The Asian Shipowners' Association has called
for the ratification of the Hong Kong Convention, and is in talks with the
International Chamber of Shipping and the European Community Shipowners'
Associations, or ECSA, on the EU's proposal to potentially introduce a levy on
all ships entering EU ports to incentivize shipowners to recycle their ships in
an environmentally friendly way.
"Our view is that we need only one
international policy, and the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe
and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships is backed by the International
Maritime Organization," secretary general of National Association of
Chinese Shipowners Bob Hsu told S&P Global Platts Monday.
It was one of the issues raised during ASA's
annual general meeting held in Shanghai, China on May 20.
ASA called on its members -- which include
NACS -- to encourage their own governments to ratify the Hong Kong Convention
"at the earliest opportunity."
The Hong Kong International Convention for
the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, or HKC, was adopted by
IMO at a conference in Hong Kong in May 2009, but only a handful of the 15 ship-owning
and ship scrapping nations representing 40% of the world's gross tonnage have
ratified it.
HKC is aimed at ensuring that ships, when
being recycled after reaching the end of their operational lives, do not pose
any unnecessary risk to human health and safety or to the environment.
The EU Ship Recycling Regulation, however,
incorporates the provisions of HKC and 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.
However, the guidelines in practice make it
extremely challenging for these yards to be recognized under EU Regulation,
said ASA and ECSA.
For one, these yards need to ensure safe
working conditions, pollution control including proper downstream waste
management and the enforcement of international labor rights, said
environmental groups.
"Workers still do not have access to
free drinking water and toilets, and there is no hospital, nor ambulance
available for the estimated 20,000 workers," said Indian nongovernmental
organization Paryavaran Mitra, in describing the working conditions of ship
recycling workers in Alang town, India.
"Alang yards use the beaching method
where pollution control is made impossible by the tide and safe working
conditions cannot be ensure," it added.
India, Bangladesh, China and Pakistan are
global centers of ship breaking and recycling, with Alang being the largest in
the world.
Brussels-based NGO Shipbreaking Platform
points out that shipowners' associations have found a convenient solution in
advocating the HKC as it does not ban the beaching method -- where ships are
first grounded and then dismantled, posing hazards to workers and the
environment -- and it does not introduce strict rules on downstream waste
management.
"Anyone can hand out Statements of
Compliance [or SOCs] to ship breaking yards claiming they operate in line with
the convention. While some certifiers act with more diligence, others have
started to offer cheaper and quicker certifications," NGO Shipbreaking
Platform's executive director Patrizia Heidegger said.
Lax certification could render the standard
meaningless as in the case with ISO 30000:2009, for which most yards in India
and Bangladesh were quick to produce certificates, Heidegger added.
ECSA, for its part, visited eight ship
recycling yards in Alang last month and found that while the implementation of
standards differed considerably among the yards, these yards have "taken
the responsible path towards full compliance with the Hong Kong Convention,
both in letter and spirit," said ECSA's secretary general Patrick
Verhoeven.
"We want to ensure that the other yards
are following these first movers so that the bar can be raised overall,"
said Verhoeven, adding that adopting an overly restrictive approach will
discourage first movers and further delay the implementation of the IMO Hong
Kong Convention.
Verhoeven called on these first movers to
apply for recognition under the EU Ship Recycling Regulation, and also urged
the European Commission to "assess these applications in the true spirit
of the Regulation and the Convention."
Representatives from EU member states, the
European Commission (DG Environment) as well as the International Chamber of
Shipping were part of the delegation that visited the Alang yards in late
April.
Source: plats.
30 May 2016
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