In the Bangladesh port city of Chittagong, activists
want the EU to get tough on the booming ship recycling industry that has become
notorious for its poor labour and environmental safety records. New EU
legislation is already in the making and could be finalised in June.
Negotiators from the European Parliament, Commission
and Council are due to meet on Tuesday (7 May) in the first round of talks
aimed at hammering out a regulation on the scrapping of old ships – many of
which end up in South Asia for dismantling and recycling.
The Bangladesh industry has long been the target of
labour rights campaigners and environmental lawyers. Today, business is
booming, buoyed by a surplus of ocean-going vessels and home-grown demand for
raw materials.
“At the rate ship breaking is going on in the
ship-breaking yards, those workers are working like machines, they are dying
every day and there are massive explosions, accidents and injuries,” said
Muhammad Ali Shahin, the Bangladesh coordinator for the Shipbreaking Platform,
a Brussels-based campaign group.
“That’s a very common thing of the industry because
there is no safety, no precaution, no training and no care for the workers,”
Shahin said in telephone interview from Chittagong, one of the busiest ship
dismantling areas in South Asia.
Shahin said as many as 20 workers were killed on the
job last year, but the human toll is believed to be much higher because
official figures do not count the long-term illnesses suffered by workers
handling asbestos and other toxins without safe disposal facilities.
Globally, some 1,300 ocean-going vessels were sent
for recycling in 2012, 838 of which ended up in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
More than 300 originated from EU countries, according to data collected by the
Shipbreaking Platform.
Shipping tax divides
Parliament
The European Parliament on 18 April approved
legislation that would put the EU in line with a global agreement on the safe
dismantling of ships, known as the Hong Kong Convention, which was adopted by
delegates to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 2009 but has not
yet been ratified.
The EU regulation would be obligatory for all EU
states. It includes a ban on beaching, or parking vessels in coastal areas for
dismantling, and requires the EU to monitor overseas facilities handling the
recycling of European vessels.
While the overall legislation had overwhelming
support in the Parliament, there was a different reception for a proposal to
impose a tax on all ships entering EU ports to help finance EU-approved
recycling facilities in third countries. The tax, backed by Swedish MEP Carl
Schlyter (Greens), was defeated by a narrow vote, 299-292, though the
Parliament said the levy should be considered in future.
The differences must now be hammered out by the EU’s
three-decisionmaking branches over the next month.
Pressure groups are already lining up, with campaign
organisations like the Shipbreaking Platform calling for the restoration of the
tax, and the shipping industry pressing for a reversal of some obligations
approved by MEPs.
Shippers say battle isn’t
over
“The battle is still far from over,” said Simon
Bennett, director of external relations for the International Chamber of
Shipping in London, which opposes provisions that would allow EU inspections of
overseas recycling facilities and the ban on beaching of end-of-life vessels.
The chamber contends that the Hong Kong Convention on
ship breaking addresses labour safety and environmental protections and that
the legislation approved by MEPs would put the UN ratification process are
risks. The convention, if ratified, would be overseen by the International
Maritime Organisation, or IMO.
“It would be extremely difficult for the EU members
states to ratify the IMO convention” if the EU regulation is approved, Bennett
said, adding that China, India and others “would not ratify it if the EU
doesn’t and that would mean the end of the IMO convention.”
Bennett said the proposed regulation’s call for
monitoring of third-country facilities and the beaching ban would not be
acceptable to some of the ship-breaking nations that have already supported the
Hong Kong agreement.
“In itself, beaching is not an unacceptable method of
recycling ships so long as it complies with the IMO conventions,” Bennett said
in a telephone interview.
Fighting for the tax
Faced for years with lawsuits brought by the
Environmental Lawyers Association in Dhaka and pressure from other groups, the
Bangladesh government in recent years enacted laws to protect coastal areas and
the estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people who work in the ship recycling industry.
At the same time, the industry and government say
ship recycling not only provides employment, but is a vital source of raw
materials, including iron, that are otherwise unavailable in the poor nation of
164 million.
But the Shipbreaking Platform’s Bangladesh
coordinator discounts such claims, saying “in fact, they are damaging the
environment, killing the workers and they are violating the national and
international law.”
Shahin said Bangladesh and other countries engaged in
ship dismantling would benefit from European investment in safe facilities for
the recycling of ships and disposal of toxic materials.
“The way ship breaking is going on in Bangladesh and
India, for instance, they are just breaking the ships on the seashore, and
they’re just cutting the ships on the ocean, and all the toxins are going onto
the sea and into the environment,” he said.
Shahin’s group is urging governments to require that
recycling take place in dry docks are equipped with safety equipment and
disposal facilities, and that funds be made available to do so.
“When we say this there is the argument that it’s not
possible for a country like Bangladesh to make dockyards to break ships, 50-60
ships at a time. In that case, the European shipping companies who want to send
their ships and who want to get rid of their ships, they should finance to
build [ship-breaking] facilities in our country.”
Positions:
Patrizia Heidegger, executive director of the
Shipbreaking Platform, has accused centre-right politicians in the Parliament
of bowing to the shipping industry in killing a fund to improve environmental
and working conditions at recycling operations.
“The idea of a fund has been discussed for 15 years
at the European level. Let’s face it: the Parliament failed to uphold its own
principles and to deliver as promised,” she said in a statement after the
parliamentary vote on 18 April. “Last year, one European ship was sent to a
substandard beaching yard in South Asia every day. The EU needs to move now if
it really wants to hold European shipowners accountable.”
A proposal to impose a tax on all ships entering EU
ports to help finance EU-approved recycling facilities in third countries was
narrowly defated by the European Parliament on 18 April. The tax, backed by
Swedish MEP Carl Schlyter (Greens), was defeated by a narrow vote, 299-292.
"While the EP has voted to put an end to
European ships being recklessly scrapped in developing countries in hazardous
conditions, this is jeopardized by the failure to adopt a financial mechanism
to support it,” Schlyter said in a statement after the vote. “It is very
frustrating that a narrow majority succumbed to highly misleading lobbying by
the maritime sector, seeking to shirk its responsibilities, and voted down the
proposed financial mechanism that would have made safe ship recycling
competitive."
End-of-life vessels containing toxic materials or
residue and sent abroad for dismantling fall under the Basel Convention, a
UN-administered treaty on the disposal and shipment of hazardous waste.
“One of our demands is to ensure that the
pre-cleaning of every ship before it starts moving to shipbreaking countries,”
said Muhammad Ali Shahin, the Bangladesh coordinator for the Shipbreaking
Platform, referring to the Basel treaty.
“We have to ensure that the ships are toxic-free,” he
said. “It has to be ensured by the international parties and also the national
government. So that means the continuity is there. The last port of the ships
also [must] be sure that the toxic waste is removed, and also our national
government has to ensure that whatever is coming, it is not bringing any toxic
material.”
Next steps:
7 May: First of three anticipated rounds of
negotiations on ship recycling legislation between the European Parliament,
Commission and Council.
June: Final vote on compromise legislation expected
in European Parliament
2020: Anticipated date for International Maritime
Organization members to ratify the Hong Kong Convention on ship recycling
Source: euractiv.
3 May 2013
http://www.euractiv.com/sustainability/eu-leaders-pressure-toughen-ship-news-519493
