1st Meeting of the Arctic Council Expert Group on Black Carbon and Methane was held at the US Embassy in Reykjavik in Iceland on 27 and 28 January 2016.
28 representatives participated from US (Chair), Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, AAC, ACAP, France, UK, Italy, Japan, Poland, Korea, Spain, EU, and AC. Professor Yutaka Kondo of NIPR participated in this meeting, representing Japan. The main goal of this meeting to make an Arctic Council Framework for Action to achieve enhanced black carbon and methane emissions, which contribute to mitigations of climate change in the Arctic. For this purpose, the Summary of Progress and Recommendations is to be prepared. This report is to be delivered to the Ministers by SAO at the Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting. During the meeting, the outline/structure of this Summary Report was agreed. The timeline, process, and roles for drafting Summary Report were discussed. It was agreed to make inventories and projections of black carbon and methane for the years of 2013 and 2025, to be included in the Report. During the course of the meeting, the participants had chances to exchange their opinions and ideas freely. I felt it was very useful and important to understand how the representatives of the Arctic countries consider the problems associated with the changes the climate and environment occurring in the Arctic. There are certainly a lot of areas, in which Japanese scientists can contribute to these important issues via continued scientific activities and interactions with relevant people. Finally, I really thank the stuff of the Japanese Embassy for great logistical support by in Reykjavik.
Yutaka Kondo, NIPR
(A member of the Atmospheric climate forcers in the Arctic)
