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The Arctic Council

arctic council

EPA hosted the March 2011 Arctic Contaminants Action program (ACAP) Working Group meeting in Washington DC. OITA Assistant Administrator Michelle DePass delivered the opening remarks for the meeting, and EPA staff from many offices participated in the two days of Project Steering Group (PSG) meetings that preceded the main ACAP Working group meeting. The PSG meetings covered topics such as short-lived climate forcers (including black carbon), mercury and integrated hazardous waste management.

 

 

 

 

arctic council

March 2008 ACAP Working Group meeting in Moscow, Russia


The Arctic Council Exit EPA disclaimerpromotes cooperation among Arctic nations on sustainable development and environmental protection. Established by the Ottawa Declaration (PDF) Exit EPA disclaimerin 1996, the Arctic Council is a high-level intergovernmental forum composed of eight nations with territory in the Arctic.

The scientific work of the Arctic Council is carried out in six expert working groups Exit EPA disclaimer, which meet at regular intervals throughout the year.

EPA leads U.S. government participation in the Arctic Contaminants Action Programme (ACAP) Working Group, which seeks to reduce emissions of pollutants into the environment. ACAP works to:

  • identify sources of contamination,
  • develop pollution control technologies, and
  • implement demonstration projects which can be replicated throughout the Arctic.

 

At ACAP's fall meeting in September 2010, EPA played a leadership role in the development of three Project Steering Groups (PSGs) as part of ACAP’s work program:

About the Arctic Council

Who participates in the Arctic Council?

  • The eight Member States include Canada, Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russian Federation, Sweden, and the United States.
  • In addition, the category of Permanent Participation provides for active participation of, and full consultation with, the Arctic Indigenous representatives within the Arctic Council. Permanent Participants include Aleut International Association (AIA), Arctic Athabaskan Council (AAC), Gwich'in Council International (GCI), Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC), Saami Council, and Russian Arctic Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON).
  • Observer Status is open to non-arctic states, inter-governmental and inter-parliamentary organizations, and non-governmental organizations.

Working Groups of the Arctic Council

The six Working Groups of the Arctic Council are:

U.S. Government Participation

EPA leads U.S. government participation in the Arctic Contaminants Action Programme (ACAP). Other U.S. government agencies participate in other Arctic Council Working Groups with a focus on issues such as:

  • monitoring, assessing and preventing pollution in the Arctic;
  • climate change;
  • biodiversity conservation and sustainable use;
  • emergency preparedness and prevention and response; and
  • living conditions of the Arctic residents.

Learn more about the structure of the Arctic Council

All links above are to the website of the Arctic Counil. Exit EPA disclaimer
  • Short Lived Climate Forcers. Short Lived Climate Forcers are gases or particles which remain in the atmosphere for a few days or weeks, but warm the climate by trapping outgoing radiation from leaving the earth’s surface. The first project of this PSG, proposed by the United States, focuses on black carbon, one of several Short Lived Climate Forcers. Recent studies have suggested that black carbon may be responsible for 30-50 percent of observed warming in the Arctic. The United States (EPA) will chair this PSG.
  • Indigenous People’s Contaminants Action Program. The goal of this PSG is the involvement of Arctic indigenous peoples communities in reducing exposure and impact of contaminants in their communities. EPA also supported the establishment of this PSG, which will be chaired by an Indigenous Peoples Association and an Arctic member state.
  • Integrated Hazardous Waste Management Strategy. This PSG will develop an Integrated Hazardous Waste Management Strategy (IHWMS) for selected Northern regions of the Russian Federation, to improve waste management practices and decrease the negative impact on the Arctic environment from hazardous waste. The PSG is chaired by Russia, and co-chaired by USA and Norway. Terms of Reference were approved on 3 September 2010.

EPA is also actively working to reduce mercury emissions in the Arctic, and was recently designated as the co-chair, along with Russia, of the Mercury PSG. As part this work, in June 2010 EPA began a two-year collaborative mercury control project to demonstrate the effectiveness of sorbent technology in reducing mercury emissions at a coal-fired power plant in the Russian Federation. Coal-fired power plants are a major source of global mercury emissions.

  • This collaborative project is taking place under the financial and management authority of the International Science and Technology Center Exit EPA disclaimerin Moscow, in cooperation with several Russian research institutes.
  • The project will demonstrate the effectiveness of two types of sorbents (standard activated carbon and halogenated activated carbon), which, in conjuction with a particulate control device, have been shown to remove mercury at efficiencies of 70-90 percent and greater than 90 percent, respectively, in the United States.
  • This demonstration will determine whether these technologies will achieve similar effectiveness with Russian coals, with possible application to similar coal types in China and India.
  • Project results will inform other major coal-burning nations and inform deliberations of the UNEP Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on a global legally binding mercury instrument.

In May 2011, the 7th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting will take place in Nuuk, Greenland. Foreign Ministers representing the eight Arctic States, Permanent Participants representing the Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic, and Arctic Council Observers and Non-Government Organizations, will meet to discuss future challenges in the Arctic.


Back to:International Organizations

Contacts

For additional information on EPA's work with the Arctic Council, contact:

Hodayah Finman
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of International and Tribal Affairs (2670R)
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20460
E-mail: finman.hodayah@epa.gov
(202) 564-6600

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