Greens Battle Shipping Industry over Global Ship Scrap Rules
Report Shows Clean Shipbreaking can be Done Profitably
BAN and Greenpeace Press Release
15 February 2005 (London, UK) – At the opening of a special joint United Nations meeting to address the scandalous practice of exporting toxic laden obsolete ships to developing countries such as Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, the environmental organizations Greenpeace and the Basel Action Network (BAN) have denounced the shipping industry for trying to run away from the Basel Convention's landmark rules that curb the export and dumping of toxic waste.
Despite a decision of more than 160 countries of the Basel Convention last year that an obsolete ship falls under the Convention, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), representing one of the world's largest industries, continues to assert that they do not have to abide by the Basel Convention rules against global waste dumping. In a cynical game of United Nations “venue shopping” the ship owners have convinced the IMO to create a new set of rules that are expected to be far less rigorous.
“The global shipping industry to this day, operates as the last of the dump-and-run cowboys, refusing to recognize that it is criminal to allow a free trade in life-impairing pollution,” said Basel Action Network coordinator Jim Puckett. “It is estimated that there is a death each day on the brutal breaking beaches of Asia, and all that is necessary to prevent most of these deaths is for the industry to decontaminate the ships in developed countries prior to export.”
In a new report entitled The Ship Recycling Fund released today, Greenpeace introduced details of how an economic mechanism to promote clean and safe shipbreaking might work. The system reflects the notion that shipbreaking is a service to the shipping community and the world instead of a toxic waste dumping industry. Embracing the polluter pays and producer responsibility principles, it outlines the financial resources needed, including the costs of ship pre-decontamination, site remediation and the technological upgrading to ensure environmentally sound recycling.
The report not only shows how the financial costs for safe and clean breaking can be borne by the shipping industry, it also demonstrates that the costs are manageable and a minor fraction (0,5%) in relation to the industry's total turnover.
“All we are asking is that one of the world's richest industries pay a tiny fraction of their profits to a ship recycling fund, instead of forcing some of the world's most desperate and poor workers to pay the ultimate price with their lives and health,” said Greenpeace's Marietta Harjono. “The industry's greed must know some limit.”
For more information following press conference contact:
Jim Puckett, Basel Action Network: +32 496 1615 85
Marietta Harjono, Greenpeace International: +31 6 15 007 411
Maartje van Boekel, Greenpeace media officer: +31 6 4616 2021
For a copy of the report: The Ship Recycling Fund visit: www.greenpeaceweb.org/shipbreak/fund.pdf
For more information on the conflicts between IMO and Basel Convention see: http://www.ban.org/Library/briefp5.pdf and
http://www.basel.int/legalmatters/ilo-imo-sbc-wg/1_7_3.doc
For more information generally see:
www.ban.org and http://www.greenpeaceweb.org/shipbreak/
First Session of the Joint ILO/IMO/BC Working Group on Ship Scrapping, London 15-17 February 2005
FAIR USE NOTICE. This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The Basel Action Network is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability and environmental justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
More News
|
