ABSTRACT
The receding Arctic sea ice has sparked great expectations as to the possibility to utilize new shipping routes between Asia and Europe via the Arctic Ocean and its adjacent seas. Further, increasing intra-Arctic and destinational shipping from within the Arctic to places further south are expected – for example, related to resource development activities in Arctic coastal and offshore regions. While the ultimate Arctic shipping ‘boom’ has thus far not happened due to highly volatile transit numbers and overall very low traffic density in comparison to other shipping straits, at least in certain regions in the Arctic we can expect shipping activities to increase. What appears to be largely absent in the debate about Arctic shipping is a discussion about how this development could be rendered sustainable or what sustainable Arctic shipping concretely is. This chapter thus asks how different actor groups involved in Arctic shipping conceptualize sustainability in their arguments and policies. This reveals the ultimate reference objects of sustainable Arctic shipping or, in other words, what it concretely is that should be rendered sustainable in relation to what and for what purpose in Arctic shipping.
