Figure 1. Source: IPCC, Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribu-tion of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2013. http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee 283 David López Morales Terrae ultima thule: Cooperation in the Artic region geographical and legal point of view.14 To understand the problems mentioned by Professor Díez de Velasco, the authors previously mentioned all agree that a number of elements make the Arctic region unique from a geopolitical perspective and, depending on the analysis, can lead to conflict or cooperation. In addition to the harsh climatic conditions mentioned by Díez de Velasco15, problems are further compounded by the thinning of the polar ice cap (i), which provides easier access to natural resources (ii) and accessible navigational routes (iii) which will be the focus of our analysis16. That the ice covering the Arctic Ocean is melting on account of climate change is a scientific fact that few people question any more. The latest IPCC report published in 2013 points out that the annual Arctic sea ice extent decreases each year and that, according to their calculations, the rate of this decrease was very likely between 3.5 and 4.1% per decade over the period 1979 to 2012.17 Ice extent in the Arctic from 1900 to 2015 14 DIEZ DE VELASCO, M., Instituciones de Derecho Internacional Público, Tecnos, Madrid, 18 ed., 2013, p. 561. 15 Climatic conditions with temperatures of no more than 10ºC in summer and as low as -45ºC in winter, and a lowest recorded temperature of -65º C. 16 ØSTERUD, Øyvind and HØNNELAND, Geir, p.172. 17 IPCC, Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Stocker, T.F., D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S.K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex and P.M. Midgley eds, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 2013, p. 9.
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