Global warming to open up north-east Arctic tanker route

Melting ice in the Russian Arctic will create a safer, shorter route cut for tankers, but will have even bigger implications for the global energy market

A new “north-east passage” for shipping around Russia’s Arctic coast and across the North Pole will be opened within a decade as global warming causes the ice cap to melt, Norway’s foreign minister has predicted.

Jonas Gahr Store, speaking at a recent public lecture in Edinburgh, said the route through previously inaccessible Russian waters, could cut tanker journey times between Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Yokohama in Japan by 40%, and provide a safer and “pirate-free” route for trans-global shipping.

“The rise in temperatures across the Arctic is twice the world average. Soon there will be no summer ice