Ahead of next week’s session of the Nordic Council, the Clean Arctic Alliance yesterday called on Nordic governments to adopt a resolution on polar fuels during the meeting, and together commit to support an International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulation that would require cleaner maritime fuels, which would result in lower emissions of black carbon by ships when operating in the Arctic.

The deadline for concrete proposals for such a regulation to be submitted to the thirteenth session of the IMO’s technical committee that addresses pollution prevention and response (PPR13, February 2026) is December 5th.

“Ahead of a crucial meeting of the IMO next February, the Clean Arctic Alliance is calling for the Member States of the International Maritime Organization to develop and adopt a mandatory regulation which would require that only polar fuels can be used by shipping in the Arctic”, said Dr Sian Prior, Lead Advisor to the Clean Arctic Alliance. “A resolution on polar fuels adopted by Nordic governments next week would send a strong message to IMO Member States that action is urgently needed to protect the Arctic from the impacts of shipping emissions.”

“Black carbon is a climate superpollutant produced when fossil fuels are burned”, said Prior. “Black carbon has a disproportionate impact because it both heats the atmosphere – and when released from ship exhausts and when near to the Arctic it settles onto snow and ice, speeding up the melting and exposing darker land and sea beneath, which continue to absorb more heat. It is the loss of the planet’s reflectivity – or albedo – which is contributing to the fast pace of warming seen in the Arctic.”

“Black carbon emissions from ships burning oil-based fuels have more than doubled in the last decade, yet a simple and easy solution is to require shipping to use widely available distillate fuels with lower black carbon emissions when operating in and near to the Arctic”, said Prior.
Source: Clean Arctic Alliance