UN resolution to reduce black carbon hailed as 'good first step' for Arctic
CBC
The United Nations' International Maritime Organization (IMO) has adopted a voluntary measure that could have significant impacts for black carbon emissions in the Arctic.
Canada co-sponsored the resolution calling for the use of cleaner fuels by ships operating in the Arctic, to encourage the reduction of black carbon emissions in the region.
Black carbon is an emerging and growing problem in the Arctic, according to the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, the science arm of the Arctic Council, said Walt Meier, senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
The Arctic Council found shipping in the Arctic has increased by 25 per cent over the last nine years, partly because it has become more viable due to melting ice, said Andrew Dumbrille, lead specialist of marine shipping and conservation at the World Wildlilfe Fund-Canada.
Black carbon — fine particles that exist through the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels — land on snow and ice when a ship passes through, said Meier. This affects the albedo, the whiteness of the surface, so the sun is absorbed, causing the snow and ice to melt, he said.
Accelerated melting of ice and snow is already a problem due to greenhouse gases and global warming, and black carbon makes a problem that's already happening even worse, he said.
Black carbon has an effect like a greenhouse gas, said Dumbrille.
While particles landing is a concern, local temperature warming in the air around an emission source, is also a problem, said Dumbrille.
Climate change is being more acutely felt in the Arctic, where warming happens two to three times faster than the global average, said Meier, and regulation hasn't caught up.
"If anything, we need more stringent regulations in the Arctic than we do in the mid latitudes, because it's a more sensitive environment," said Meier.
North of 60 currently has lower emission standards than southern waters of Canada.
The resolution which passed at the IMO is "a good first step in decarbonization", said Dumbrille, a sentiment echoed by others.
It is a voluntary call to have ships switch to distillate, lighter, cleaner fuels instead of residual fuels many ships are currently burning, which are heavier and produce more black carbon.
Paul Blomerus, executive director of Clear Seas, an independent not-for-profit research centre that supports safe and sustainable marine shipping in Canada, said just because it's voluntary doesn't mean the move should be dismissed.