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| Toxic Trade News / 16 February 2005 |
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Norway Denounced for "Double Face" on Global Ship dumping
BAN, Greenpeace Press Release
16 February 2005 (London, UK) – At a special interagency joint meeting(1) taking place this week in London seeking to find a solution to the scandalous export and dumping of old ships for scrapping on the beaches of Asian countries such as India and Bangladesh, Norway is taking a position that appears to favour its very substantial shipping industry, but is at direct odds with its international legal commitments and sustainable development reputation according to the environmental organizations Greenpeace and Basel Action Network.
The Norwegian delegation, attending as a member of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), has joined with Japan and the United States in taking positions which have served to block all attempts to reference or consider the Basel Convention (a legally binding global treaty) that has already concluded that such ships laden with asbestos, PCBs and other toxic substances can be considered hazardous waste for control under the Convention. The Basel Convention has also adopted a decision forbidding all exports of hazardous wastes to developing countries. Norway is not only a Party to the Basel Convention but has joined the EU in already ratifying this global dumping ban.
"The continued denial by Norway of the existence of the Basel Convention's legal regime and the Basel Ban, taken in meeting rooms of the IMO headquarters in London, is in contradiction with their positions taken in Oslo and Geneva and indeed with their reputation as the birthplace of the concept of sustainable development," said Kevin Stairs, political advisor at Greenpeace International.
"One has to wonder whether this reflects a new official position of Norway , and how Norway will reconcile this position with their support for the global effort to end all exports of hazardous wastes from rich to poorer countries, Stairs added."
It is estimated that one person per day is killed on the Asian shipbreaking beaches in Bangladesh , India and Pakistan , either from the violent explosions from gas and oil residues left on the ships or the slow deaths from cancer or asbestosis from asbestos and other hazardous materials.
The Norwegian position to ignore the environmental justice aspects of the global shipbreaking industry is in direct contradiction to their usual good standing on environment and development, especially with respect to assisting developing countries during an era of global mobilization of resources to assist developing countries to meet development needs.
For more information:
Kevin Stairs, political advisor, Greenpeace International: +49-1799282037
Marietta Harjono, Greenpeace International: +31 6 15 007 411
Jim Puckett, Basel Action Network: +32 496 1615 85
Truls Gulowsen, Greenpeace in Norway +47 90107904
(1) The meeting is the First Session of the Joint ILO/IMO/BC Working
Group on Ship Scrapping, London 15-17 February 2005.
A copy of the report "The Ship Recycling Fund" can be found at:
www.greenpeaceweb.org/shipbreak/fund.pdf
For more information shipbreaking, and conflicts between IMO and
Basel Convention see:
www.ban.org/Library/briefp5.pdf
www.basel.int/legalmatters/ilo-imo-sbc-wg/1_7_3.doc
www.ban.org
www.greenpeaceweb.org/shipbreak/
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.
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