A group of fifteen environmental groups are urging the eight countries that surround the North Pole to ban the use of Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) in the Arctic region.
A letter was sent to the ambassador of the Arctic Council, David Balton of the US State Department, stated that measures are desperately needed to reduce the environmental impacts from Arctic shipping, starting with fuel oil quality. The letter also called on the ambassador to call on the involved nations to ban the use of HFO.
The letter stated that: “The risks to the marine environment, the climate, and public health are too great to permit the continued use of (heavy fuel oil) in Arctic shipping.” It also stated that HFO is much harder to clean up than distillate fuel and therefore needs attention now.
Unlike other fuels, HFO does not evaporate and combines with seawater, rather it expands and sticks to anything it comes into contact with. Furthermore, burning HFO generates ‘black carbon’ that when lands on snow and ice darkens the colour of the top layer and increases heat absorption, exacerbating ice melt – something dubbed as ‘the albedo effect’. Cleaning up black carbon has been identified as one of the easiest and quickest ways to slow the retreat of Arctic sea ice.
Kevin Harun of Pacific Environment, stated:“There’s enough information on this to act right now. The question is, will the Arctic Council stand up and do something?”
The Arctic Council, which rules governance issues in the north, in response will called on its members to meet in Stockholm until Wednesday of this week.
