As a meeting of the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Pollution Prevention and Response sub-committee (PPR 12, 27-31 January) gets underway next week in London, the Clean Arctic Alliance called for the international shipping body to reduce the impact on the Arctic from shipping’s black carbon emissions, by urgently agreeing to regulation which will identifying cleaner fuels more suitable for use in the region, and to immediately stop the release of scrubber discharge wastes in coastal, protected and sensitive areas.

“We call on IMO Member States to urgently agree to the development of a black carbon regulation in MARPOL Annex VI which requires that only polar fuels can be used in and near to the Arctic, and to a resolution to prevent ocean pollution in protected and sensitive seas”,  said Dr Sian Prior, Lead Advisor to the Clean Arctic Alliance. “With the Arctic climate crisis rapidly approaching the point where changes such as the loss of sea ice, melting of the Greenland ice sheet, slowing down of ocean circulation patterns will become self-sustaining, it is a travesty that emissions of black carbon – a potent short-lived climate pollutant, and ocean pollution are being allowed to increase in the region where they are having the greatest impact.”

“It is imperative that this week, IMO member states make progress on efforts to regulate emissions of black carbon from ships in the Arctic and endorse the concept of ‘polar fuels’”, said Bill Hemmings, Black Carbon Advisor to the Clean Arctic Alliance. “The IMO must agree that only distillate-grade DMA marine fuels or other fuels which result in similar or even lower levels of black carbon emissions will replace all residual use, and are therefore suitable for operating in and near the Arctic.”