4. Arctic

Abstract

Regional initiatives relevant to Arctic environmental protection in the past year occurred mainly through the Arctic Council. The twelfth ministerial meeting of the Arctic Council was held on 20 May in Reykjavík, Iceland, and the Council’s six working groups continued their cooperative projects and publications. Documentation from the ministerial meeting and working group meetings may be found on the Council’s website (<http://www.arctic-council.org>). International activities of further note occurred in other venues. These activities included working through the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to ban the carriage for use as fuel of heavy fuel oil by ships in Arctic waters; advancing implementation of the Agreement to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean; promoting environmental cooperation through the Barents Euro-Arctic Council; and convening the fourteenth Conference of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region. The Reykjavík Declaration 2021, issued on the occasion of the twelfth ministerial meeting, gave considerable attention to climate change. The declaration expresses utmost concern regarding the Arctic warming at a rate of three times the global average over the past fifty years and recognizes that the deposition of black carbon in the Arctic accelerates the melting of snow and ice. The declaration reiterates the need for enhanced action to meet the long-term temperature goal and implementation of the Paris Agreement by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and short-lived climate pollutants. The declaration approves the report, Expert Group on Black Carbon and Methane: Summary of Progress and Recommendations 2021, supports the collective and aspirational goal to reduce black carbon emissions by 25–33 percent below 2013 levels by 2025, and strongly encourages observer states to commit to similar reduction goals. The need for additional action and measures to significantly reduce methane emissions was noted.