Antarctic treaty under stress as member countries gather in Italy

For 65 years, an international treaty forged at the height of the Cold War has governed Antarctica. But with rising geopolitical tensions, consensus is increasingly hard to find.

“Up until just a few years ago, we talked about the Antarctic Treaty as a framework for peace and stability in the Antarctic region, and the Arctic as a place of relative stability,” said David Hik, chief scientist at Polar Knowledge Canada, an agency focused on strengthening polar science and technology in Canada.

“Now, both of those assumptions are being challenged.” 

Fifty-eight countries, including Canada, are signatories to the Antarctic Treaty, which preserves the continent for scientific exploration and peace, and bans military and mining activity. 

But only half the signatories can vote on treaty business. Canada wants to secure voting rights as a so-called consultative party, and will make its case again at the Antarctic Treaty meeting in Milan, Italy, later this month.

But there have been barriers to this. 

“Canada’s claim to be a consultative party has been blocked, first and foremost, by Russia,” said Klaus Dodds, a political biographer and Antarctic expert at Royal Holloway, University of London. “And the reason is, Russia wants its ally Belarus to be made a consultative party alongside Canada.”

In March, a first-ever all-Canadian expedition sailed to Antarctica on HMCS Margaret Brooke, with 15 polar scientists hosted by the Canadian Navy. The Canadian Antarctic Research Expedition (CARE) 2025 mission conducted weeks of research and visited multiple countries’ research stations on the continent, in part to raise Canada’s profile at the southern pole. CBC News got exclusive access to the expedition. 

To capture the voyage CBC’s international climate correspondent Susan Ormiston, producer Jill English and videographer Sam Martin spent a month aboard the Margaret Brooke broadcasting live via satellite, sending news of the voyage back to Canada.

Hunting for climate change clues in Antarctica

The polar regions are changing faster than other parts of the world, due to climate change.

Antarctica’s ancient glaciers are receding and sea ice reached near-record lows this year, both of which contribute to rising global sea levels.

“The Antarctic ice sheet contains enormous amounts of fresh water, and as the ice sheet thins and melts in places, calves at faster rates, that’s going to affect global sea level change,” said Thomas James, chief scientist on the CARE 2025 mission.

“What happens in Antarctica doesn’t stay in Antarctica,” he added.

The southern ocean is a huge carbon sink and helps regulate the global climate. But warming ocean waters may disrupt those patterns, said Brent Else, co-scientific director at MEOPAR, which supports ocean research and training at Canadian universities. 

“As oceans warm as circulation patterns change, it’s expected that ocean carbon sink will slow down over time. And the polar regions are the areas where those carbon sinks are most important,” he said aboard HMCS Margaret Brooke. 

Canada monitoring security concerns in polar regions

Canada is a polar nation and, with rising concerns over sovereignty in the Arctic, the government is boosting military presence in the north.

“Canada is, and forever will be, an Arctic nation, and we can never take our sovereignty and security in the region for granted,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said on a visit to Iqaluit in March.

A year ago, the Royal Canadian Navy began to plan a deployment to Antarctica to support scientific exploration and enhance its knowledge of geopolitical pressures at the southern pole. 

“We can see climate change in the North, we can see what China and Russia have been doing in and around the Canadian North, [and thinking] I wonder what’s going on in the South Pole, and [can we] get the perspective and experience of the South American navies that are down here all the time,” Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee told CBC News in an exclusive interview.

The idea, he said, was to “do some science, and see if we can figure out things that can help us better protect and defend our own North.” 

Topshee believes there are security concerns in Antarctica that threaten its stability.

“I am concerned that the whole agreement that we would not [militarize and mine Antarctica] … would, could change. And I don’t think that’s in our interest to allow that to change easily.” 

‘Nighttime is always about what you can’t see’

To voyage across the Antarctic Circle, HMCS Margaret Brooke sailed into some extreme weather and ice-clogged channels. 

As an Arctic and Offshore Patrol Vessel (AOPV), it is designed to break through new ice up to a metre thick. But with rapidly changing weather patterns, the ice moves and shifts, so that an open channel one day can be clogged with ice the next.

An ice specialist from the Canadian Coast Guard, Donavan Tremblay, and an officer with the Chilean Navy, Javier Idiaquez, travelled with the Margaret Brooke crew to help chart a safe path. Even so, there were unexpected blockages, and navigating at night presented even more challenges.

En route to Rothera Point beyond the Antarctic Circle, as the weather deteriorated and the ice encroached, Cmdr. Teri Share had to make a decision about whether to proceed.

“It was a heightened level, absolutely,” Share told CBC News from the captain’s quarters on the Margaret Brooke.

“We can take all the precautions that we can take. We can use all of the information that is provided to us. But still, there comes a point that it’s on me as the commanding officer to say yes or no.”

In the end, Share made the call to push further south, with the crew threading the vessel through icebergs and sheet ice to reach Rothera Point, the ship’s final destination, and the most southerly point the Canadian Navy had ever travelled.

“It feels like just yesterday you and I were on the bridge, and you were asking me what  [is the Navy] going to be doing down there, and what was I excited about,” Share told the CBC’s Susan Ormiston.

“It’s gone by really quickly,” Share said, reflecting on the historic mission. 

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