Arctic Council Adopts Marine Oil Pollution Agreement

In addition to seeing Canada assume the chair of the Arctic Council for the next two years, the recent Arctic Council's Ministerial Meeting at Kiruna, Sweden, adopted an important legal text, the "Agreement on Cooperation on Marine Oil Pollution Preparedness and Response in the Arctic". This is the second major international agreement that has been developed under Arctic Council auspices, the first being the Search and Rescue Agreement concluded at Nuuk, Greenland, in 2011.

The Marine Oil Pollution Agreement, signed on May 15, 2013, aims to strengthen cooperation, coordination and mutual assistance on oil pollution preparedness and response among the eight Arctic Council Member States. It applies to defined waters in each of those States. In Canada's case, the Agreement applies to marine areas above 60 degrees North. Each State Party is required to maintain a national system for responding to oil pollution incidents, including a national contingency plan providing