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Clean Air and White Ice: Governing Black Carbon Emissions Affecting the Arctic

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Governing Arctic Change

Abstract

This chapter is a joint effort by natural and legal scientists to make the case for the dramatic consequences black carbon (BC) emissions mainly from outside the Arctic region have on the Arctic ecosystem, and how BC has recently become the specific focus of a regime complex. The authors provide scientific knowledge about the sources, pathways, and climate impacts of BC emissions, and stress the special relevance of possible near-immediate climate benefits from BC emission reduction in the Arctic. Further consideration is given to the crucial importance of the governance responses to these opportunities and challenges. Thus, the second part of the chapter critically discusses the status and prospects of current multilateral BC emission reduction efforts in the context of the Arctic Council, the International Maritime Organization, and the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), Potsdam, Germany

    Carolina Cavazos-Guerra

  2. Institute of Atmospheric Physics, German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany

    Axel Lauer

  3. Earthjustice, Washington, DC, USA

    Erika Rosenthal

Authors
  1. Carolina Cavazos-Guerra
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  2. Axel Lauer
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  3. Erika Rosenthal
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inst. f. Advanced Sustainability Studies , Potsdam, Germany

    Kathrin Keil

  2. Berlin Graduate School for Transnational , Berlin, Germany

    Sebastian Knecht

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Cavazos-Guerra, C., Lauer, A., Rosenthal, E. (2017). Clean Air and White Ice: Governing Black Carbon Emissions Affecting the Arctic. In: Keil, K., Knecht, S. (eds) Governing Arctic Change. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50884-3_12

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