Europe joins international contest for Arctic's resources

Europe took a step yesterday towards joining the scramble for the Arctic's vast mineral riches that are being opened up by global warming, declaring for the first time that the resources could help stem anxiety about Europe's energy security.

In what it said was "a first step towards an EU Arctic policy", a European commission paper spelt out Europe's interests in the Arctic's energy resources, fisheries, new shipping routes, security concerns and environmental perils. "We can't remain impassive in the face of the alarming developments affecting the Arctic climate," said Joe Borg, the commissioner for maritime affairs.

With three member states - Denmark, Sweden, and Finland - bordering the Arctic, the EU said it wanted "observer status" on the Arctic Council, a body made up of northern littoral states, in order to further its interests alongside the US and Canada, Russia, Norway and Iceland.

In the past year the contest for control of the far north has grown more intense as the polar icecap melts and the Greenland ice sheet thins. Last year the Kremlin sent a submarine under the north pole to plant a flag. In May the US, Russia, Canada, Denmark and Norway agreed to try to bury territorial disputes over the Arctic, a pact that critics said heralded efforts to carve up the Arctic between them.

Denmark, by way of its autonomous territory of Greenland, is involved in territorial scraps with Russia and Canada.

Developments in the Arctic are regulated through the UN's law of the sea convention, which has been ratified by all the Arctic countries bar the US. The Obama administration is expected to support the treaty, triggering a faster race to develop the Arctic, which is estimated to hold a quarter of untapped oil and gas deposits.

In March an EU study highlighted security threats for Europe as a result of a thawing Arctic. "The rapid melting of the polar ice caps, in particular the Arctic, is opening up new waterways and international trade routes," the report noted. "The increased accessibility of the enormous hydrocarbon resources in the Arctic region is changing the geostrategic dynamics of the region."

While calling for environmental safeguards in the Arctic, the commission said that "exploitation of Arctic hydrocarbon resources and the opening of new navigation routes can be of benefit". Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the commissioner for external relations, said the aim was to "keep the right balance between the priority goal of preserving the environment and the need for sustainable use of natural resources including hydrocarbons".

(By Ian Traynor, The Guardian, 21/11/2008)