Melting ice in the Arctic circle could lead to new international shipping routes over the next few decades (Credits: Getty Images)

Melting Arctic ice could ‘transform’ international shipping routes, suggests a new study.

Global warming melting pack ice in the Arctic Ocean could yield new routes – reducing the shipping industry’s carbon footprint and weakening Russia’s control over trade routes through the region, according to the research.

With climate change rapidly warming the world’s oceans, scientists say the future looks grim for the Arctic Ocean.

Climate models show that parts of the Arctic that were once covered in ice all year are warming so quickly that they will be reliably ice-free for months on end within two decades.

Scientists say that the Arctic’s changing climate will endanger countless species that thrive in freezing temperatures.

But it could also provide shorter, more eco-friendly maritime trade routes that bypass the Russian-controlled Northern Sea Route.

Climate scientists at Brown University in the United States teamed up with a legal expert to predict how Arctic Ocean ice melt could affect the regulation of shipping routes over the next few decades.

They projected that by 2065, the Arctic’s navigability will increase so greatly that it could yield new trade routes in international waters.