AMAP's monitoring and assessments have informed the
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP),
Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP), and the
World Health Organization (WHO) on issues related to reduction of toxic and polluting chemical emissions.
SWIPA The work of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was influenced significantly by AMAP's assessment reports on "Snow, Water, Ice and Permafrost in the Arctic" (SWIPA). The release of the first SWIPA report, "Climate Change and the Cryosphere", was published for the 2011 Arctic Council ministerial meeting. The
United States Department of State urged other member nations to "respond to the SWIPA Assessment’s findings and recommendations". A
Polar Science journal article, "The urgency of Arctic change", builds on 2017 AMAP assessments.
Arctic Report Card According to the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL)a United States federal laboratorythe annual
Arctic Report Card, which tracks the ways in which the environment has changed, undergoes an independent peer review organized by the AMAP. One hundred forty-seven researchers from eleven countries submit eleven essays for the AMAP review.
Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants The establishment of AEPS' AMAP was the "fundamental building block" for the
Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) agreement. From the mid-1980s to 2000, research by atmospheric chemists revealed that POPs contaminating
Inuit country food, could be tied to
long-range atmospheric transport of
POPs from the south to the Arctic.
Mercury assessment AMAP undertakes a
mercury assessment every ten years. AMAP has collaborated on two of the four peer-reviewed Global Mercury Assessments undertaken by the
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), including the report published in 2019. In 2002, UNEP published the first Global Mercury Assessmentthe second in 2008, the third in 2013, and the fourth in 2018. There reports provided the scientific basis for the
Minamata Convention on Mercurythat came into force in August 2017. As part of the Minamata Convention, UNEP undertakes mercury literature reviews every five years in collaboration with AMAP. In a 2022
Nature Reviews Earth & Environment article, AMAP researchers reported that "200 tonnes of mercury end up in the Arctic Ocean" every year. In the 2010s, scientists focused on mercury contamination caused by human activities. By 2022, understanding of sources of
mercury entering the ocean has become more refinedwith one third coming from the atmosphere, 25% from ocean currents, 20% from river flows, and 20% from coastal erosion. The significant amount of mercury released from permafrost as it thaws raises concerns about ingestion of mercury by
polar bears,
pilot whales,
narwhals,
beluga and
hooded sealsthe source of food for Inuit in the Arctic. ==History==