Eco-partisans blast IMO's Hong Kong ship recycling scheme

ENVIRONMENTAL lobbyists in Brussels are mounting an attack on the International Maritime Organisation's (IMO) Hong Kong Convention on ship recycling as not good enough.

"Instead of closing the loopholes of the Basel Convention [on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal] it opens new ones," NGO Platform on Shipbreaking spokeswoman Grazia Cioci told a London Shipping Law Centre seminar.

The activist group calls the IMO convention on ship recycling "a step backward", reported Lloyd's List. The group also says the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships 2009 "lacks ambition and principles".

Ms Cioci argued that shipowners should be held accountable for ships dismantled on Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani shores, where 70 per cent of dead ships go, which, she claims, results in pollution and loss of life.

"Putting responsibility on the flag states will not change the situation on the ground," Ms Cioci said.

Flags of convenience used for final voyages, such as Mongolia and Tuvalu, demand few taxes and are unlikely to implement stricter regulations, she said.
(Source:www.schednet.com)