San Francisco, California – On August 6, 2020, a Japanese-owned, Panamanian registered deep sea bulk carrier MV Wakashio began leaking fuel oil off the small island state of Mauritius, sparking an environmental catastrophe. Pacific Environment’s team has since worked to mobilize public awareness and an urgent international response. As of August 12, a reported 1,000 … Read more
August 4, 2020 (San Francisco, California) — The International Maritime Organization (IMO) today released its Fourth IMO Greenhouse Gas Study. The study finds that total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from maritime shipping rose roughly 10% from 2012 to 2018 and are on track to exceed 2008 levels as early as 2019-2020. Carbon dioxide (CO2) constituted … Read more
London, Friday February 21, 2020: NGOs and Indigenous groups today cautiously acknowledged progress by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and its Member States in agreeing on a draft regulation on heavy fuel oil (HFO) use and carriage in the Arctic, but denounced the inclusion of loopholes in the text that mean the ban will not come … Read more
London, February 17, 2020: NGOs today called on the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to protect the Arctic marine environment from the impacts of international shipping, by agreeing to a new regulation banning the use and carriage of heavy fuel oil (HFO) as fuel by ships operating in Arctic waters during this week’s “Arctic IMO Summit” in … Read more
London, January 27, 2020 – Responding to the discovery that some of the new blended low sulphur shipping fuels developed and marketed by oil companies to comply with IMO 2020 air pollution standards will actually lead to a surge in the emissions of a Super Pollutant known as Black Carbon, the Clean Arctic Alliance is … Read more
London, May 17, 2019 – As a meeting of the International Maritime Organization’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 74) closed today in London, the Clean Arctic Alliance expressed frustration over Members States’ failure to address the risk to the Arctic from emissions of black carbon from international shipping [1]. A proposal by the Clean Shipping Coalition … Read more
As IMO meets this week in London, groups issue call to reevaluate scrubbers as alternative compliance tool for 2020 fuel standards, citing evidence in US federal case against Carnival Corporation.
London, February 22, 2019 – As a meeting of the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Sub-Committee on Pollution Prevention and Response (PPR 6) closes today in London, the Clean Arctic Alliance welcomed progress but calls on Arctic Nations Russia and Canada to step-up to their responsibilities by adding their support for a ban on heavy fuel oil (HFO) … Read more
SAN FRANCISCO — A groundbreaking new interactive map released today by the international Clean Up Carnival coalition shows that nearly half of Carnival Corporation cruise ships traveling through the Arctic and Subarctic pass near or through critical habitats for marine mammals including orca, walrus, and bowhead, narwhal, and beluga whales. The map details information on … Read more
24 October 2018, Southampton, UK – This morning, a delegation of Arctic Indigenous leaders and marine and environmental experts delivered a petition signed by 104,000 concerned people from countries across Europe and North America, to cruise giant Carnival Corporation at its UK headquarters in Southampton, demanding that it cease burning dirty heavy fuel oil in … Read more
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — As Carnival Corporation’s first ships of the season arrive in the Arctic, an international coalition of environmental groups has joined together to call on the cruise giant to stop using one of the world’s cheapest and dirtiest fossil fuels—heavy fuel oil—on ships traveling in fragile Arctic and sub-Arctic waters. July marks the … Read more
London, 13th April 2018:- The Clean Arctic Alliance applauded progress by International Maritime Organization member states today towards banning use of the world’s dirtiest fuel – heavy fuel oil – from Arctic shipping, and called for Member States to make every effort to adopt and rapidly implement a ban by 2021, as proposed by eight IMO Member States … Read more
Brussels, 22 January 2018- Leading environmental organisations and the global shipping industry have joined in calling for an explicit prohibition on the carriage of non-compliant marine fuels when the global 0.5% sulphur cap takes effect in 2020. The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has agreed that from 1 January 2020 the maximum permitted sulphur content of marine … Read more
London, July 7, 2017:- As the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 71) concluded today, the Clean Arctic Alliance welcomed the support from Member States for a proposal to identify measures which will mitigate the risks posed by the use of heavy fuel oil (HFO) in Arctic waters, and called on the … Read more
Washington D.C., April 18th, 2017:- A report published today by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), Alternatives to heavy fuel oil use in the Arctic: Economic and environmental tradeoffs finds that using heavy fuel oil in Arctic shipping creates such great risks compared to the cost of moving to safer fuels, that transitioning to … Read more
Brussels, 16 March 2017:- Responding to today’s European Parliament 483/100 plenary vote to pass its Resolution on the Arctic, including a call “on the Commission and the Member States to actively facilitate the ban on the use of heavy fuel oil (HFO) and carriage as ship fuel in vessels navigating the Arctic seas through MARPOL … Read more
A world-leading expedition cruise ship operator today joined international environmental organisations to spearhead the protection of Arctic communities and ecosystems from risks posed by the use of marine heavy fuel oil (HFO) to power ships, at the Arctic Frontiers conference in Tromsø, Norway.
President Obama made history last summer by being the first sitting president to visit the Arctic, speaking passionately about climate change and focusing on Arctic challenges. Phasing out the use of heavy fuel oil by the increased number of ships now transiting the Arctic is an urgent challenge that can be readily addressed and reduce the top risk identified to Arctic communities and fragile marine environments.
As polar ice recedes, increased Arctic vessel traffic increases the urgency to craft protections for fragile Arctic marine environments and communities.
Today, the House of Representatives took a historic vote to whether protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s Coastal Plain as Wilderness. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) offered the House Arctic Refuge Wilderness bill as an amendment to the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement (SHARE) Act of 2015, H.R. 2406, a bill that contains a number of destructive provisions that threaten wildlife and public lands, erode bedrock environmental laws and undermine key conservation policies. The bipartisan vote on the amendment – the first time Congress has ever voted on a Wilderness bill for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge – was 176 yeas and 227 nays (31 not voting).
