Clean Article Alliance along with the Iceland Nature Conservation Association (INCA) urge government to immediately act and eliminate the use of heavy fuel oil and carriage within Iceland’s 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
In fact, the above action came following Government of Iceland’s second Climate Action Plan, which aims to drop the levels of sulphur emitted by ships in Iceland’s 12 mile territorial waters to 0.1% – equivalent to an emission control area in the Baltic and North Seas and on the west and east coasts of north America.
This recently implemented measure, while important for the health of Icelanders and the country’s environment, will not however contribute to a reduction in the impact of greenhouse gases and short-lived climate forcers such as black carbon. A comprehensive ban on the use and carriage of HFO in Iceland’s 200 nautical mile EEZ would be more effective.
….said Dr Sian Prior, Lead Advisor to the Clean Arctic Alliance.
What is more, Iceland’s new Climate Action Plan is to achieve a 35% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and potentially further reductions of between 5 – 11% as a consequence of additional measures still in development.
The plan will involve the allocation of EUR 292 million (USD 330 million, ISK 46 billion) to climate-related measures between 2020 and 2024 – an almost seven-fold increase from the previous plan.
In light of the above, the international community, the Arctic Council and the Nordic Council have called for urgent action against short lived climate forcers such as black carbon.
The Icelandic Government must go even further than the ambitions of this Climate Action Plan by making a commitment to eliminate HFO use and carriage in Icelandic waters, and undertake to seek regulation through the International Maritime Organization to ensure that such a ban can be implemented through out Iceland’s EEZ.
…Arni Finnsson of the Iceland Nature Conservation Association (INCA) – a member of the Clean Arctic Alliance concluded.