New Central Arctic Ocean Protections

The Arctic Ocean is both teeming with life and an essential element of global climate regulation. The 1.1 million square mile high seas area surrounding the North Pole — called the Central Arctic Ocean (“CAO”) — is so important that an international agreement to prevent the start of commercial fishing signed by 10 countries including the U.S., Russia, and China came into force in 2021. But the continued degradation of the ice regime in the CAO caused by the climate crisis continues to damage its habitat and ecosystems while also impeding its alibility to regulate climate well beyond the Arctic region. At the same time, new industrial threats are emerging. Arctic coastal states have filed for extended continental shelf claims for ownership of virtually all of the CAO seabed, a precursor for potential deep sea mining. And proposals for pioneering a Transpolar Shipping Route across the CAO continue to be floated as a way to create a new Suez Canal for global commerce routing without any serious consideration of the impacts to the Arctic from pollution, oil spills, noise, effects on sea ice — not to mention the potential loss of life from ship accidents so far from rescue capability. A new international agreement is needed to recognize the key role the CAO plays in the globe’s climate regulation and to establish long-term moratoriums preventing the start of deep-sea mining and transpolar shipping in the CAO. Combined with a robust science and Indigenous knowledge program, and participation of Arctic Indigenous people in future decision-making, such an agreement would build on the fisheries agreement to create a global commitment to the Arctic befitting its outsized importance.