increasingly accessible, it does mean that the resources are still hard to access. However, this has not stopped nations from preparing for when the vast resources in the Arctic become commercially viable.
Increasing Accessibility
It is estimated that 30% of the worlds undiscovered gas resources and 13% of the world’s oil is in the Arctic. 327 Therefore, the Arctic is a region where, if exploited correctly and sustainably, could be greatly beneficial to the Arctic states. However, extraction of resources in the Arctic is still not commercially viable. 328 This means that states in the region are still able to cooperate without having the added pressure of competing over resources in the area due to overlapping claims in relation to the extension of a state’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which is permitted through a formal submission process to the United Nations Commission 329 on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS). 330 In addition to an increase in resources on the seabed that could become available due to climate change, the diminishing Arctic ice could result in shorter 327 Rob Huebert, ‘Canada and the Newly Emerging International Arctic Security Regime’, in Arctic Security In An Age Of Climate Change , 2nd edn, ed. by James Kraska (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), pp.193-217 (p.193). 328 Lamy, p.78. 329 Juha Käpylä and Harri Mikkola, ‘Arctic Conflict Potential: Towards an Extra-Arctic Perspective’, Finnish Institute of International Affairs Briefing Paper, 138 (2013), 3-9 (pp.4-5). 330 Käpylä and Mikkola, p.4.
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