| Summary: | Arctic Contaminants Action Program (ACAP) has continued to implement demonstration projects to reduce releases of contaminants in the Arctic and areas impacting the Arctic in accordance with the Arctic Council Ministerial Declaration from Kiruna 2013. The Working Group focuses on reduction of black carbon and other short-lived climate forcer contaminants, mercury, obsolete pesticides and polychlorinated dioxins and furans reduction. During the Canadian Chairmanship, ACAP projects have achieved several important results. ACAP successfully completed a project on black carbon emission from wood burning stoves. The report identifies voluntary actions that could be adopted to reduce black carbon emissions from residential wood combustion. The recommended actions may benefit Arctic people through improved local air quality and climate change mitigation. ACAP also completed several activities under its project on reducing black carbon diesel emission in the Russian Federation. An inventory of diesel black carbon emissions in the Murmansk area of Russia was completed, finding that emissions from bus traffic in Murmansk was a significant source of diesel black carbon emissions. A demonstration project upgrading the fleet of a local bus company to Euro V standards was completed, resulting not only in a significant decrease in black carbon emissions, but improved reliability and comfort for bus passengers and significant cost saving to the bus company from reduced fuel and maintenance costs. The demonstration projects on destruction of hazardous waste such as PCSs and POPs in the Russian Federation have not progressed due to lack of environmentally sound destruction capacity in the Russian Federation.
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