As a meeting of IMO MEPC 77 opens today in London, Clean Arctic Alliance called on the IMO to protect the Arctic by implementing a rapid decrease in emissions of black carbon from shipping.
Dr Sian Prior, Lead Advisor to the Clean Arctic Alliance, notes:
This week, the IMO must tackle the impact of black carbon emissions on the Arctic, by urgently putting in place strong measures to drive rapid, deep cuts to black carbon emissions from shipping operating in or near the Arctic, and to urgently reduce CO2 and black carbon emissions from the maritime sector globally.
It is a matter of fact that black carbon is a short-lived climate forcer responsible for 20% of shipping climate impact (on a 20 year basis). When black carbon settles onto snow and ice, melting accelerates, and the loss of reflectivity creates a feedback loop exacerbating global heating. Black carbon emissions from shipping in the Arctic increased 85% between 2015 and 2019.
In light of the above, Clean Arctic Alliance supports the proposal for a resolution submitted to MEPC 77, that calls on ships operating in and near the Arctic to move from heavier, more polluting fuel oils to lighter distillate fuels with low aromaticity or other cleaner alternative fuels or methods of propulsion.
If all shipping currently using heavy fuel oils while in the Arctic were to switch to distillate fuel, there would be an immediate reduction of around 44% in black carbon emissions from these ships. If particulate filters were installed on board these vessels, black carbon emissions could be reduced by over 90%.
…said Dr Sian Prior, Lead Advisor to the Clean Arctic Alliance.
To remind, ahead of the MEPC 77, Seas at Risk called on the IMO to halve shipping’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and for IMO member states to urgently align the agency’s work on reducing climate impacts from shipping with the COP26 developments
