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Three days filled with dreams and emotions for the audience of the 30th edition of the International Adventure Film Festival. The chairman of this event, held in Dijon from October 16th-18th, was no other than Nikolay Litau himself, a worldwide-famous Russian navigator.

Amongst the award nominees was Alain Hubert, co-Founding President of the International Polar Foundation.

Golden Fleece Award for Adventurer of the Year

Alain Hubert was granted the Golden Fleece Award for his 2007 "Arctic Arc" crossing, on foot and skis, from Siberia to Greenland via the North Pole. He was also honoured for his scientific contribution through the International Polar Foundation.

Special mention from the Jury for the film "Au-delà du silence" (EN: "Beyond Silence")

Alain Hubert was awarded a Special Mention for the audacity and originality of his views on the Arctic in the movie "Au delà du silence". Director of the film: Michel de Wouters; co-production: MDW productions and International Polar Foundation; Belgium; 34 minutes; 2008.

This film follows Alain Hubert's and Dixie Dansercoer's 2007 "Arctic Arc" crossing, and engrosses us with the sensations and silence experienced by the two explorers during the 106 days of their expedition.

On Thursday October 16th, the International Polar Foundation (IPF) held its last major press conference before the end of the construction phase of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica station project (full press pack available on the Princess Elisabeth Station website). Before the scaled mock-up of the station's technical core which was built on the Laborelec site (research centre of GDF SUEZ Group), the speakers introduced the objectives set for the BELARE 2008-09 mission and the first science expeditions to start as soon as November 2008.

In collaboration with the station's partners Electrabel, from GDF SUEZ Group, and Schneider Electric, the IPF revealed the technical core of the station and the elements making it the first "zero emission" research station. The next big step is the loading of the estimated 42 containers aboard the ice-class cargo ship MSCO Ivan Papanin and the shipment to Antarctica. The ship is due to leave the port of Antwerp on November 14th.

In her introductory speech, Mrs Sabine Laruelle, Belgian Federal Science Policy Minister, reiterated the importance of this project for the Belgian federal authorities (Mrs Sabine Laruelle's full speech is available on the Princess elisabeth Station website). She also underlined how capital the station's science program is for the Belgian Science Policy office. Details on the government's financial participation in this project can be found in the Minister's speech.

The final stage of the construction will end on 15th February 2009 with the official inauguration of the first "zero emission" research station, completed within the framework of the International Polar Year.

This year, the 30th edition of the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR) meeting, was co-organized with the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) and the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-08, with the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) as co-sponsors.

This important event, known as the SCAR-IASC-IPY Open Science Conference, was hosted by the city of St Peterburg in the first two weeks of July and attended on behalf of the IPF by Alain Hubert (Chairman), Gigi Johnson-Amin (Vice-President, International Affairs), and Jean de Pomereu (journalist for SciencePoles.org and IPY Education & Outreach sub-committee member).

With over 1,400 scientists, logistics experts, programme managers, and other polar research related experts from 64 countries in attendance, the conference served as a platform for a whole host of science, logistics, and strategy focused side-meetings. It also saw some 550 science presentations, as well as 640 posters relating to recent or ongoing polar research programmes and findings. These focused on all of the principle IPY themes, with a growing emphasis on the effects of climate change on the Arctic and Antarctic ecosystems, as well as the Polar Regions as privileged barometers of change.

On the opening day of the conference, SCAR medals where awarded to Vladimir Kotlyakov (Russia), Claude Lorius (France), and Angelika Brandt (Germany).

The event also served as a unique and timely opportunity for the Polar Research community to discuss and exchange ideas on a range of important (and in some cases urgent) science-related topics and issues, including:

• The need to sustain Polar Research funding in order to properly address climate change - And the increasingly important role played by outreach and communication in this achieving this goal
• The rapid rise in oil prices and its very negative impact on fuel dependant polar research and logistics
• The scientific, data, educational and policy legacies of the IPY 2007-08 - including the IPY Oslo Science Conference in June 2010
• The instigation of a 'Polar Decade'.

