Arctic policy of Barack Obama

This article is part of a series about Barack Obama
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Early on in his campaign for election, former president Barack Obama made it clear that climate change was a priority for his administration. Soon after becoming President Elect in November 2008, he reiterated this positing stating: “Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response.”^[1] Contradictory to his 2008 campaign promises on the Offshore drilling debate, Obama felt obliged to open coastal areas off the Alaskan coast to exploratory assessments for oil and gas as a means to continue to stimulate economic growth.^[2] This decision in March 2010 was abruptly reversed in May 2010 after the catastrophic failure of the Deep Water Horizon drilling operation, which led to the six-month moratorium on deep water drilling in the United States territorial waters.^[3]

Deemed an economic necessity, Obama moved forward on his promised goals for climate resilience throughout both his terms as president.^[4] He drafted many executive orders on climate-oriented issues, three of which focused specifically on resilience. Obama drafted Executive Order 13653: Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change^[5] in 2013, Executive Order 13677: Climate-Resilient International Development^[6] in 2014, and Executive Order 13754: Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience in 2016, which created the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area.^[7]

Soon after signing the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Executive Order on December 20, 2016, former President Obama and Prime Minister Trudeau released the United States-Canada Joint Arctic Leaders’ Statement. The statement outlined the future approach of the United States and Canada as role models for Arctic resilience in overlapping exclusive economic zones. It also outlined science-based leadership plans to manage actions in the Arctic, ensuring: "sustainable and viable Arctic economy and ecosystem with low-impact shipping, science based management of marine resources, and free from the future risks of offshore oil and gas activity."^[8]