Environmental Groups Renew Call for Arctic HFO Ban

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Tuesday February 2, 2016

A group of fifteen environment groups this week delivered a letter to the Arctic Council, an organization ruling on governance issues in the north, renewing a call on the involved nations to ban the use of heavy fuel oil in the Arctic.

The signatories addressed the letter to ambassador David Balton of the U.S. State Department, chair of the council.

The members of the Arctic Council are meeting in Stockholm until Wednesday of this week.

"We believe that measures are desperately needed to reduce the environmental impacts from Arctic shipping, and that a logical place to focus attention is vessel fuel quality," the groups' letter read.

"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."

Arguments for the HFO ban include the assertion that reductions in the emissions of black carbon is one of the easiest ways to slow the melting of Arctic ice.

The environmental groups also argue heavy fuel oil is harder to clean up than distillate fuels in the case of a spill.

“We’re not talking about stopping commerce,” said Kevin Harun of Pacific Environment.

“We’re talking about stopping a fuel that is very dirty.”

In January 2014 Ship & Bunker reported that the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said the absence of a ban on the use of HFO was a flaw in the proposed Polar Code for Arctic shipping.

Ship & Bunker News Team
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