T&E: EU Failure on Arctic HFO Ban "Major Cause of Concern"

T&E Thursday, along with a group of seven other environmental NGOs, called on the EU to work to ban the use of HFO by ships operating in the Arctic.

Transport & Environment (T&E) Thursday, along with a group of seven other environmental NGOs, called the European Union's (EU's) failure to press for a ban on the use of HFO by ships operating in the Arctic "a major cause of concern."

A number of the groups had recently renewed calls for the ban in the run up to last week's Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) meeting.

T&E nevertheless welcomed the European Commission's (EC's) efforts to implement climate mitigation and adaptation strategies its new Arctic strategy.

"Following the move in the Antarctic, a ban on the use of heavy fuel oil by ships in the sensitive Arctic polar region would go a significant way to tackling environmental pollution there, help prevent the acceleration of global warming and reduce the impacts of spills in the event of a shipping accident," said Bill Hemmings, shipping director at T&E.

"Europe must join international efforts to ensure that the use of this, the dirtiest of fuels, is banned from the region."

T&E notes that, recently, U.S. president Barack Obama and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau both promised to address the risks that HFO presents to the Arctic environment.

The NGO also notes that HFO's generation of black carbon emissions are "widely recognised as the second most important agent of climate change after CO2," and HFO bunker spills are "impossible to fully clean-up with catastrophic effects on extremely vulnerable Arctic habitats."

As part of its call for a HFO ban earlier this month, Pacific Environment said the Arctic Council has identified a heavy fuel oil spill as "the top risk posed by increased vessel traffic."