MARPOL Annex I Regulation 43A – the Arctic ban on use and carriage of highly polluting heavy fuel oil (HFO) – became law today, some 13 years after a similar regulation started in the Antarctic.
Campaigners have hit out at the many loopholes with the new Arctic rule with the International Council on Clean Transportation estimating that about 74% of ships that use HFO will be able to continue to do so through to 2029.
“Governments and NGOs fought long and hard to achieve the ban on the use and carriage of HFO in the Arctic – yet see that it will be half-implemented is quite simply not good enough,” said Dr Sian Prior, lead advisor to the Clean Arctic Alliance. “IMO member states, especially Arctic coastal countries, must go farther than the IMO ban by implementing it in ways that truly protect the Arctic from HFO spills and black carbon emissions – and that means refusing to offer loopholes to the shipping industry.”
Will Putin care? Not in the slightest.