Short and long-term solutions for mitigating black carbon emissions in Arctic shipping: Implications for stakeholders

The problem of black carbon emissions from maritime shipping is one of the major environmental issues in the Arctic region with important global ramifications for climate change, public health and related socio-economic questions. This topic has been discussed mostly from the point of view of technical measures, and to some extent operational measures regarding how vessel traffic is run. However, recently the institutional-political solutions have received attention. This study contributes to these openings by proposing that the solutions can be usefully evaluated from the perspective of stakeholders and their interests. Drawing on an interdisciplinary literature review of studies and reports, and insights from the political-scientific literatures on institutions along with transition studies, this work first identifies the range of relevant stakeholders and the interests driving their actions; and then analyses the BC abatement solutions from the point of view of implications on stakeholders and their interests. The centrality of state actors and particularly their divergent interests in the Arctic is highlighted as are the different types of costs incurred upon stakeholders from BC mitigation. It is found that black carbon mitigation lacks ownership, and that different business stakeholders have mutually conflicting interests. The fact that they have differing timeframes makes coordinated attempts to reduce black carbon even more challenging. These problems highlight the problem-solving roles of public sector stakeholders regarding the level and timing of costs of emission reduction, and finance required.