High level discussions on prevention, preparedness and response to marine accidents involving cruise and passenger ships operating in the Arctic and North Atlantic.
When: 13-15 October 2026
Where: Hotel Føroyar in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands. Learn more about hotel and practical information here.
What: An international event dedicated to assessing current response capabilities, future needs, and research gaps to enhance prevention, preparedness, and response to cruise ship and passenger vessel related incidents in the Arctic and North Atlantic waters. View Program Overview
Who: The conference is part of the official program of the Kingdom of Denmark's Chairship of the Arctic Council (2025-2027).
Registration: The conference is a public event. Visit the registration page for more information.
Registration is required for all conference participants. When clicking the registration button below, you will be redirected to an external registration platform to start the registration process.
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See an overview of the program. A more detailed program will be published closer to the event.
The Kingdom of Denmark's Chairship continues to support ongoing activities and projects run by the Arctic Council’s six Working Groups, and amongst other things, the Chairship program will encompass a conference directed at emergency prevention, preparedness and response concerning marine accidents involving cruise ships and passenger ships operating in the Arctic and North Atlantic. The conference links directly to the Chairship's priorities “Indigenous Peoples and communities of the Arctic” as well as “Oceans”.
As one of the pillars to maintain and further develop a healthy Arctic marine environment, a strengthened cooperation on emergency preparedness in the Arctic is crucial. The increasing maritime traffic in the Arctic, driven by melting ice, poses heightened risks of marine accidents and consequential pollution of the sensitive Arctic and North Atlantic Marine ecosystem. Recent events along with the Viking Sky near-miss incident in 2019 highlight the potential challenges the emergency response system can face. If an accident occurs in a remote area which is sparsely populated with limited infrastructure, this could result in overwhelming cascading challenges for a small community.
Seen from a local Kingdom of Denmark perspective, more than 100 cruise ships visited the Faroe Islands and surrounding seas during the 2025 season. At any given time during the season there could be up to 17.000 people at sea around the Islands – which is approximately 1/3 of the population of the Faroe Islands. In 2025 Greenland and surrounding seas have been visited by 94.000 passengers encompassing 232 voyages with up to 555 port visits. The number of passengers in 2025 is almost the double of the Greenlandic population.
Through the event, the Chairship will revisit past recommendations for emergency prevention, preparedness and response concerning cruise- and passenger ships operating in the Arctic and North Atlantic. The aim is to assess current response capabilities, future needs and research gaps to enhance prevention, preparedness and response for Arctic countries, incorporating knowledge from Indigenous People and Arctic Communities.
The program will includeplenary sessions and breakout discussions with perspectives from Arctic Indigenous Peoples and Arctic communities, the Arctic cruise- and passenger ship industry, Arctic rescue professionals, environmental protection agencies, the Arctic tourism industry and from relevant Arctic Council Working Groups.
Plenary sessions will be interwoven with breakout sessions where the cruise- and passenger ship problem will be discussed with three overall themes in mind;
As Chair of the Arctic Council, the Kingdom of Denmark has five priorities: Indigenous Peoples and Communities of the Arctic, Sustainable Economic Development and Energy Transition Solutions, Oceans, Climate Change in the Arctic and Biodiversity.
The Cold Seas, Critical Gaps event is part of the Kingdom of Denmark's Indigenous Peoples and communities of the Arctic and Oceans priorities.
Read more about the Chairship program.
The Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response Working Group of the Arctic Council (EPPR) strives to be the premier international forum for collaboration on Arctic emergency issues in order to advance risk mitigation and improve response capacity and capabilities in the Arctic.
EPPR implements projects and activities to enhance cooperation, information sharing, data collection and addressing gaps in the field of Arctic emergencies.
Learn more about EPPR.
Contact the Arctic Council Secretariat