Ships should not be allowed to
call at any EU port without a ship recycling license, according to a report
from the European Commission.
Regardless of the flag under which they sail,
ships should not be allowed to call at any EU port without a ship recycling
license, according to a report from the European Commission.
Written by Ecorys, classification society
DNV-GL and the Erasmus University School of Law and published yesterday,
the report, ‘Financial instrument to
facilitate safe and sound ship recycling’ looks into the possibility of
introducing a financial incentive to enhance safe and environmentally sound
ship recycling.
Under the proposals, ship recycling license
fees would be earmarked to cover the cost-gap between substandard and
sustainable end-of-life ship management.
The capital amount accumulated during the
operational life of the vessel would be set aside for the ship and only paid
back to the last owner of the vessel as a premium if the ship is recycled in a
sustainable facility approved by the EU.
Following the publication of the report,
Stephane Arditi, products & waste policy manager at the European
Environmental Bureau called on the European Commission to follow-up this report
with a legislative proposal.
“The effective implementation of European
environmental policies has been dependent on making the ‘polluter pay’. If the
EU is serious about its commitment to sustainable ship recycling, all ship
owners trading in Europe need to be held financially liable,” commented
NGO, Shipbreaking Platform noted that the
2013 EU Ship Recycling Regulation requires all vessels sailing under an EU flag
to use an approved ship recycling facility. A list of approved ship recycling
facilities globally will be published by the end of 2016.
However, the organisation said that one major
shortcoming of the Regulation, which is that shipowners can circumvent the law
by simply flagging out to a non-EU flag. At end-of-life, cash-buyers act as
intermediaries and sell the vessels to substandard yards in South Asia often
using flags of convenience which are grey- or black-listed by European
governments under the Paris Memorandum of Understanding.
The NGO added that last year, Bangladesh,
where human rights abuses and pollution caused by shipbreaking activities are
known to be the worst, was the preferred destination for end-of-life ships. EU
owners account for around one third of the end-of-life tonnage beached in
substandard yards in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
Europe
According to Shipbreaking Platform the EU is
the single largest market sending end-of-life ships for dirty and dangerous
shipbreaking and has a particular responsibility to regulate ship recycling.
The NGO said that while approximately 40% of
the world fleet is controlled by owners based in the EU+EFTA, only 17% of the
world fleet sails under an EU+EFTA flag.
The vast majority of EU-owned ships are said
to be sailing under the flags of states such as Panama, Liberia and the
Marshall Islands during operational life and the percentage of EU flags was
claimed to drop to less than 8% at end-of-life.
“EU shipping companies should not circumvent
EU environmental laws and not utilise practices that would never be allowed in
Europe. EU flag-neutral measures which apply equally to all ships calling at EU
ports are necessary to increase environmental protection” commented Sotiris
Raptis, shipping and aviation officer at Transport and Environment.
The organisation added that European ports
are not opposing the ‘ship recycling license’ and SeaEurope, Europe’s ship yard
and maritime equipment association, was said to have expressed enthusiasm
towards ensuring better implementation of the Ship Recycling Regulation, and to
have called for support to enhance ship recycling capacity and R&D towards
more cost effective solutions in Europe
“The upcoming EU list of approved ship
recycling facilities will function as an important market differentiator for
yards that have already invested in proper occupational health & safety and
environmental standards,” said Jenssen, policy director at Shipbreaking
Platform.
“The use of the EU listed facilities will
however depend on the introduction of an effective financial incentive that
forces irresponsible shipowners towards better practices” Jenssen concluded.
Source: waste-management-world.
7 July 2016
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