*Press Note* ** *Why the IMO Ship Recycling Convention is a Failure* In the week of May 11-15 in Hong Kong, a new international treaty is expected to be adopted and signed. That treaty, created under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization, was meant to address the international shipbreaking crisis defined by:
• the environmental injustice of the worlds poorest communities and countries bearing a disproportionate burden from the hazardous waste, pollution, and other risks and harm posed by shipbreaking; • the lack of producer/ship owner responsibility to internalize the costs of such risks; • the disastrous waste management practices commonly employed in today’s largest shipbreaking yards, such as the practice of “beaching” – a method that endangers life, limb and the environment; and • the lack of green, toxic-free design in the shipbuilding industry that would more appropriately eliminate the use of harmful substances and make ships more safely recyclable. Despite repeated proposals over the last three years from civil society and labor organizations for treaty language that would address these prime facets of the shipbreaking crisis, the Convention now drafted fails on all counts. Environmental Injustice – Unlike the Basel Convention and the Basel Ban Amendment’s principled stand of protecting developing countries from economically motivated dumping of hazardous wastes on their territories, and despite the request from the Basel Convention Parties to ensure an “equivalent level of control” to that required by the Basel Convention, the IMO Convention was designed without even the most basic of Basel Convention obligations in place (e.g. “state-to-state notification and consent prior to export, right of port states to prevent export/import, obligation to create recycling facilities nationally, obligation to minimize transboundary movement of wastes etc.) Producer Irresponsibility – Despite widespread acceptance in most industrial sectors today for application of the “Polluter Pays” principle and “Extended Producer Responsibility” in order to internalize the costs and liabilities inherent in a ship, the IMO Convention only requires ship owners to conduct and maintain an inventory of hazardous substances onboard ships and to notify their flag state when a ship is ready for recycling. Despite shipowners benefitting economically from the life cycle of a ship, at the end of its useful life, the Convention gives shipowners a free ride to pass on the liabilities of the toxic materials to impoverished communities and developing countries. It is a passport to cost externalization and human exploitation. Disastrous Waste Management Practices Condoned – One would think that the most obvious improvements a new treaty would demand would be mandatory technological criteria for safe and environmentally sound recycling of old ships. The fulfillment of these requirements would best be enforced via third party audited certification programs to ensure a level playing field globally for all ship recycling countries. But the IMO Convention has only made recommendations via guidelines for improving conditions in the shipyards and worst; the guidelines fail to condemn the practice of running old ships up on beaches and cutting into them on the sands. The beaching method provides no containment for pollutants and no solid footing or access for lifting cranes or emergency equipment. Finally, the Convention has nothing to say at all about the waste management operations downstream of the immediate ship recycling yard. This head in the sand approach can allow for horrific management of asbestos, PCB contaminated materials and other hazardous wastes. No Mandate for Greening Design – Despite a mention of the substitution principle in the preamble to the Convention, there is any later reference to this principle, nor a requirement based on it, for a constant review of harmful substances used on ships with a view to substituting them with less harmful substances where possible. There are also no mandates to otherwise construct ships to make them easier and more safely dismantled. The fact that the IMO Convention fails to address the most pressing problems with shipbreaking today, but rather consists only of bureaucratic mechanisms confined to identifying hazardous substances on a ship, and requiring countries to authorize their shipbreaking facilities, means that the Convention will do nothing to prevent the disproportionate dumping of toxic waste ships on developing countries and little to change the horrific status quo of 90% of today’s deadly and polluting shipbreaking operations. It stands as an exercise designed to give pretense to dealing with the exploitive conditions, while continuing to allow the shipping industry to profit from their continuance. For Details: Gopal Krishna, Mb: 9818089660, Indian Platform on Shipbreaking --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---