Within the margins of the IMO Assembly meetings, on December 2, the World Maritime University (WMU), in collaboration with the 90 North Foundation, announced the release of the 2025 Arctic Report: The
Within the margins of the IMO Assembly meetings, on December 2, the World Maritime University (WMU), in collaboration with the 90 North Foundation, announced the release of the 2025 Arctic Report: The Arctic Ocean Region – Biodiversity, Governance & Protective Measures, a comprehensive assessment of one of the planet’s most rapidly changing and geopolitically significant regions.
The report warns that the Arctic Ocean—long perceived as remote and inaccessible—is now experiencing profound environmental, economic, and political transformation. As climate change accelerates ice melt and opens new navigation and resource extraction opportunities, the region faces unprecedented ecological and cultural threats.
According to the report, the Arctic’s economic potential, particularly in shipping and resource development, has been widely overstated. Analyses that present the Arctic as a shortcut for global trade or a frontier for abundant resources often ignore the region’s harsh environmental conditions, complex geophysical constraints, and serious ecological vulnerabilities.
Pen Hadow, British polar explorer and executive director 90 North Foundation, stated, “As the natural barrier provided by the sea-ice cover recedes, man-made protective measures are now required to restrict deleterious vessel activity in the world’s least-disturbed marine ecosystem.
There is now an urgent need to consider Particularly Sensitive
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