IMO rejects campaigners’ call for ban on beaching

The groups found little support for the measure among IMO member states when they presented their proposal at the committee stage of the IMO’s diplomatic conference in Hong Kong last week.
North Sea Foundation maritime campaign coordinator Eelco Leemans was disappointed at the lack of support and agreed it was an “opportunity lost” to give the convention “green teeth”.
Greenpeace International and Friends of the Earth International warned that the lack of a ban on beaching “may turn back the clock by establishing a regime with lower levels of control and standards of performance than those that exist already under the International Labour Organization and Basel convention’s legal regimes and guidelines”.
Mr Leemans, whose group is affiliated to Friends of the Earth International, said proponents for a ban were “not saying beaching should stop next month or next year – that would not work”.
Instead, groups were seeking a commitment in the convention for the responsible recycling of ships that protected the environment and the health and safety of workers.
“What I hoped for was that one of the European countries would say beaching should be phased out and we should consider a timeline for that phase-out,” Mr Leemans said.
He added: “What surprised me was the silence by European states. Only three European countries – Denmark, Sweden and the UK – spoke.”
The UK’s position was that beaching should not be considered at the IMO conference because “it was not what the conference was about”, Mr Leemans said.
He added that the Bahamas spoke strongly against a ban on beaching, saying it would lead to massive job cuts in shipbreaking yards in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan as the ship recycling industry moved from south Asia to Europe.
Ghana was the only IMO member state that supported a ban on beaching – a move that “surprised” those in favour of a ban.
Whether to impose a ban on beaching was one of the key issues facing delegates before they approved the final ship recycling convention and the document was signed.
Others included agreement on an implementation schedule after the convention is adopted, issues over hot work and the preparation of guidelines that can be used by the shipping industry before the convention takes effect.
Mr Leemans said: “The only way to get rid of beaching is to make the criteria for recycling so strict that it becomes impossible. That is an issue of who will enforce it. If it is left to the ship recycling states, we are not going to see much change.”
He added that environmental , human rights and labour groups would continue the campaign to outlaw beaching but would move away from the IMO to work through the Basel Convention and ILO.
“The signing of the convention was seen as the end of the issue, but for us it was not,” Mr Leemans said.