Polar icecap melt has enabled a 66% increase in ocean traffic through the Arctic Circle, driving down freight time and costs substantially through vastly reduced supply chain lines which, incidentally, also mean fewer vessel emissions.
Although thawing ice and more sea space isn’t something to get excited about, especially in the wake of bigger environmental concerns discussed at last week’s UN climate change conference in Glasgow, lines can hardly be blamed for using the North Sea Route (NSR).
And yet, the increase in NSR volume, measured from January to November, is fast tapering off as the Northern Hemisphere winter approaches.
This week alone 15 vessels got stuck in frozen seas between the northern reaches of Norway and ports along the Pacific coastline of Russia and Asia.
With the freeze coming in much faster than expected, a Russian nuclear ice breaker, the Vaigach, was called in to assist.
A diesel-fuelled peer vessel, the Novorossiysk, also had to help to free bulk carriers and general cargo vessels.
Unavoidably, lines will start using longer routes to get around, meaning longer supply lines and more emissions.
The news of vessels getting stuck in an unseasonably cold polar snap, and the effect of frozen seas on the liner industry, illustrates how nuanced ocean freight is in relation to demands made for emission-curbing strategies.
Environmental concerns have long held that shorter supply lines are a panacea for a warming earth.
However, it takes shrinking ice to allow for this to happen, as in the case of the NSR.