STATEMENT: NOAA Arctic Report Card Underscores Need for Pause on Industrial Development in Central Arctic Ocean

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – On Tuesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its 2025 Arctic Report Card, marking 20 years of tracking a rapidly warming and changing Arctic. It documents extreme impacts from climate change, including temperatures that were the warmest recorded since 1990, winter sea ice reaching its lowest annual maximum extent in the 47 years of satellite records and 10 straight years of the warmest weather on record. The report card also shows that this is a region changing faster than the rest of the world, with Arctic annual temperatures increasing at more than double the global rate since 2006. Ocean Conservancy’s Senior Advisor Scott Highleyman, who leads the organization’s campaign to protect the Central Arctic Ocean, released the following statement:

“The Central Arctic Ocean has acted as the planet’s air conditioner and moderated global weather extremes for all of human history. NOAA’s 2025 Arctic Report Card describes the unprecedented stress that the Arctic Ocean continues to experience due to warming. We agree with the more than 1,000 scientists calling for a pause on new industrial uses of the Central Arctic Ocean while we increase our understanding of this quickly-changing region. Avoiding additional harm to such an important part of the planet is essential for the functioning of our ocean and the people who rely on it, whether living in the Arctic or anywhere else.”

Ocean Conservancy is working to mitigate the impacts of climate change in the Arctic, supporting resilience in Arctic communities and working to institute a precautionary pause on development in the Central Arctic Ocean, building on previous work that secured a moratorium on fishing in the Central Arctic Ocean

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