Plastics in the Arctic
Check out this policy paper from the Polar Institute:
Policy and Action on Plastic in the Arctic Ocean
The Arctic region is too diverse for a single set of solutions to the marine plastic pollution problem. The Arctic Regional Action Plan should allow for subregional and local efforts and communications campaigns tailored to specific needs and capabilities. Local communities must co-develop these efforts with incorporation of indigenous knowledge where relevant. A Hackathon model could be used to gather interested community members with partners to innovate and problem solve collectively. Increased investment in innovative solutions that come from Arctic residents to address the reduction, reuse, recycling, and recovery of plastics could provide opportunities for regional leadership on this issue.
Keeping the importance of the local perspective in mind, the Arctic Regional Action Plan can usefully employ the following strategies:
- promote awareness and understanding of the plastic pollution issue through targeted communication and education efforts to increase community engagement and solutions co-creation
- convene industry to educate about economic and environmental threats from plastic pollution and to generate reasonable and realistic practices for plastic pollution mitigation
- work with industry to develop and promote guidelines that reduce plastic waste and address appropriate disposal, recycling, and reuse of plastic materials
- based on those guidelines, implement measures to reduce plastic pollution from ships in the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas, particularly lost and abandoned gear from fishing vessels and plastic waste from transport and tourist vessels
- share information about promising projects already happening in the Arctic region to enable those efforts to be scaled up
- provide incentives for cross-sector collaboration to promote synergy between different actors addressing the plastic pollution problem
- encourage more producer responsibility to account for management of environmental costs associated with a product throughout its life cycle, and decrease the use of plastics that cannot be recycled
- promote financial incentives to identify alternative packaging products, by using industry challenges, similar to the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) Grand Challenge
- identify and fund research priorities to identify major contributors to the waste stream and to measure impact of reduction strategies
- enable researchers to coordinate, share data, and learn from each other
- work with the Arctic Economic Council to develop an innovation fund and to encourage circular economy model development from production of raw materials to reclamation and reintegration of spent materials into new products
Microplastics in the Marine Realms of the Arctic with Special Emphasis on Sea Ice
Principles of Ethical Research Conduct in the Arctic
The International Arctic Social Sciences Association (IASSA) Council published the major update to the IASSA Principles and Guidelines for Conducting Ethical Research in the Arctic. This statement of principles has been formulated in accordance with the IASSA Bylaws and approved by the IASSA Council. These Principles provide guidelines for all researchers working in the North in the social, natural and health sciences, and in the humanities.
The updated document can be found at:
Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators
AECO’s guidelines are in many ways the association’s backbone and very important tools to achieve the objectives to ensure that cruise tourism in the Arctic is carried out with the utmost consideration of the natural environment, local cultures, as well as challenging safely hazards at sea and on land. Learn more about the Assoication of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators.
The Arctic Commitment to a Heavy Fuel Oil-free Arctic
The Arctic is one of the few regions of the world that has remained largely untouched by large-scale industrial development. This largely pristine environment is nonetheless host to millions of people with rich, often ancient cultures as well as a great diversity of ecosystems and marine life. The Arctic is also of major global importance due to its crucial role in regulating world weather patterns and ocean currents.
However, climate change poses significant challenges to this vulnerable environment due to the rapid melting of Arctic sea ice. These changes lead to the prospect of considerable growth in Arctic marine traffic as new sea routes become gradually accessible.
Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) is, by volume, the most commonly used shipping fuel in the Arctic and the Arctic Council has categorised its use as one of the most significant threats to the Arctic environment. HFO is an extremely viscous and toxic fuel and the potential for an HFO spillage poses a major risk to Arctic marine ecosystems and to the communities that depend upon these. The combustion of HFO produces high levels of air pollutants, including black carbon, that are harmful to human health and act as powerful regional climate change accelerators.
In recognition of the serious impacts and associated risks of HFO use in polar regions, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has already amended the MARPOL Convention to ban the use and carriage of heavy grade oils by ships in the Antarctic. See the Artic Commitment to a HFO-free Arctic.
Last updated: May 12, 2020