Responding to reports that the annual freeze of the Laptev Sea is delayed, and is being driven by prolonged heat in northern Russia and the intrusion of Atlantic waters into the Arctic, the Clean Arctic Alliance reiterated its call to world leaders to take urgent action to slow Arctic heating ahead of this month meeting of the International Maritime Organization’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 75), calling for  at least a 60% global greenhouse gas emissions, and a 90% cut to black carbon emissions in the Arctic.

During the Clean Arctic Alliance webinar held on September 28, The IMO draft Arctic Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) regulation: A ban in name only?, the speakers explored the social, environmental and legal implications of the draft Arctic HFO regulation if adopted as currently drafted, and what it will mean for Arctic environmental protection.

Reacting to news of the Arctic summer sea ice minimum reaching its second lowest extent in the 42-year satellite record on September 15, and to recent reports of a polar heatwave, Greenland ice sheet’s loss of million tonnes of ice per day, the collapse of the Spalte glacier and Milne Ice Shelf, and the Arctic’s shift to a new climate, the Clean Arctic Alliance today called on world leaders to take urgent action to slow Arctic warming

The proposed International Maritime Organization ban would allow exemptions and waivers resulting in 84% of Arctic shipping continuing to burn HFO in the Arctic, and permitting 70% of vessels to still carry HFO as fuel.