"The Arctic Ocean is spread across 6 million square miles. Historically, most of the surface of the Arctic Ocean remained ice-covered all year round, but as a consequence of global warming this protective ice pack has contracted. Over the last two decades the surface area has nearly halved, the length of the ice melt season has grown by 39 days and the sea ice now starts melting nine days earlier and starts refreezing 30 days later than its historical average. The concern is that the Arctic ice cap’s shining surface reflects 80 per cent of incident sunlight. With a smaller and decreasing surface area of the ice cap, sunlight reflection is reduced whilst sunlight absorption is increased leading to further warming of the ocean, which leads to more melting of ice, which leads to more warming, which leads to further reduction of the ice cap and the vicious cycle thereby propagates. This reduced ice cap also opens the Arctic to increased maritime activities such as shipping, fishing, tourism, undersea pipelines and cables, hydrocarbons exploration, naval operations etc. These activities, with their attendant energy and emission loads, promote localised warming and reduce the arctic ice cap still further. Many of these activities impinge positively and negatively on each other. From an environmental, economic and governance perspective the haphazard utilisation of the Arctic is bound to be sub-optimal and hugely detrimental, which if left unchecked and unplanned could lead to ocean slums thus jeopardising our common future which is so intrinsically linked to healthy oceans. Nowhere is this more significant than in the Arctic Ocean. Planning has the potential to establish rational use of marine space. Therefore, a Sustainable Ocean Plan, which is ‘an ‘umbrella’ framework for ocean-related governance that aims to guide decision-makers and stakeholders on how to sustainably manage maritime areas is a solution’. MSP is considered a key component of a Sustainable Ocean Plan. Unfortunately, there is no international convention on marine spatial planning, and there are no requirements under international law that marine plans, as such, should be prescribed by international law, treaty or agreement. MSP takes place within the national jurisdiction and is limited to the 200 nauical miles EEZ line. For the area beyond national jurisdiction, such as in the Arctic, the need for comprehensive spatial
planning has been on the back burner but now it is a pressing necessity. Global activism for better ocean governance has been on the upswing. The recent agreement on Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, the COP declaration to achieve the target of 30 by 30 and the G20 leaders statement reaffirming commitment to better ocean health are fine examples. In the Arctic region, some countries have undertaken marine spatial planning within the EEZs; for example, in Norway’s part of the Barents Sea, Canada’s part of the Beaufort Sea and the US has developed a marine spatial planning framework for its entire exclusive economic zone including its Arctic seas. This is a commendable initiative but the Arctic Ocean deserves much more planning and organisation due to its direct impact on life on earth. Thus, setting up a framework for the equitable marine spatial planning of the entire Arctic Ocean – which combines both areas under and those beyond national jurisdiction as one comprehensive package - for the benefit of humanity as a whole is now a crying necessity.
This presentation will discuss the models of MSPs and the potential role that India could play in saving the Arctic from further damage."
