EU report warns of trouble in Arctic over resources

EU report warns of trouble in Arctic over resources

Territorial claims and access to new trade routes must be addressed, briefing document notes; former U.S. Coast Guard official predicts armed conflict

Randy Boswell, Canwest News Service

Published: 1:32 am

Edmonton Journal

The coming "scramble for resources" in the melting Arctic poses a potential political crisis for northern countries -- including Canada -- says a new report by Europe's top two foreign policy officials.

The warning is contained in a briefing document about the expected impacts of global climate change, prepared for a summit of 27 European heads of government in Brussels later this week.

The report, obtained on Monday by Canwest News Service, highlights last year's controversial flag-planting on the North Pole seabed by a Russian submarine -- which drew a particularly frosty response from the Canadian government -- and argues "there is an increasing need to address the growing debate over territorial claims and access to new trade routes" in the Arctic Ocean.

Authored by the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, and Europe's commissioner for external relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the study points to "potential consequences for international stability and European security interests" as the retreat of Arctic ice makes shipping and oil and gas exploration a reality in the region.

Noting the "rapid melting of the polar ice caps," the report contends that "the increased accessibility of the enormous hydrocarbon resources in the Arctic region is changing the geo-strategic dynamics of the region."

Solana and Ferrero-Waldner add: "As previously inaccessible regions open up due to the effects of climate change, the scramble for resources will intensify."

The EU report is the latest in a string of recent warnings about looming clashes over Arctic resources -- including a prediction from former U.S. Coast Guard commander Scott Borgerson of possible armed conflict between the U.S. and Canada over Arctic sovereignty.

"The United States should not underestimate Canadian passions on this issue," Borgerson, a fellow at the influential Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in an article titled Arctic Meltdown in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs magazine.

"Unless Washington leads the way toward a multilateral diplomatic solution, the Arctic could descend into armed conflict."

A top official with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also warned last month that Canada and the U.S. were headed for a clash over who owns undersea territory in the Beaufort Sea, along the offshore boundary between the Yukon and Alaska.

And two teams of American and Canadian experts on international affairs -- including Borgerson, former U.S. ambassador Paul Cellucci and UBC political scientist Michael Byers -- recently conducted a "mock summit" on the Arctic that urged a rapid resolution of disputes over the Northwest Passage and other polar issues before serious conflict arises in the region.

The European report also urges the development of an EU Arctic policy to guide the continent's approach to polar issues, and suggests the possible need to "revisit existing rules of international law, particularly the Law of the Sea" to settle anticipated territorial disputes in the Arctic and elsewhere.

The Solana-Ferrero-Waldner report, which has already prompted widespread media coverage in Europe, includes the Arctic in a list of regions set to become hotspots for global conflict in an era of climate change.

"Climate change is best viewed as a threat multiplier which exacerbates existing trends, tensions and instability," states the report, which also highlights potential drought in Africa, water shortages in the Middle East and coastal flooding in South Asia as possible triggers for major international conflict.

Solana, in an accompanying statement also released to Canwest News Service, says: "What happens if the Northwest Passage becomes permanently passable? If handled well, this is a huge opportunity. But without an agreed international framework -- as is the case in the Arctic -- on how to assess and adjudicate territorial claims, political tensions are bound to rise."

During a speech in Yellowknife on Monday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper reaffirmed his government's commitment to "strengthening Canada's Arctic sovereignty" and highlighted a new federal plan to procure a Polar-class icebreaker to help patrol the increasingly ice-free Arctic Ocean.

"As Canadians, we see ourselves as a Northern people," Harper stated.

"The great white North is as much a part of Canada's identity as the red maple leaf."