Greenland Melting ice may help ships, but will it be safe?

If the shipping boss Niels Clemensen were to offer advice to Donald Trump or anyone else trying to get a foothold in Greenland, it would be this: "Come up here and see what you are actually dealing with."

- Miranda Bryant

Sitting on the top floor of his office in Nuuk harbour, where snow is being flung around by strong winds in the mid-morning darkness outside and shards of ice pass by in the fast-flowing water, the chief executive of Greenland's only shipping company, Royal Arctic Line, says: "What you normally see as easy [setting up operations] in the US or Europe is not the same up here."

As well as the cold, ice and extremely rough seas, the world's biggest island does not have a big road network or trains, meaning everything has to be transported by sea or air. "I'm not saying it's not possible. But it's going to cost a lot of money."

With the potential to cut shipping times between Europe and Asia by thousands of miles - or as much as two weeks - the opening up of the Northwest Passage as the Arctic ice melts is viewed by some as an upside of the climate crisis and one of the reasons Trump is so interested in Greenland.

Greenland's critical position along the coveted route, which passes through the Canadian Arctic archipelago instead of the Panama Canal, means it is likely to have an important role to play in its future.

But the spotlight on Greenland - and the focus of superpowers on the Arctic region as a whole - has highlighted how poorly equipped the US and many European countries are for the Arctic environment. Nowhere is this more stark than in the lack of icebreakers - the specialist ships vital for operating in the Northwest Passage and the region generally.

"Opening up the Northwest Passage doesn't mean the ice is gone," says Clemensen, whose ships (not icebreakers) are used to import and export in Greenland.

"We're not talking about an all-year-round free passage. The ice is retreating, but it is still there."