Who owns the North Pole? Denmark makes case against Canada's, Russia's claims

The battle for the North Pole heated up this week when Denmark made official overtures for the icy region and its natural resources.

The claim, which was submitted to the United Nations on Monday, contests conflicting claims from Russia and Canada, and further complicates a convoluted series of declarations of ownership in the Arctic.

In recent years, the diplomatic battle for ownership of the Arctic Circle has become one of the highest-stakes struggles on the board.

With an uncertain, but surely extensive, amount of natural resources at stake, every country with any semblance of a legitimate claim to the region has declared themselves the rightful owner.

It is like Game of Thrones, if the Arctic Circle was the Iron Throne, each country was a noble house of Westeros, and the whole saga played out beyond the Wall.

Sure there are no dire wolves or incest, but there is exponential wealth at stake. The region is said to contain about 13 per cent of the world’s undiscovered oil and 30 per cent of its remaining gas. Eventually, someone is going to mine it, and each nation wants it to be them.

The argument of ownership tends to come down to how the continental shelves each sit – with each country claiming ownership of their slice.

Each northern country engages its own expert testimony, rationale, clever mapmaking and, occasionally, military to stake their claim.

Here is how each the debate is shaping up:

Who decides who owns the Arctic?

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is considered the bible when it comes to nautical territorial disputes.

It was signed into international law in December 1982 and has been used to govern many marine disputes, not just in the north.

According to the pact, which was established with the participation of more than 150 countries, coastal states have sovereign rights in a 200-nautical mile exclusive zone.

They also have sovereign rights over the continental shelf up to that distance, and further in specific cases. The U.N. Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) makes recommendations as to when territorial rights should extend beyond 200 nautical miles.

So in a world of reasonable nations, the U.N. would have final say over who has claim to what in the Arctic Circle. It has not yet ruled on the contested North Pole.

Which brings us to Denmark…

The peaceful-seeming Danes made headlines this week by submitting a bid to the United Nations that purports to prove that the North Pole is on the same continental shelf as Greenland, a territory of Denmark.

The connection to this 2,000-kilometre-long Lomonosov Ridge would give the country a claim to the North Pole and some 895,000 square kilometres of Arctic sea floor and its resources. Though others have also claimed ownership of the Lomonosov Ridge.

It has long been the plan for Denmark to make a bid on the Pole itself. In a strategy document on Arctic expansion from several years ago, kingdom officials stated that they intended to submit a bid on the Pole, but they were committed to expanding peacefully.

It reads:

Still, Denmark’s claim on the Pole was a strong move that could have repercussions on other countries and their own bids.

Which brings us to Canada…

Late last year, Canada submitted its own claim to the U.N., which laid claim to much of the sea bed and intended to “build a case for the Pole.”

The submission, however, was only a partial one that left available the option of Canada extending its claim further – all the way to the coveted Pole itself. It was a decision that reportedly caught foreign affairs officials off-guard at the last minute.

Notably, what came packaged with this partial submission was a great deal of grandstanding. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird began referring to the Arctic as “Canada’s Far North,” and shaming opposition leaders for deferring the argument to scientists.

The House of Commons even debated the nationality of Santa Claus, as if the conclusion would have some effect on the international debate.

It was also around this time details of an Arctic stealth snowmobile program were made public. Though perhaps not its intention, it gave the disputed region a Canadian military presence.

Which brings us to Russia…

Mother Russia was the first of the three major Arctic claimants to submit a claim to the U.N. In 2001, the Russian Federation submitted its findings that suggested the Lomonosov Ridge was part of its continental shelf, which would give the country a stronghold on the North Pole.

The following year, the UN Commission recommended they submit additional research to back the claim.

In 2007, Russia claimed the North Pole by planting a flag on the Arctic seabed, during an expedition to study the Lomonosov Ridge. They concluded at that time that the Russian Federation had claim to half of the Arctic. And most recently, announcing it would boost its military presence in the Arctic at the same time that Canada was submitting its claim.

And the other two players…

Two other countries have made notable overtures in the Arctic, specifically the United States, thanks to the strategic placement of Alaska, and Norway.

The U.S. has not ratified the UNCLOS, meaning it is not eligible to submit an official claim to extend its continental shelf. But it has begun allowing mining inside its zone, and has taken steps to expand its reach.

According to the Canadian government’s legal argument, the U.S. contests our reach by claiming the Northwest Passage is an international straight. Stimson, a non-profit global think tank, also notes that U.S. believes the Lomonosov Ridge to be an oceanic ridge and not part of any country’s continental shelf, which would nullify any claim of ownership.

Norway has also expressed its claim on the Arctic. The country requested control of their continental shelf beyond the 200-nautical-mile limit into three areas of the North East Atlantic.

As Global Brief notes, Norway secured UNCLOS support for shelf extension in 2009 - before any of the other Arctic states - though it doesn’t extend into the contested area around the North Pole.