Clean Arctic Alliance hails Nordic push for sustainable polar marine fuels

The Clean Arctic Alliance has welcomed the Nordic Council’s adoption of a resolution concerning polar fuels, which calls on Nordic governments to craft and implement a regulation that would mandate the application of cleaner, marine fuels that could cut black carbon emissions whilst operating in the Arctic region.

The Nordic Council had adopted the resolution, which called on the UN’s shipping body International Maritime Organization (IMO) specifically to create a regulation on sustainable polar fuels during a session held in Stockholm on October 30, according to the WWF Arctic Program.

Per the WWF Arctic Program, this resolution indicates a political will among Nordic nations to collaborate on ensuring that “the IMO implements guidelines that necessitate increased use of polar fuels for ships sailing in the Arctic waters of the Nordic countries.”

The organization has further stressed that, if adopted by the IMO, the regulation could “finally tackle one of the most long-standing issues in the international marine governance—the need to reduce black carbon emissions from shipping.”

As informed, the deadline for submission of concrete proposals for such a regulation is December 5th, 2025, with hopes of it being accepted to the thirteenth session of an IMO technical committee in February 2026, which addresses pollution prevention and response (PPR13).

“The resolution on polar fuels adopted by the Nordic Council this week should spur Nordic governments to take the lead on action with IMO Member States to urgently protect the Arctic from the impacts of shipping emissions – in particular black carbon, which has a disproportionate impact on Arctic ice,” Sian Prior, Lead Advisor to the Clean Arctic Alliance, commented.

As Prior elaborated further, black carbon—a short-lived climate pollutant that accelerates the melting of ice and snow—is a “climate superpollutant” that is produced when fossil fuels are burned. It has been linked to an increased pace of warming seen in the Arctic.

“Black carbon emissions from ships burning oil-based fuels have more than doubled in the last decade, yet a simple and easy solution is to require shipping to use widely available distillate fuels with lower black carbon emissions and new zero-emission fuels when operating in and near the Arctic,” Prior explained.

“This is why action by the IMO this coming February is crucial, and why Arctic countries must be a driving force in ensuring this action takes place,” he added.

The International Maritime Organization, however, has been slow in adopting a specific guideline regarding black carbon, having spent more than a decade on scientific analysis and discussions, while the emissions remain unabated as the Arctic shipping traffic increases, representatives from the WWF Arctic Program revealed.

Given the severity of the impact of black carbon emissions, both the Clean Arctic Alliance and the WWF Arctic Program believe that the time to act is now.

Moreover, as the officials from the Clean Arctic Alliance have shared, a number of NGOs have, thus far, called on the IMO Member states to consider the development of a polar fuels regulation, particularly for inclusion in MARPOL Annex VI that would identify suitable polar fuels, such as distillate fuels like DMA or DMZ.

These fuels, the organization has concluded, could “deliver an immediate fuel-based reduction” in black carbon emissions from international maritime transport impacting the Arctic.