Julie Brigham-Grette Tapped for Arctic Council Climate Expert Group

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Julie Brigham-Grette of the Department of Earth, Geographic, and Climate Sciences

Julie Brigham-Grette, a professor in the College of Natural Sciences’s Department of Earth, Geographic, and Climate Sciences, has been chosen by the U.S. Office of Global Change to serve as the next U.S. co-lead of the Climate Expert Group for the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP), directed by the Arctic Council. Brigham-Grette will co-lead with established leaders from Norway and Sweden. She follows the leadership of John Walsh of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, who has stepped down from the position after 20 years of service.  

This is an honor for Brigham-Grette, who, in addition to her professorial duties, serves as the Arctic Hub co-lead for the UMass-based Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science (CBIKS). 

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Brigham-Grette in the field

“One of the important roles of the Climate Expert Group is to help guide the integration of timely, policy-relevant science summaries to communicate the urgency of climate action,” explained Brigham-Grette. “What happens in the polar regions impacts the global community, especially if you think about sea level, and climate impacts on agriculture and human migration issues around the globe. It’s also important to increase the voices of indigenous Arctic inhabitants in this effort.” 

The Arctic Council is an intergovernmental forum that promotes cooperation and interaction among Arctic states, Indigenous Peoples, and other Arctic inhabitants. The Council was established in 1996 by the governments of eight Arctic states: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the U.S. The Council's work focuses on common Arctic issues, such as: sustainable development, environmental protection, climate change, emergency response, and mental health. 

Within the Arctic Council are six working groups, including the Climate Expert Group for AMAP. The AMAP program is mandated to: 

• monitor and assess the status of the Arctic region with respect to pollution and climate change issues 
• document levels and trends, pathways and processes, and effects on ecosystems and humans, and propose actions to reduce associated threats for consideration by governments 
• and produce science-based, policy-relevant assessments and public-outreach products to inform policy and decision-making processes 

Through these mandates, AMAP supports international efforts to reduce the specific global threats from contaminants and climate change that impact the Arctic, as defined in various international frameworks. This is informed by a research base comprising hundreds of scientists from Arctic nations. 

For Brigham-Grette, this co-lead role will allow her to leverage the successes and relationships amassed through her career to advance the AMAP program’s vital goals: “The work of the multinational AMAP leadership is to push for action on climate and environmental issues—especially the need for rapid action on the elimination of fossil fuels that contribute to food, water, and ecological challenges causing social instability.”