The EU Is Taking the Lead on Reducing Arctic Black Carbon. Will Canada, Iceland and Norway Join In?

Geopolitics aside, a current challenge for northern countries is how to respond to the climate crisis. The Arctic is warming four times faster than anywhere else on Earth and the polar ice sheets covering both Antarctica and Greenland are melting about six times faster now than in the 1990s.

One short-lived pollutant - black carbon - has a direct impact on northern communities, as a health hazard and as an accelerator of the melting of land and sea ice. The EU wants to take action on this superpollutant - Canada, Iceland and Norway too should also do so.

An upcoming meeting of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) provides a crucial opportunity for all three countries to cut black carbon from Arctic shipping.

On October 20, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the launch of the EU Arctic Strategy, stating that “at the international level, the EU will contribute actively to negotiations at IMO to facilitate the transition of Black Carbon measures from voluntary guidelines to binding regulations.” As Arctic countries with strong EU ties, Canada, Iceland and Norway should pay close attention.

The EU announcement followed September’s UNEP Overshoot & Cryosphere report, which highlighted that the near-term necessary global response to quickly slow global heating calls for deep emissions cuts, including to methane and other short-lived climate pollutants such as black carbon.

Cutting these short-lived climate forcers - which stay in the atmosphere for a short period - are urgent measures that can and must be taken rapidly to limit overshoot and return to 1.5oC and below as quickly as possible. Slashing shipping emissions of black carbon will have a rapid, and positive impact not only on the Arctic, but on the regional and global climate, by helping preserve land and sea ice.

Black carbon, commonly known as soot, is emitted from the burning of marine fuels. In Arctic shipping, Heavy Fuel Oils (HFO) are a significant source of these emissions. The north is not only disproportionately affected by the climate crisis, but black carbon has a local warming effect when it settles on icy land and seascapes and absorbs more solar heat, accelerating the melting of sea ice and permafrost.

Nearly a year ago, European and other countries, led by Denmark, proposed to replace HFO in Arctic shipping with cleaner alternatives - such a move will dramatically reduce black carbon emissions. The ‘polar fuels’ proposal - has been steadily gaining support from other countries ahead of a meeting of the IMO’s Pollution Prevention and Response Committee (PPR) in January.

As progressive Arctic countries, Canada, Iceland and Norway must help control dangerous black carbon emissions, by supporting the adoption of the polar fuels regulation proposed by Denmark, Germany, France and the Solomon Islands at the International Maritime Organization.

The IMO’s implementation of this measure will quickly reduce black carbon emissions from shipping in the Arctic, and thus the impact on snow on ice and have a measurable positive impact on the regional and global climate.

Canada, Iceland, and Norway should seize the chance to co-sponsor the polar fuels proposal  ahead of a November 20th IMO deadline. In any case, they must demonstrate their support for Denmark and the proposal’s co-proponents ahead of January’s meeting in order to get the proposal adopted, and to get rid of climate-warming black carbon emissions.