In Belgium for a State visit, H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco was the guest of the International Polar Foundation (IPF) for a private dinner, hosted by the Inbev-Baillet Latour Fund at the "Cercle de Lorraine" in Brussels.

For reminder, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation acts as an accelerator of projects and solutions for the environment. It encourages the implementation of innovative and ethical solutions in three main areas: climate change, biodiversity and water.

For the first time since its creation, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation granted its climate change prize last February 2008 to Alain Hubert, founding President of the IPF. But, at the time, Alain Hubert was in Antarctica with the responsibility of finishing the construction of the Princess Elisabeth research station.

Yesterday June 17, before a small committee of foreign ambassadors, friends, and IPF administrators, collaborating scientists and sponsors, H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco presented the trophy in person to Alain Hubert. In his speech, the Prince paid merit to Alain Hubert's clairvoyance and commitment towards climate-change related issues.

The 3^rd edition of the Energy & Environment Awards took place in Tour & Taxis, in Brussels on June 5th. Among its most faithful partners, the IPF was present to grant the Special International Polar Foundation 2008 Award.

Each year, the Belgian Energy & Environment Awards are allocated to candidates having played an active part, through creativity and achievement, in the field of sustainable development. The Special International Polar Foundation 2008 Award is granted to the candidate whose project has favourable implications in the fight against climate change.

This year, the IPF awarded Synergy International, an architectural office, for having built "the first Walloon passive office complex" with an energy consumption of just 15 kWh/m² per year. Commissioned by Group Investsud, the complex's conception was designed to reduce the total amount of greenhouse gases it would emit before and after it was built. Everything from the building materials to the building's actual operation was carefully studied in relation to the building's energy consumption and environmental impact. The company will be able to move in by the end of August 2008.

Thierry Touchais, IPF Executive Director was there to grant the award to Synergy International for its 'innovative and experimental project". He reminded everyone about the importance of reducing our carbon emissions, and drew an interesting metaphore between summer calorie diets and the pressing need for a "carbon diet".

Present at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Forum 2008, Alain Hubert, Founding President of the International Polar Foundation (IPF), opened a keynote session with a speech entitled "On Ice, Bears and Markets in the Silicon Age".

Before a large audience of government leaders, OECD experts andrepresentatives from companies, media and the civil society, AlainHubert's speech brought together polar science, global climate history,and the need for immediate action in "Meeting the Climate Challenge"(read his speech in attachment).

"As polar research has contributed to the understanding of past climates and our influence on them, it contributes to how we might predict future climates."

The OECD Forum provides an enhanced dialogue on global economic issuesin view of establishing common grounds for co-operation among allstakeholders. At the centre of crucial discussions, the OECD Forumserves as a platform for discussion on the most pressing policychallenges of our time.

On Tuesday May 27th, an academic ceremony was held at the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, to officially pay homage to Prof. André Berger, a pioneering climatologist and co-founder of the International Polar Foundation.

Before a public of over 180 people, Prof. André Berger was officially granted the status of Professor Emeritus. This event brought together leading scientists and directors of institutes from all over the world (Ireland, China, Germany, Russia, switzerland, Japan, USA, France, UK, Canada, Norway and the Netherlands), notably 1995 Nobel Prize winner and Member of Honour of the International Polar Foundation Paul Krutzen, and representatives from the Laboratory of Glaciology and Geophysical Environment (LGGE), the Pierre-Simon Laplace Institute (IPSL), the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI).

An international symposium on climate change is also organised in the honour of Prof. Berger, from May 26 to 29, entitled "Climate Change: From the Geologic Past to the Uncertain Future". The objective of this symposium is for cientists to go over the results of studies undertaken in the field of climate change and to discuss the uncertainties linked to the future.

A call for proposals has been launched for the first Antarctica InBev-Baillet Latour Fellowship (ABLEF) Award. The laureate of this award will be allocated a research fund enabling him to carry out his study proposal in, or in the vicinity of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctic research station.

