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Civil society groups have lambasted the International Maritime Organization (IMO) for failing to take action on the Arctic climate crisis, after plans to reduce black carbon emissions from shipping in the Arctic were bumped off the agenda of its Marine Environment Protection Committee meeting (MEPC 76), which ended today.
“The disaster that I am living is a disaster that is personal to me, but it is also personal to each and everyone of us and especially to the planet. We in the Arctic are convinced that the Arctic is clearly in crisis and the change is happening rapidly, beyond comparison in human history or in our indigenous knowledge.”
How can the shipping industry become actors of positive change for the Arctic region? How can we inspire political will and decisive action by governments? What role can Iceland and other Arctic Council states play? How can we save the summer sea ice for Arctic communities and the health of the planet?
“The Clean Arctic Alliance is completely shocked and bitterly disappointed by the decisions taken by IMO Member States during PPR 8, which will leave the IMO fiddling around with ineffective voluntary action, while the Arctic meltdown continues”, said Dr Sian Prior, Lead Advisor to the Clean Arctic Alliance. “Having completely buried their heads in the sand, the IMO and its Member States now need to watch out for rising waters.”
International NGOs have sent an urgent letter to International Maritime Organization (IMO) Secretary-General, Mr Kitak Lim, calling on him to take action to address international shipping’s climate impact, ahead of Friday’s crucial decision on IMO measures on black carbon emissions in the Arctic.
As this week’s virtual meeting of the International Maritime Organization’s Pollution Prevention and Response Sub-Committee (IMO, PPR 8, 22-26 March) opens today, non-governmental organisations are calling on the IMO to seize the chance to immediately reduce climate-warming emissions of black carbon from ships currently using heavy fuel oil in the Arctic by some 44%, by switching them to cleaner distillate fuels.
Join us to find out how switching fuels can cut black carbon emissions from Arctic shipping and help eliminate the harmful impacts on health and the climate.
Dr Sian Prior, Lead Advisor to the Clean Arctic Alliance, speaks to Julian Marshall from BBC World on Newshour, 20 November 2020, about why the CAA believes the new International Maritime Organization ban on use and carriage of heavy fuel oil in the Arctic is a “missed opportunity”.
The Clean Arctic Alliance today slammed the decision by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to approve a ban ridden with loopholes on the use and carriage of heavy fuel oil in the Arctic (HFO), saying that it would leave the Arctic, its Indigenous communities and its wildlife facing the risk of a HFO spill for another decade.
As the first virtual meeting of the International Maritime Organization’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (IMO, MEPC 75) opens today, the Clean Arctic Alliance implored member states to amend and improve its draft ban on the use and carriage of heavy fuel oil (HFO) in the Arctic or risk implementing a “paper ban” – a weak regulation that will leave the Arctic exposed to greater danger from oil spills and black carbon pollution from HFO in the future, as shipping in the region increases.