Arctic shipping must change

For hundreds of years, shipping has connected people, places and goods. Today, it is the backbone of international trade and a lifeline for many remote coastal and Indigenous communities in the Arctic that depend on ships to deliver essential supplies.

But shipping in the Arctic is like nowhere else on Earth. Not only do harsh climatic conditions make for challenging navigation, but the region’s unique geography makes it more vulnerable to shipping-related impacts.

Shipping is driving up greenhouse gas emissions, air and water pollution, and underwater noise. It is also causing fatal collisions with marine mammals and destroying ice habitats. As warming temperatures continue to cause Arctic sea ice to retreat, these negative impacts will worsen. Each year, more and more tankers and bulk carriers ply Arctic waters to deliver the oil, gas and metal ore produced there. More fishing vessels head deeper into the northern latitudes of the Arctic Ocean. More cruise ships take tourists to the far north.

More shipping routes—including two pan-Arctic routes—are expected to become more accessible for longer stretches of the navigation season, enabling commercial ships to venture into areas that were once impossible to traverse. According to the Arctic Councils’ Shipping Traffic Database, the distances sailed by ships in the Arctic waters doubled between 2013 and 2023.

We must address these pressures without further delay, especially in areas where major improvements can be made quickly thanks to readily available technologies and operational measures. For example, the impact of black carbon emissions—a short-lived, potent climate pollutant that settles on ice and snow and amplifies melting—can be rapidly reduced by mandating vessels to switch from residual (heavier) fuels to cleaner (distillate) fuels.

Likewise, the negative impacts on marine mammals from underwater noise—whose levels have increased dramatically over the last decade, especially in marine mammals’ migration corridors—can be reduced by rerouting vessels and enforcing slower speeds.

This issue of The Circle explores what sustainable shipping entails and how more companies can embrace higher environmental standards. For example, how does shipping interfere with the traditional fishing and hunting activities of coastal and Indigenous communities, and what can be done about it? How can cruise tourism in the Arctic be more sustainable? What are polar fuels, and how steeply might we cut emissions and reduce black carbon if ships began using them?

We also look at why exhaust gas cleaning systems (scrubbers), once seen as a useful way to reduce emissions from burning heavy fuel oil, should be banned to avoid a water pollution crisis, and how the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO’s) proposed measures to reduce the carbon intensity of vessels can benefit marine wildlife.

It is a pivotal time for the shipping sector. With the IMO’s leadership and coordination, the industry has both the tools and the incentives it needs to embark on a transformative path to decarbonization, in line with the Paris Agreement, while also significantly reducing  its  impacts on marine biodiversity and coastal communities. The future of the Arctic’s people, animals and ecosystems depend on it.