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How the shipping industry can halve climate-warming black carbon in the Arctic
(Climate Home News, 18 Mar 2021) Climate change is having a more rapid impact in the Arctic than anywhere else right now – the recent cold weather that blanketed North America and Europe, and caused chaos in places like Texas, has been linked to the consequences of a warming Arctic. What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic – changes taking place in the north will have repercussions further south.
While there is widespread awareness of how greenhouse gas emissions drive global climate warming, what is less well known is how emissions of black carbon particles from forest fires, wood stoves, flaring, energy generation and transport, including shipping, contribute to Arctic warming.
Although shipping contributes just 2% of the black carbon emitted in the Arctic, it has a much greater heating impact. When emitted by ships in and near the Arctic, black carbon particles enter the lower levels of the atmosphere, where they remain for under two weeks, absorbing heat.
But it eventually comes to land on snow or ice, black carbon’s warming impact is 7 to 10 times greater, as it reduces the reflectivity (albedo) and continues to absorb heat, accelerating the Arctic melt.
While most anthropogenic sources of black carbon pollution are being reduced in the Arctic, shipping emissions of black carbon have risen globally in the past decade, and in the Arctic by 85% between 2015 and 2019 alone.
Climate Home News, 18 Mar 2021: How the shipping industry can halve climate-warming black carbon in the Arctic