Managed by a Joint Award Committee, consisting of members of the InBev-Baillet Latour Fund, the International Polar Foundation and the Belgian Federal Science Policy (Belspo), the award is addressed to doctoral and post-doctoral researchers, regardless of nationality, registered at a Belgian University or a Federal research institute.

The InBev-Baillet Latour Fund was constituted by the Comte de Baillet Latour and the Artois Breweries in Belgium "to encourage and award services of outstanding human value in the Arts and Sciences by means of Prizes, study and travel grants, donations in cash or kind, or by any other means that the Fund might deem appropriate. The Fund shall be a non-profit making organisation, and shall have no political, trade-union or philosophical affiliations".

In bringing together the aims of both the InBev-Baillet Latour Fund and the IPF, this award aims to promote scientific excellence and activity in the Antarctic, and to encourage research initiatives around the new Princess Elisabeth Antarctic research station. The International Polar Foundation is also working with the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) to promote scientific research in the Antarctic during the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008.

Proposals outlining research objectives and logistics must reach Belspo by 27 June 2008 in order to be taken into consideration. Please read the attached document for practical information.

On May 19th, polar explorer Alain Hubert, founder of the International Polar Foundation, visited the European Space Agency (ESA) to hand over a unique set of snow-depth measurements which had been collected during his 2007 Arctic crossing. This dataset makes a valuable contribution to the validation programme of ESA's ice mission CryoSat.

As a reminder, ESA was a technical partner of the "Arctic Arc" expedition which saw Alain and fellow explorer Dixie Dansercoer cross the Arctic, from Russia to Greenland on foot via the North Pole. The two explorers crossed 1654 km in 106 days and, despite the terrible weather and ice conditions, they collected snow thickness measurements for ESA at regular intervals every 50 km throughout their expedition.

The Earth Explorer CryoSat mission is due for launch next year. It is designed to measure tiny variations in the thickness of floating sea-ice and ice on land. Understand the effects that the overlying snow can have on the measurement of ice elevation is therefore of huge importance. Measurements collected on the ice and from the air are crucial to fully understand and characterise the geophysical uncertainties in the CryoSat products.

"It wasn't really difficult to take these measurements for CryoSat," said Alain, "It became part of our routine. The difficult part of the expedition was putting one foot in front of the other when the ice is breaking up around you. As co-founder of the International Polar Foundation, and as a scientist as well as a seasoned explorer - I aim to form a kind of 'bridge' between science and society. Observing the changes that are occurring in the fragile Arctic environment will help lead to a better understanding of the effects of climate change and ultimately the Earth system as a whole. CryoSat is an exciting mission that will help answer questions about the polar ice, so we were very happy to contribute through our Arctic Arc expedition."

Malcolm Davidson ESA's CryoSat Validation Manager noted that "ESA has now released the snow-depth data collected by the Expedition to the CryoSat Validation and Retrieval Team. The team has been quite eager to get the data and start the analysis. Ultimately we expect that - in conjunction with the core ESA-sponsored airborne campaigns and similar initiatives from other polar expeditions -  the data will help us better measure ice thickness changes from space with CryoSat-2".

Below, you will find some web links which provide you with more context on the expedition.

• IPF website
• ESA website
• BBC website

For the first time since its creation, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation delivered its "climate change" award to Alain Hubert, founding president of the International Polar Foundation (IPF), for his clairvoyance and commitment towards climate change-related issues.

Currently in Antarctica with the responsibility to finish the construction of a new polar research station, "Princess Elisbabeth", Alain was unable to attend the official ceremony in person. He did, however, manage to contact Prince Albert II of Monaco through his satellite Iridium phone in order to express his gratitude.

Alain Hubert: "[I am] very honoured by the decision of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation. Through the International Polar Foundation, I have sought to encourage individuals and companies to do their part in responding to the challenge of climate change. The IPF has reached its current position after only five years in existence thanks to all of the people who believe in our actions and support us, and who are aware that fighting for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions is a matter of common economic and social interest."

Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation strives to act as an accelerator of projects and solutions for the environment. It encourages the implementation of innovative and ethical solutions in three main areas: climate change, biodiversity and water.