Tag: black carbon

Earth system scientists from the University of California, Irvine have taken water samples from the north Pacific, north and south Atlantic, and Arctic oceans in search of repositories of black carbon, soot from burning biomass and diesel engines, among other sources. They’ve found considerably less of the material than expected.

During the  2015 GREEN4SEA Forum, Stamatis Fradelos, Principal Engineer, ABS provided an update on the most important international and regional regulatory developments in the environmental arena that we will have to cope with in the near future, highlighting also the most interesting submissions that will be discussed at the forthcoming MEPC 68 next month.

  The Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) met for its 68th session from 11 to 15 May 2015.     The MEPC adopted the environmental requirements of the Polar Code and associated MARPOL amendments to make the Code mandatory; adopted amendments to MARPOL related to tanks for oil residues; designated an extension to the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA); and furthered its work on implementation of air pollution and energy efficiency measures and the Ballast Water Management Convention.     Polar Code environmental requirements adopted    The MEPC adopted the environmental requirements of the International Code for ships operating in polar waters (Polar Code), and the associated MARPOL amendments to make the Code mandatory, following the adoption of the safety part of the Code by the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) in November 2014. The Polar Code is expected to enter into force on 1 January 2017.    The newly-adopted environmental provisions cover:     • Prevention of pollution by oil: discharge into the sea of oil or oily mixtures from any ship is prohibited. Oil fuel tanks must  be separated from outer shell;  • Prevention of pollution by ...

  The Arctic is warming at a rate twice as fast as the rest of the world, in part because of the harsh effects of black carbon pollution on the region, which is made up mostly of snow and ice. Black carbon—one of the main components of soot—is a deadly and widespread air pollutant and a potent driver of climate change, especially in the near term and on a regional basis. In colder, icier regions such as the Arctic, it peppers the Arctic snow with heat-absorbing black particles, increasing the amount of heat absorbed and rapidly accelerating local warming. This acceleration exposes darker ground or water, causing snow and ice melt and lowering the amount of heat reflected away from the Earth. Combating climate change requires immediate and long-term cuts in heat-trapping carbon pollution, or CO2, around the globe. But reducing carbon pollution alone will not be enough to avoid the worst effects of a rapidly warming Arctic— slashing black carbon emissions near the Arctic and globally must also be part of the solution. Unlike regular carbon pollution, which remains in the atmosphere for a century or longer, black carbon emissions dissipate in just a few days or weeks but ...

The decision at the IMO to recommend to its environment committee a definition of black carbon arrived at by scientific consensus, after four years of debate, has been welcomed by environmental NGO Transport & Environment. Lack of agreement at sub-committee level had been holding up technical work to calibrate and test black carbon measurement methods that could be used to evaluate control measures as well as monitoring and engine certification technology. The IMO would then focus on measures to reduce black carbon. The deposition of black carbon from ships and other sources on ice and snow in the Arctic accelerates ice melting by reducing the albedo effect – the ability to reflect sunlight back into space. The IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) is set to agree in May on a definition – reached in 2013 by Dr Tami Bond and a group of 29 eminent scientists from international institutes – which identifies its four major characteristics.   Bill Hemmings, clean shipping manager at Transport & Environment, a member of the Clean Shipping Coalition (CSC) that has observer status at the IMO, said:   “This agreement on a definition is welcome but long overdue as increasing black carbon emissions from ...