Climate change is having a major impact on the Arctic. This environment, the many unique species and communities who depend on it, need protection.

Sea ice is melting, leaving many lucrative but potentially destructive opportunities for government and business in its wake. These include new fishing grounds, a shorter shipping route between the Pacific Ocean and Europe and major new opportunities for petroleum and gas exploration/exploitation.

With these increased opportunities, also comes increased risk both to the environment and to activities occurring in previously isolated areas. If they aren’t managed properly, these activities will threaten the Arctic ecosystem. We urgently need new approaches to conserve this unique environment

Preserving the Arctic is crucial to the fight against climate change. Loss of sea ice means more open water, which absorbs more sunlight and heat than the white, more reflective ice. This in turn accelerates the warming of the sea, leading to further ice loss.

Rising temperatures also mean frozen deposits of methane – a greenhouse gas 20 times more damaging than carbon dioxide (CO2) – are escaping into the atmosphere. There are fears that this could lead to catastrophic, runaway climate change.

Melting sea ice is also threatening the survival of Arctic species including hooded and harp seals, walrus and polar bears. Increased commercial activity in these areas increases the risk to these fragile ecosystems and to the people living in these pristine environments.

WWF is working with RSA in Canada, Scandinavia and the UK, to develop better and stronger shipping guidelines in the Barents Sea and wider Arctic. We want business and industry, communities and government to work together to minimise shipping’s impact on the Arctic.

Our aim is to help develop an Arctic-wide agreement for environmentally-sensitive shipping operations which include control of CO2 emissions.

This will include improved monitoring and management of shipping in the region and better environmental standards for ships. In the long term, we would like to see the design of ships navigating in ice-covered waters improved to minimise their negative impacts on the environment

By improving environmental standards, we also focus on safety and the level of risk to shipping operating in these waters and any potential pollution incident and liability arising from it.

RSA is also supporting WWF’s work to create marine spatial plans and part of this is a network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that will help safeguard biologically important regions in the Arctic. Having ecologically coherent MPAs will also help build resilience within ecosystems and ensure a better chance of adapting to climate change.