- Instead of slowing down decarbonization, now is the time to accelerate the transition to a renewable energy future.
- A ban on heavy fuel oils to reduce the risks of an HFO spill in the Arctic
- The IMO resolution strongly encourages governments to start addressing the threat to the Arctic from black carbon emissions and provides a pathway for regional or national action.
“Our reliance on fossil fuels renders the global economy and our energy security vulnerable to geopolitical crises, as recent events have demonstrated,” as reported by High North News.
Global action risks
“Rather than delaying decarbonization, now is the time to speed the transition to a renewable energy future.”
As stated in the IPCC report’s final two sentences: “Climate change is a threat to human well-being and the health of the planet, according to scientific evidence. Any additional delay in unified global action risks missing a window of opportunity to assure a livable future that is fast closing “.
The message is clear: member countries of the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization (IMO) must take responsibility for ensuring that shipping responds to this call to action. The International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) meeting (PPR9) next month gives such a chance; at this meeting, IMO member states must commit to drastically reducing ship-source black carbon emissions over the next decade.
Black carbon emissions
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) passed a resolution in November that allowed for significant reductions in the climate effect caused by ship black carbon emissions in the Arctic. After more than a decade of deliberation, the approval of this resolution is a significant step forward in the transition away from the worst shipping fuels.
The IMO resolution, passed during a meeting of its Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 77), strongly encourages governments to begin addressing the issue of black carbon emissions to the Arctic and provides a path for regional or national action.
When operating in or near the Arctic, it also encourages ship operators to reduce black carbon emissions by converting to distillate or other cleaner alternative fuels or ways of propulsion.
When black carbon is produced by ship exhaust and lands on snow and ice, it speeds up melting and reduces reflectivity.
The hazard of black carbon from shipping to the Arctic has long been recognised – yet what happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic. Changes in the Arctic environment will likely have far-reaching consequences further south.
The albedo effect
When black carbon, a short-lived climate-forcer responsible for around 20% of shipping’s climate impact, is emitted from the exhausts of ships and settles onto snow and ice, it accelerates melting and the loss of reflectivity – the albedo effect – which creates a feedback loop that further exacerbates local and global heating.
Due to the use of heavy fuel oils and increased Arctic shipping traffic, emissions of black carbon from ships in the Arctic increased 85% between 2015 and 2019.
With the Arctic heating up faster than anywhere on Earth, it’s clear that this upward trend of black carbon emissions must be reversed urgently.
During this April’s meeting of the IMO’s Sub-Committee on Pollution Prevention and Response (PPR9), member states and the shipping industry, have the opportunity to take this step.
In the meantime, 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 vessels, and the benefits of reduced black carbon would be felt immediately.
IMO resolution
If all Arctic ships subsequently installed particulate filters, something that isn’t possible when burning HFO, black carbon emissions could be reduced by an additional 90% or more.
IMO progress on a binding global measure to curb black carbon emissions from ships has, up to now, been pitifully slow.
For example, the IMO resolution clearly indicates that the EU should include a ship black carbon measure in its flagship “Fit for 55” climate package.
A number of options exist for how a state or region might take action.
Norway has already done this but should extend the provision, introduced for Svalbard’s territorial waters from January 2022 to the Norwegian mainland.
Mining industry
Any state can require ships that have sailed in the Arctic and seek to enter their ports to burn cleaner distillate fuels during their Arctic journey, so for example, a bulk carrier leaving from a European port to load raw ore from Canada’s mining industry in the Arctic waters, and then returning to the European port would have to use lighter distillate fuel.
Scrubbers are devices that clean sulphur from the ship’s exhaust gases.
Despite being touted as a solution for cutting emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere, most scrubbers dump their wastewater into the ocean, merely transferring pollution from the air to the marine environment.
When PPR 9 meets this April, it must agree on ambitious and urgent global action to dramatically reduce ship-source black carbon emissions this decade, mitigating the impact of black carbon on the Arctic, and helping slow the impact of the climate crisis on the Arctic.
Given the rapidly changing international situation, it’s anyone’s guess how international meetings such as PPR9 will go.
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Source: High North News
