Allegations of shady dealing and suppression have emerged from an ongoing meeting on Arctic oil exploration. On Monday a report from the Arctic Council, made up of eight countries, warned that any spills would be hugely damaging to wildlife.

Reuters notes that the report was supposed to be out in 2007 and cites “sources familiar with the process” saying that Sweden and the United States blocked publication of “policy recommendations”.

A report in the UK’s Independent newspaper is more forthright: “The United States has blocked the release of a land-mark assessment of oil and gas activity in the Arctic as it prepares to sell off exploration licenses for the frozen Chukchi Sea off Alaska …”

The Independent says it has seen the missing recommendations and they suggest conducting proper research on environmental impacts before signing off new oil projects in ecologically sensitive areas. Which hardly seems a statement worth censoring. But it quotes one of the lead authors as saying, “They blocked it. We have no executive summary and no plain language conclusions.”

The report is online and there is a bit of a hint that some last minute modifying may have been done. The contents page lists a preface as appearing on page III and an ‘OGA Executive Summary and Recommendations’ as appearing on page V. However the first page after page II is page IV. The first page after that is the start of the introduction.

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Presentations by meeting delegates, including one by report’s lead author

Image top: polar bear, Arctic Ocean, north of western Russia / NOAA

Image bottom: sea ice studies in southern Chukchi Sea / NOAA