A Chinese company is preparing to sail a cargo ship along Russia’s northern coast to Europe — a test run made possible by melting ice and accelerating climate change, and one that has implications for both international trade and the environment.
China is sending the Istanbul Bridge container ship on an 18-day trip from Ningbo-Zhoushan port — the world’s largest — to Felixstowe in the U.K. on Sept. 20, accompanied by ice breakers. The goal is not a one-off voyage — that’s been done before — but to establish a regular service via Russia’s Northern Sea Route linking multiple ports in Asia and Europe.
“The larger picture is that the Arctic is opening up,” said Malte Humpert, senior fellow and founder of the Arctic Institute, a Washington-based think tank that studies Arctic security. “Twenty years ago it was frozen. But now that it’s melting and something is opening up, there’s interest.”
For Humpert, the impact may be bigger than shipping schedules. “The Arctic is the first region where climate change is changing the geopolitical map. If we didn’t have climate change, we wouldn’t be talking. Russia would not be producing oil and gas in the Arctic. China would not be sending container ships through the Arctic.”
