NGOs Call on Nordic Council To Adopt AMOC Resolution and Make Good on Polar Fuels Promise

The Nordic Council, comprising parliamentarians from Iceland, Finland, Sweden, and Norway, is deliberating on a resolution concerning the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) during a recent meeting in Finland. Arni Finnsson, Board Chair at the Iceland Nature Conservation Association, urged the Council to adopt the resolution, emphasizing AMOC as a national security concern.

He advocated for global leadership in reducing climate-warming emissions, including black carbon and methane, from short-lived climate pollutants.

Black carbon, a short-lived climate pollutant, contributes significantly to warming and accelerates melting if deposited on snow and ice, posing a disproportionate threat to the Arctic. The Clean Arctic Alliance, advocating for polar fuels, called on Nordic governments to back the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) proposal for requiring cleaner maritime fuels in the Arctic region.

This proposal, led by Denmark, aims to cut black carbon emissions from Arctic shipping, which accelerates the melting of Arctic sea ice and the Greenland ice sheet. The 2025 resolution demands Nordic governments create and implement a regulation by the IMO, necessitating their commitment to cutting climate-warming emissions.

The Clean Arctic Alliance urges Nordic Council members to support the IMO's polar fuel rule, which would target black carbon emissions from ships. This rule would fill a crucial gap in the IMO's regulatory framework by directly addressing black carbon emissions from ships. The proposed polar fuel measure would require cleaner distillate fuels, such as marine gas oil (MGO) and zero carbon fuels, preventing the use of residual fuel blends like marine diesel oil (MDO) and ultra-low sulfur fuel oils (ULSFOs).

The IMO's Polar Fuels Rule is expected to curb Arctic shipping's black carbon emissions, as stated by Sian Prior, Lead Advisor to the Clean Arctic Alliance.