Where is the ‘Russian Bear’ headed? Are nationalism, political oppression and corruption on the rise in what appears to be an increasingly authoritarian Russia? A recent conference in Oslo sought to provide some answers.

While diplomatic and political relations between Norway and China have been strained recent years, research cooperation seems to be thriving. A high-level meeting this week highlighted mutual Arctic interests between China and the Nordic states.

With the Norwegian Parliament putting the final touches on the government’s proposed climate law, important questions arise: Do we even need this climate law? And how well will it work together with the EU Emissions Trading Scheme?

Countries all over the world are adopting carbon trading. Will the emerging carbon markets manage to steer clear of the many pitfalls involved in emissions trading – or are we headed for a carbon-market backlash?

Pål Wilter Skedsmo, Senior Research Fellow at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, was commended by the adjudicating Committee at his doctoral defense for what they termed a ‘unique’, ‘empirically rich’ and ‘original work’.

Can climate change be mitigated and poverty alleviated at the same time, or are they simply incompatible policy objectives? Climate change negotiator, Ajay Mathur, Director General of the Energy and Resources Institute in India (TERI), believes it can be done.

FNI Director Geir Hønneland briefed Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg and Foreign Minister Børge Brende during their official visit to China in April.

FNI Senior Policy Analyst Christian Prip has been given the task to conduct an independent review of the International Whaling Commission.

Researchers from FNI and the K.G. Jebsen Centre for the Law of the Sea are in New York this week to give input to the UN on the use of marine resources in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

FNI Director Geir Hønneland gave a talk on Russia and ‘how to understand Russians’ at a recent debate in Bergen.

FNI research fellow Pål Wilter Skedsmo defends his PhD thesis ‘Europeanizing Armenia. Assemblages of environmental rights and development in Post-Soviet Armenia’.

‘Irreversible’ changes to the earth provide striking evidence of new epoch, experts suggest, thus rebuking the critics claiming that the Anthropocene is mostly about politics, not science.

The book EU Climate Policy, written by FNI researcher Jørgen Wettestad and Elin Lerum Boasson at the University of Oslo, has sold well and is now available in paperback.

Listening to debates about the benefits and drawbacks of bioenergy and biofuels is usually a mixed experience, with advocates of both sides slinging mud and calling each other’s kettles black.

Anne Kristin Sydnes died 3 March, from cancer. She was 60 years old. Anne Kristin worked at FNI from 1981until 1998. Her research focused on energy, north-south issues and climate policy. Her personality made a lasting impression on everybody she met. We mourn the loss of a good colleague and friend.

After tough negotiations between ministers and only a tiny majority, the ETS reform process now enters its final, crucial phase.

A plea to extend the Polar Code was this week rejected in an International Maritime Organization (IMO) sub-committee meeting, making the road ahead steeper for those advocating tighter environmental regulations in the Polar Regions.

The EU Parliament has voted for a more ambitious post-2020 emissions trading system (ETS). However, major reform proposals were also rejected – and tough negotiations still remain.

The independent social science institutes in Norway are both productive and relevant, according to a recent evaluation. The report praises the Fridtjof Nansen Institute for its prestigious scientific publications, its strategic importance and its high level of policy relevance.

The Ministry of Climate and Environment has asked FNI research professor Ole Kristian Fauchald to study the legal ramifications of Norway’s current approach to wolf management.