Ship recycling
practices in Alang, India, are gradually improving. The European Commission
should acknowledge this positive development under the EU Ship Recycling
Regulation. Adopting an overly restrictive approach will discourage first
movers and further delay the entry into force of the IMO Hong Kong Convention.
These are the main
messages that ECSA took home from a fact-finding visit held last week in Alang,
India. The visit was organised in cooperation with the Indian government, the
Gujarat Maritime Board and the Ship Recycling Industry Association (SRIA) of
India. Next to European shipowners, the delegation visiting the yards included
representatives from EU Member States, the European Commission (DG Environment)
as well as the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS).
Like in most other
South Asian ship recycling yards, recycling operations in Alang take place in
intertidal zones. South Asian yards represent the greatest part of the world’s
ship recycling capacity, not only in terms of volume but also in terms of size
of ships enabled to be dismantled. The main purpose of the ECSA visit was to
assess to what extent operations in intertidal zones can be sustainable and
thus be potentially compliant with the provisions of the EU Ship Recycling
Regulation. This Regulation was adopted in 2013 in anticipation of the entry
into force of the 2009 IMO Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound
Recycling of Ships, also known as the ‘Hong Kong Convention’. The Convention,
and its accompanying guidelines, will establish a level playing field for
sustainable ship recycling activities worldwide.
“We were able to
visit a diverse number of yards in transparency and could take stock of
progress made in terms of health, safety and environmental protection”, said
ECSA Secretary General Patrick Verhoeven, “It is obvious that the
implementation of standards differs considerably, but an increasing number of
yards have clearly taken the responsible path towards full compliance with the
Hong Kong Convention, both in letter and spirit. We want to ensure that the
other yards are following these first movers so that the bar can be raised
overall. As the Hong Kong Convention has not entered into force yet, we have
encouraged these yards to apply for recognition under the EU Ship Recycling
Regulation. In turn, we urge the Commission to assess these applications in the
true spirit of the Regulation and the Convention.”
The EU Regulation
incorporates the provisions of the Hong Kong Convention. It establishes an EU
approved list of recycling facilities where EU-flagged vessels will have to be
scrapped. Ship recycling yards worldwide can apply to be included on this list.
The EU Regulation itself does not a priori preclude yards that operate in
intertidal zones from obtaining EU recognition. But the European Commission
issued on 12 April a set of far-reaching interpretative guidelines in the form
of ‘frequently asked questions’, which will make it in practice extremely
challenging for these yards to be recognised under the EU Regulation.
“The EU list can
really play a strategic role in motivating recycling yards all over the world
to be compliant with Hong Kong requirements, ahead of the entry into force of
the Convention”, said ECSA Safety & Environment Director Benoît Loicq,
“Last week’s visit has clearly brought new insights which show that the most
progressive yards in Alang are continuously improving in terms of health,
social welfare and safety conditions for workers and environmentally sound
operations”.
ECSA presented its
points on the EU Ship Recycling Regulation at a hearing organised by the
European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) yesterday. The presentation can
be found here.
Source: ECSA
(European Community Shipowners’ Associations)
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