Greenland - Five Arctic coastal nations have agreed to let the United Nations rule on conflicting territorial claims to the Arctic seabed,  which may hold up to one fourth of the world’s undiscovered hydrocarbon reserves. Many believe any outcome will be destructive to Arctic habitats and that an international treaty for protecting these waters is necessary.

Ministers from Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States met in Greenland last month for a two-day summit to discuss sovereignty over the Arctic Ocean seabed, an issue that must be resolved in order to capitalize on resources that are likely to be made more accessible by the melting of the polar ice cap. 

One third of the polar ice cap has disappeared since 2005 and some scientists believe all floating sea ice could be lost in summer within five years.   Its loss will improve drilling access and open up the Northwest Passage, a route through the Arctic linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, which could reduce the sea journey from New York to Singapore by thousands of miles.

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller called the meeting in his country’s self-governing province to try to end squabbling over ownership of huge tracts of the Arctic seabed, although it will be several decades before oil drilling in the deep Arctic sea is feasible.

Attending the meeting were Greenland Premier Hans Enoksen, Russian and Norwegian Foreign Ministers Sergei Lavrov and Jonas Gahr Stoere, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Canadian Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn.

Under the 1982 U.N. Law of the Sea Convention, coastal states own the seabed beyond existing 200-nautical mile (370-km) zones if it is part of a continental shelf of shallower waters. The rules aim to fix shelves’ outer limits on a clear geological basis, but have created a tangle of overlapping Arctic claims.  The involved countries, most major oil exporters, agreed to settle conflicting territorial claims by the law until a U.N. body could rule on the disputes. 

The Canadian claim, which will be submitted in 2013, would be equivalent in size to the three Prairie Provinces - or about 1.8-million square kilometres.  Canadian scientists are amassing evidence that the Lomonosov Ridge, which extends under the Arctic Ocean, originates in the North American continent.

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea was fashioned to prevent territorial claims based on raw force, and has a clear process for establishing jurisdiction. Under the treaty, countries have jurisdiction for 111 kilometres beyond the base of a continental shelf, but that claim can be extended for under-sea ridges extending from the shelf.

Ottawa will spend $40-million over the next several years for scientists from the Geological Survey of Canada to map the Arctic Ocean and provide conclusive evidence that the Lomonosov Ridge is, in fact, part of the North American continental shelf.

If the UN validates that claim, Canada can assert sovereignty over the seabed all along the ridge, although experts expect Canada will claim the area west of the ridge and Denmark will assert sovereignty over the area east of the ridge and closer to Greenland. Russia says it has conclusive evidence the Lomonosov Ridge extends from the Eurasian continent.

Environmental groups were not as enthusiastic and have criticized the scramble for the Arctic, saying it will damage the region’s unique animal habitats. They call for a treaty similar to that regulating the Antarctic, which bans military activity and mineral mining.

"It is insane to view the crisis of the melting of the Arctic ice simply as an opportunity to carve up the resources that are currently protected under the ice," Greenpeace Nordic campaigner, Lindsay Keenan, told Reuters.

"They are going to use the law of the sea to carve up the raw materials, but they are ignoring the law of common sense. These are the same fossil fuels that are driving climate change in the first place," Keenan added.

Rob Huebert, Associate Director of the Calgary-based Centre for Military and Strategic Studies, believes the meeting could represent a rejection of the idea that a comprehensive international accord that includes the wider global community - rather than just five states with polar coasts - is needed to guide the future development and protection of the Arctic.

He noted the meeting unfairly excludes other Nordic nations belonging to the broader Arctic Council, such as Sweden and Finland, as well as Canada’s Inuit and their circumpolar cousins.  Mr. Hubert also noted that the U.S. has yet to sign the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention.

"There has been a dearth of any international, high-level discussions with regard to the Arctic per se," Prof. Huebert said. He fears the five national governments attending the meeting could form a "gentlemen’s club" and agree on how to proceed with economic and social development without the formal inclusion of native people.

In response to criticisms the participating nations say they are attempting to prevent an unbridled resource rush in which countries stake competing claims and ignore social and environmental problems in their haste to exploit what some believe is the planet’s last great, untapped source of energy and mineral resources.

"The declaration reflects the will of all participants to resolve all issues which might evolve in the spirit of cooperation and on the basis of international law," said Minister Lavrov.

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