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MARITIME
A combination of global change and oil and gas development in the Barents Sea
and other areas of the Arctic promises to bring major changes in marine transportation in the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas. Closer to home, the dramatic rise in transit shipping through the Bering Sea from East Asia to North America makes this the busiest shipping lane in Arctic waters.
The Institute of the North is a member of the Russian "Noncommerical Partnership of the Coordination of Northern Sea Route Usages" and works closely with the group and other shipping interests in the Arctic.
Projects
Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment
Ben Ellis, managing director of the Institute of the North, co-edited (along with Senior Fellow Dr. Lawson Brigham) the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment, a major project of the Arctic Council under the Protection of Marine Environment (PAME) working group. This assessment is a direct follow-up to the Arctic Marine Strategic Plan and the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, two key Arctic Council reports.
The eight Arctic states will work together to enhance Arctic marine safety, protect the marine environment and expand Arctic marine infrastructure as a result of approving the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 2009 Report at the Arctic Council Ministerial meeting in Norway.
In the Tromsø Declaration, the Arctic states noted “that increased marine access and navigation in the Arctic Ocean call for development and implementation of suitable national and international regulations, where appropriate, to advance the safety of Arctic marine shipping, including marine pollution prevention, reduce accident risk and facilitate effective emergency response.”
The council is urging its member states to cooperate with the International Maritime Organization on development of relevant measures to reduce the environmental impacts of shipping in Arctic waters.
According to the declaration, the ongoing IMO work to update the Guidelines for Ships Operating in Arctic Ice-covered Waters needs to be completed, with “its relevant parts be made mandatory and global IMO ship safety and pollution prevention conventions be augmented with specific mandatory requirements or other provisions for ship construction, design, equipment, crewing, training and operations aided at safety and protection of the Arctic environment.”
The four-year assessment was led by Canada, Finland and the United States and includes the first comprehensive Arctic shipping database for one calendar year.
| The assessment is intended to provide a baseline data of shipping activity in the Arctic for 2004, potential scenarios concerning Arctic shipping for 2020 and 2050, as well as other critical information. |
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In April 2008, the Institute helped support a scenario creation exercise under the direction of the Global Business Network, the world's foremost scenario consultancy based in San Francisco. Scenarios do not claim to be predictions. The point is not to gather evidence for some induction about a most probable future. The point is rather to explore and understand more deeply a number of different possibilities in order to make better reasoned choices among them. The product generated by this workshop will be incorporated into the AMSA. Links are provided to information concerning the workshop. |
The Institute’s Managing Director, Ben Ellis, represented the AMSA core team at an international Arctic shipping conference in St. Petersburg, Russia. A link has been provided to the power point presented at the April gathering.
AMSA Scenario Narratives:
The Future of Arctic Marine Navigation in Mid-Century (2008 report)
Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment: Scenarios of the Future (brochure)
AMSA Interview Highlights
AMSA Scenario Notes to Participants
AMSA Workshop Participants
October 22, 2009 presentation by Senior Fellow Mead Treadwell
at the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment Workshop
Fairbanks, Alaska, USA
Keynote Address (text of remarks in PDF format)
June 10, 2009 presentation by Managing Director Ben Ellis
at the 3rd Symposium on the Impacts of an Ice-Diminishing Arctic on Naval and Maritime Operations
Annapolis, Maryland, USA
Arctic Marine Transport and the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 2009 Report (PowerPoint in PDF format)
October 2, 2008 presentation by Managing Director Ben Ellis
at the Carnegie Moscow Center
Moscow, Russian Federation
Arctic Transport Today and Tomorrow: Implications of a changing marine environment at the top of the world(PowerPoint in PDF format)
October 31, 2007: Presentation by Managing Director Ben Ellis
to the Sustainable Development Working Group of the Arctic Council
Vadso, Norway
Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment Update
(PowerPoint in PDF format)
April 17, 2007: Presentation by Managing Director Ben Ellis
at the Lloyd's Shipping Conference
St. Petersburg, Russia
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Events
Arctic Marine Transport Workshop, September 28-30, 2004
Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge University, United Kingdom
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Sponsored by the Institute of the North, U.S. Arctic Research Commission and the International Arctic Science Committee, the Arctic Marine Transport Workshop final report was distributed at the upcoming April meetings of the Arctic Council’s Sustainable Development Working Group in Moscow, Russia and at the Senior Arctic Officials in Yukatia, Russia. |
Amid growing interest and concern over the rapid climate changes occurring in the Arctic, experts in Arctic marine transport and international marine safety, as well as researchers of sea ice and climate change, met at the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University to create a research agenda and identify critical issues related to the future of Arctic shipping.
The three-day workshop comprised six half-day sessions, each followed by a panel and participant discussion. The research agenda and critical issues in this draft workshop report were developed during the discussions and were made available to the participants for their review.
The international gathering included 54 experts from 11 countries (United States, Canada, Russia, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, the United Kingdom, Finland, Germany and Japan) representing marine research institutions, transportation ministries, national ice centers, ship designers and builders, ship classification experts, international marine transport economists and social scientists.
The workshop, dedicated to the life-long work in the Arctic by Scott Polar Research Institute’s Terence Armstrong, was the first critical step in addressing the multi-faceted issues of future Arctic marine transport, according to co-chairs Lawson Brigham, deputy director of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission and Ben Ellis, managing director of the Institute of the North. “We are hopeful this workshop is only a beginning of a series of meetings and conferences on this strategic Arctic marine issue,” they told workshop participants.
In recent years, the extraordinary retreat of Arctic sea ice has focused renewed attention of the Arctic Ocean as a potential waterway for marine operations – both coastal/regional traffic and the possibility of trans-Arctic navigation. Several initiatives underway by the eight member nations of the Arctic Council also led organizers to convene the world’s experts on Arctic marine transport.
The Council’s Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, drawing on the expertise of nearly 300 scientists, is expected to place an international spotlight on the increasing possibilities for marine access throughout the Arctic Ocean. Other Council initiatives underway with Arctic marine components include an Arctic Marine Strategic Plan, which calls for an Arctic Shipping Assessment; and an Arctic Oil and Gas Assessment, which will include elements of Arctic marine transport and port operations.
Arctic Marine Transport Workshop Final Report
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