Arctic researcher: “It’s remarkable how quickly you can destroy something that took many decades to build"
Torben Røjle Christensen, professor at the Department of Ecoscience, is accustomed to working in the cold climate of the Arctic. However, the political chill between East and West worries him because it creates major challenges for research in the Arctic, which has previously been a model of peaceful cooperation despite conflicts.
NEW YEAR'S SERIES
At the turn of the year, Omnibus asked a number of AU researchers across faculties what they considered to be the most remarkable developments in their field in 2025. And we’ve spoken with them about their hopes and fears as they look ahead to 2026.
In the series, you’ll meet researchers working with artificial intelligence and ethics, language studies — which have seen declining enrolment in recent years — as well as geoengineering and climate change.
In this section, you’ll meet Professor Torben Røjle Christensen, who has been researching the Arctic for a number of years and has witnessed both climate change and changes in the geopolitical research climate.
The Arctic is no longer the research haven it once was. The geopolitical situation affecting the entire world has also reached the cold north and created major challenges for research in the region, including research into climate change. Torben Røjle Christensen, professor at the Department of Ecoscience and scientific director at Zackenberg Research Station in Northeast Greenland, explains in this episode of Omnibus' New Year’s series how the global situation affects his work.
What are your current interests?
“Among other things, I work in a working group under the Arctic Council called the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, AMAP. There, we compile extensive research on climate change and the status of the Arctic as a whole. That work was put on hold when all cooperation with Russia was suspended following the invasion of Ukraine. This is a major problem in Arctic research because Russia constitutes a very large part of the Arctic and is so important in many contexts. Russian researchers are no longer allowed to send data to us, and we can no longer carry out large Western research programmes, where we’d otherwise have had a joint foothold in Siberia. Earlier this year, I wrote an article for Nature about precisely that.”
What is the most remarkable thing that has happened within your field this year?
"We have slowly begun to resume some of the cooperation with the Russians that had otherwise been on hold. The possibility has been opened up for us to hold virtual meetings involving the Russians. They may also sit at the table during meetings in Arctic international forums, but actual cooperation and applying for funds to go to Siberia and work is still a total no-go.
Within my own field, we are currently expanding and constructing new facilities at the Zackenberg Research Station, funded by the Aage V. Jensen Foundation. We can look forward to brand new facilities for both our monitoring and the research we conduct.
We have a unique status because we are the largest and almost the only civilian presence in the world's largest national park in North-East Greenland, and we want to keep our research completely open and international. This means, of course, that from a security policy and military point of view, we are a weak link. Against this backdrop, we are also seeing increased attention from authorities such as the police and the armed forces.”
What worries you most when you look ahead to 2026?
It’s the political situation in the world as a whole. It has been a game-changer that virtually everything we do is, to some extent, affected by geopolitical issues. Until Russia invaded Ukraine, Arctic research stood as a symbol of peaceful cooperation despite conflicts. From one day to the next, Western leaders put an end to that cooperation. It’s remarkable how quickly you can destroy something that took many decades to build. It takes time to rebuild, and unfortunately, there are no signs of a softening in relations between the West and Russia on the political front.
In my own research on climate change and how climate affects ecosystem processes in the Arctic, this is a major problem. Almost half of the Arctic and some of the most important land masses in this context are located in Russia, where we don’t have access to them and cannot obtain data from them. This has considerable implications for our ability to predict future climate change.”
What gives you cause for hope and optimism?
Greenland has developed a new research strategy, which includes the principle that no research should be conducted in Greenland that Greenland is not involved in or derives value from. There has been a significant tightening of this principle over the past year. It may cause some friction, but it should be viewed from a positive angle. This could mean more fruitful collaboration and a greater number of projects involving rewarding cooperation between researchers and Greenlandic society.
On the big political stage, I cannot be positive. I think it will take a long time to repair and restore the spirit of cooperation that has otherwise prevailed throughout the circumpolar north for several decades.
This text is machine translated and post-edited by Lisa Enevoldsen.