As a meeting of the International Maritime Organisation’s Pollution Prevention and Response sub-committee (PPR10) closed today in London, Seas At Risk and the Clean Arctic Alliance denounced the organisation’s total failure to progress mandatory measures to reduce black carbon emissions from international shipping, and called on national governments to urgently change course and bring concrete new proposals for mandatory action to the IMO at the first available opportunity. 

The failure of this week’s meeting to act on black carbon emissions from international shipping flies in the face of UN recognition that rapid, deep and sustained action to reduce emissions of climate pollutants, including short term climate forcers like black carbon is necessary to protect the Arctic region. Both national governments and the shipping industry are continuing to ignore the fact that the shipping sector is years, if not decades, behind other transport sectors in continuing to use the dirtiest fuels which contribute to the destruction of Arctic snow and ice and supercharge climate heating globally. 

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