{"id":2048,"date":"2020-02-25T13:46:12","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T18:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/?p=2048"},"modified":"2026-02-09T14:58:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T19:58:59","slug":"inuit-circumpolar-council-calls-for-safe-arctic-shipping-to-protect-inuit-rights-and-the-marine-environment-icc-applies-for-imo-consultative-status","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/news\/inuit-circumpolar-council-calls-for-safe-arctic-shipping-to-protect-inuit-rights-and-the-marine-environment-icc-applies-for-imo-consultative-status\/","title":{"rendered":"Inuit Circumpolar Council Calls for Safe Arctic Shipping to Protect Inuit Rights and the Marine Environment &#8211; ICC Applies for IMO Consultative Status"},"content":{"rendered":"February 25, 2020 \u2013 Ottawa, Canada \u2013 The Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) attended the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Sub-Committee on Pollution Prevention and Response (PPR7) meeting in London, UK last week. ICC fought hard for protections for the Arctic marine environment and reiterated its call for regulations on heavy fuel oil use. In light of the final decisions, ICC will continue to reach out to industry and governments to work together to protect our marine ecosystems for the generations that will follow us.\r\n\r\nModern day remote Arctic communities depend on markets in the south for many of our goods. With this comes the need for safe and economically sound shipping and transportation routes to move people and goods to and from this region, which is becoming more accessible, as ice recedes. ICC\u2019s position is clear, we must take measures to ensure safe Arctic shipping in a manner which does not further burden remote Inuit communities.\r\n\r\nThroughout the difficult negotiations, we observed resistance by some countries over the regulations and timelines for use of heavy fuel oil in Arctic shipping, resulting in compromise language providing for a deadline for a ban that will take 10 years. Other issues related to safe Arctic shipping that we are closely watching and will continue to work on include enhanced spill response capacity in communities, ship emissions, ballast water discharges, underwater noise, and safe shipping corridors.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe Inuit Circumpolar Council wishes to express our encouragement that a text toward restrictions on the use and carriage of heavy fuel oils in Arctic waters has been formulated. However, we remain deeply concerned about the potential negative impacts that \u201cexemptions\u201d will continue to put our communities and ways of life at risk. We will continue advocating for a full ban to phase out use of HFOs and ultimately protect our communities and environment,\u201d said Lisa Koperqualuk, Vice-President of Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada.\r\n\r\nWe will continue to work with member countries, industries, and our regional Inuit organizations to protect the Arctic marine environment and Inuit communities.\r\n\r\nThe ICC also submitted its application for consultative status at the IMO to ensure that the ICC can participate directly and independently to advocate for issues of concern to Inuit voices, to make our voices heard throughout these important discussions as well as a host of other issues within the purview of the IMO.\r\n\r\n\u201cBoth of these actions are linked,\u201d said ICC Chair Dalee Sambo Dorough in Alaska. \u201cICC representatives have attended IMO meetings, depending on member states and other non-governmental organizations for the opportunity address the IMO. However, we want the ability to represent ourselves directly consistent with our right to do so. It is crucial that we, as Inuit, bring our own voices to the table in light of our reliance upon the marine environment. Furthermore, our call for safe Arctic shipping and to \u201dphase out heavy fuel oil (HFO)\u201d in Arctic waters as directed by the <em>Utqia<\/em><em>\u0121<\/em><em>vik<\/em><em> Declaration<\/em>, passed by Inuit at our 2018 General Assembly in Alaska in July, 2018.\u201d\r\n\r\nArticle 18 of the Utqia\u0121vik Declaration mandates ICC to \u201cadvocate for the enforcement of the 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 to prevent disruption of seasonal hunting, and for safety and environmental protection.\u201d\r\n\r\nLisa Koperqualuk, ICC Canada Vice-President (International), fought hard for Inuit rights and this directive while in London at the IMO meetings, commending the government of Canada for supporting the ban on HFO. \u201cWe are pleased that Canada announced its support for the ban in the days leading up to this meeting, bringing the number of Arctic states in favour of a ban to seven out of eight. We are living in an age of transformation in the Arctic and we must not hold Indigenous communities hostage by threatening increased costs. We are simply taking action to safeguard our Arctic marine waters, animals and environment \u2013 each are interrelated to the many dimensions of who we are as distinct peoples.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe IMO Sub-Committee on Pollution Prevention and Response (PPR) deals with all matters relating to pollution prevention and response which falls within IMO\u2019s mandate. It held PPR7 February 17-21, 2020\r\n\r\n-30-\r\n<div class=\"\">\r\n<div class=\"\">\r\n<div class=\"\">\r\n<div class=\"\">\r\n<div class=\"\">\r\n<div class=\"\">\r\n<div class=\"\">\r\n<div class=\"\">\r\n<div class=\"WordSection1\">\r\n\r\nContact:\r\n\r\nKelly Eningowuk\r\nICC (Alaska)\r\n(907) 274-9058\r\nkelly@iccalaska.org\r\n\r\nCarole Simon\r\nICC (Canada)\r\n(613) 563-2642\r\nCSimon@inuitcircumpolar.com\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","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":[45,2,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-45","category-news","category-press-releases"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048","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=2048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":987515418,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048\/revisions\/987515418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}