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The Arctic is warming 3.5 times faster than the global average, scientists have warned, raising new security threats for the UK.
Melting Arctic ice is opening up more routes for shipping and military vessels, and the potential to drill for new reserves of gas, oil and natural minerals in an otherwise virtually unspoilt ecosystem.
The continent has long been warming faster than the rest of the world.
As the sea ice disappears, its white surface that reflects sunlight gives way to darker ocean underneath that absorbs the heat instead.
Today the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) warned the Arctic is on course to warm 3.5 times faster than the rest of the world over the next five years, making it at least 2.4C warmer than the recent average.
It comes as the UK’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy tours the region to assess threats from Russia and climate change, calling it an “increasingly important frontier for geopolitical competition and trade”.
On Tuesday he announced new UK funding to work with Iceland on monitoring Arctic waters, for AI to detect hostile state activity and for research on the impact on the UK.
David Lammy on board a Norwegian coastguard ship in Tromso during his Arctic tour. Pic: PA
Arctic melt is expected to push up sea levels around Britain’s coastline and fuel worse coastal flooding.
It will shift the jet stream, disrupting the UK’s weather system in ways not yet fully understood.
Read more: Melting Arctic ice caps helps predict UK heatwaves
Security threat ‘fundamentally changed’
Klaus Dodds, geopolitics professor at Royal Holloway, said less sea ice in the Arctic will likely attract “heightened commercial and military activity by third parties that are not allies of the UK, primarily Russia and China”.
He said the UK…
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