Programme
Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, University of Barcelona and iInstituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos are partners to HUNT , a project aimed at assessing the social, cultural, economic and ecological functions and impacts of hunting. HUNT is partially financed by the EU by the 7th Framework Programme.