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Following the gradual decline of Arctic sea ice, shipping using Arctic routes increased from 2010. This led to an upsurge in the number of studies investigating the potential of Arctic maritime routes. A systematic literature review was conducted to assess the extant literature from 1980 to 2017 on comparative studies between Arctic and traditional routes. This review also aimed to provide an initial understanding on route choice decision-making factors and to contribute to the literature by providing suggestions for future research and methodological considerations. The competitiveness of Arctic routes is evaluated from both economic and environmental perspectives. Research themes and methodological characteristics are analysed in order to establish an evidence base in Arctic shipping literature. It is identified that analytical research methods and transport cost models are mainly employed. The results indicate that although Arctic routes can be more cost-effective and energy efficient compared to traditional ones, especially in the long-term, they can mainly serve as seasonal alternatives for bulk and specialised shipping in the short-term.

This paper investigates the feasibility of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) using a speed optimisation model to minimise the required freight rate, by employing current data from a shipowner, by secondary data, conducting petroleum product transport on the NSR. The oil product tanker segment is used to assess route alternatives taking into account distance, ship size, ice breaking fees, fuel types and prices. Environmental policy elements are included in the cost analysis to account for low sulphur fuels from 2020, a prospective ban on the use of heavy fuel oil in the Arctic, and a possible global fuel tax.

This paper draws on socio-technical transitions theory to contextualise recent developments in the technological and operational eco-efficiency of ships, which may ameliorate but not resolve sustainability challenges in shipping. Taking an historical perspective, the paper argues that shipping is fundamentally a derived demand arising out of, but also enabling, the spatial separation of production and consumption that are integrated through global value chains. It is argued that the twin processes of innovation-enabled specialisation (into e.g. container ships; bulk carriers etc.) and increased scale both of ships and of shipping operations have embedded shipping into logistics systems of increasing complexity and reach. The objective of the paper is to demonstrate, using secondary data, the long-run trends in the growth of shipping carbon emissions for bulkers and tankers, as well as the impact of increased scale and vessel speed on such emissions. A fuel-based, top-down, methodology, based on fuel consumption estimates derived from secondary source industry data that are suitable for a macro-level analysis, is used to estimate global shipping carbon emissions. It is argued that technologies or operational innovations that reduce the environmental burdens of shipping, while useful, do not represent the socio-technical system 'regime' shift that international maritime logistics requires in order to contribute to improved sustainability. Rather, in the relative absence of strong governance mechanisms in the maritime field, it is underlying 'landscape' shifts in production and consumption that are likely to act to reduce the demand for shipping and hence to be more significant in the longer run.

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