Arctic works to prevent oil pollution

This comes after he Task Force met with Arctic States back in January to identify the best practices and pinpoint how Arctic States can work towards oil pollution prevention.

During the Kiruna Ministerial meeting each of the eight Arctic States gave presentations on their own national-level frameworks. Each delegation gave an overview of the ministries of departments that manage and regulate the industries that are most central to the work of the Task Force: petroleum and shipping.

Many presentations addressed the infrastructure, physical capacity, safety culture and technologies that support national-level prevention measures.

The importance of sharing between Arctic States was also addressed as a critical issue. Facilitating information-sharing between regulatory agencies, sharing of experience and sharing of data were all highlighted as important areas for potential future work.

Existing work by Arctic Council working groups and task forces, including the recently released Summary Report and Recommendations on the Prevention of Marine Oil Pollution in the Arctic, will guide the efforts of the TFOPP.

The TFOPP was set up at the Kiruna Ministerial meeting in May 2013 to explore how the Arctic Council can help to advance marine oil pollution prevention.