{"id":1741,"date":"2019-02-21T09:00:26","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T14:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/?p=1741"},"modified":"2026-02-09T14:58:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T19:58:38","slug":"icc-canada-brings-inuit-message-to-london-imo-meeting-time-to-ban-hfos-in-arctic-shipping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/press-releases\/icc-canada-brings-inuit-message-to-london-imo-meeting-time-to-ban-hfos-in-arctic-shipping\/","title":{"rendered":"ICC Canada Brings Inuit Message to London IMO Meeting: Time to Ban HFO\u2019s in Arctic Shipping"},"content":{"rendered":"London, UK \u2013 This week the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Sub-Committee on Pollution Prevention and Response (PPR) is meeting in London, UK. Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) Canada Vice-President (International) Lisa Koperqualuk is attending the meetings to bring the Inuit voice on Arctic shipping including the need for cleaner, safer fuels to the international community. On the agenda was, \u201cReducing risks and use and carriage of Heavy Fuel Oil by ships in Arctic Waters\u201d.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nHFOs are banned in Antarctic waters, and the IMO PPR Sub-Committee is mandated to recommend to the IMO how HFOs should be dealt with in Arctic waters. The IMO is the United Nations (UN) agency charged with regulating international shipping. This work on HFOs in the Arctic is helping IMO fulfil its mandate to protect oceans and human health and to mitigate climate change in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), notably on Climate Change, and Oceans (SDGs 13, and 14).\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nThe ICC (Canada) Vice-President spoke during the opening plenary. \u201cThe UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recognizes our cultural rights, economic rights, Indigenous knowledge, and self-determination,\u201d said Lisa Koperqualuk. \u201cThe PPR sub-committee must ensure that our communities are not negatively impacted, culturally, socially and economically by decisions here. We can achieve this by engaging Inuit communities during this important work towards a ban on the use and carriage of HFO\u2019s in Arctic waters.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nMs. Koperqualuk also delivered a presentation pointing out that Inuit regions are supportive of a ban on the use of HFOs in Arctic waters. This is consistent with the July, 2018 ICC Utqia\u0121vik Declaration, Article 18, that directs ICC to: \u201cadvocate for the enforcement of the IMO Polar Code, other international and national regulations, advance emergency response, and phase out heavy fuel oil (HFO) in order to minimize impacts on marine mammals and fish and to prevent disruption of seasonal hunting, and for safety and environmental protection.\u201d Koperqualuk noted, \u201cThis must be done without putting undo cost or burden on our communities.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nHFO is extremely thick and breaks down slowly in the cold Arctic environment. Even in ideal conditions, spill response in the Arctic is difficult if not impossible. In Canada a third of ship voyages in the Arctic used HFOs. The heavy fuel also produces higher emissions of harmful pollutants like sulphur and nitrogen oxides, and black carbon. Switching from HFO to low-sulphur distillate fuels would reduce Black Carbon emissions between 30-80%.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nKoperqualuk pointed out that over 50% of the daily Inuit diet comes from the land and sea. The value of a clean environment and sea ice cover is immeasurable. An HFO spill would put these community values at significant risk. As well, Inuit communities are much more at risk from food insecurity compared to the Canadian population, transportation costs are high, and most supplies, including food, comes by the annual sealift.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nPolicies need to be put in place in the short term to allow a transition away from dirty fuels such as HFOs, and a \u2018fuel switching transition fund\u2019 is one potential approach.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nKoperqualuk also highlighted the fact that South of 60O ships are required to burn cleaner, less toxic fuels in what\u2019s called an Emission Control Area (ECA). They are set up in high population areas to reduce harmful air emissions impacting human health. It means ships engage in \u2018fuel switching\u2019, burning less toxic fuels in the southern ECA, and switching to the more polluting HFOs in the Arctic.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n-30-\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nContact:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>\r\n\r\nNatasha Latreille \/ ICC (Canada)\r\n<\/span>613-563-2642 \/ NLatreille@inuitcircumpolar.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nThe Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) is an Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Organization (IPO), founded in 1977 to promote and celebrate the unity of 160,000 Inuit from Alaska (USA), Canada, Greenland, and Chukotka (Russia). ICC works to promote Inuit rights, safeguard the Arctic environment, and protect and promote the Inuit way of life. In regard to climate change, we believe that it is crucial for world leaders and governments to recognize, respect and fully implement the human rights of Inuit and all other Indigenous peoples across the globe.\u00a0<\/span><\/i>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Sub-Committee on Pollution Prevention and Response (PPR) is meeting in London, UK. Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) Canada Vice-President (International) Lisa Koperqualuk is attending the meetings to bring the Inuit voice on Arctic shipping including the need for cleaner, safer fuels to the international community. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-42","category-press-releases"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":987515402,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1741\/revisions\/987515402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}