News

Greenpeace calls on France not to scrap deadly Clemenceau in India

Toulon, France. 12 December 2005 - Four Greenpeace climbers today successfully climbed to top of the loading crane at the Port of Toulon, where the Clemenceau, a French Navy air carrier is berthed and preparing to depart to India where it will be finally dismantled. Three other activists are currently on the mast of the ship and have unfurled banners that say: "Asbestos carrier, Stay out of India!" An eighth activist circled the ship on a motorised paraglider flying a banner that read in French: Asbestos carrier: not here, not anywhere. Three other activists on an inflatable were stopped by local authorities.

The Clemenceau may be one of the largest ships to be sent for scrap but every year a vast decrepit armada bearing a dangerous cargo of toxic substances including asbestos, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and heavy metals, ends up in Asian ship breaking yards (Bangladesh, India, China and Pakistan) where they are cut up in the crudest of fashions taking a huge toll on human health and the local environment.

"The sorry story of the Clemenceau is the story of ship breaking in general, a tragic case of pass the toxic parcel," said Pascal Husting, Executive director of Greenpeace France. "After years of attempts to find a cheap way of dumping the Clemenceau and its load of at least 130 tonnes of deadly asbestos and other toxics, once again the French Government tries to send it for breaking in the unregulated yards of India. This is an unacceptable practice of waste dumping. "

End of life ships should be treated like any other toxic material under the internationally recognised Basel Convention which bans the dumping of such waste by OECD countries in non-OECD countries. However, the shipping industry and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), fearing that ships would become subject to a strict environmental justice regime, claim that the Basel Convention has no competence over ships for scrap.

"Dumping this asbestos carrier on India or any other Asian ship breaking yard not equipped to deal with toxic ships is an unofficial declaration of war against the environment and against unprotected, vulnerable and poor workers. This ship has been rejected for export to Greece and Turkey before. Surely, it should also stay out of India. ," said Ramapati Kumar of Greenpeace India.

Today, at the Palais de Nations in Geneva, representatives of three United Nations bodies, IMO, the Basel Convention and the International Labour Organisations (ILO), will begin a three-day meeting to discuss ways to bring the ship breaking industry under control. The IMO has resisted any attempt to loosen its grip on all ship related regulation and bring the shipping industry under the control of the Basel Convention. Earlier this month the IMO announced plans to develop a new treaty for ship scrapping. However, it will not come into effect for at least another five years and is likely to place the burden of responsibility for hazardous waste on poor workers at the breaking yards in Asia and not on the ship owners.

"Not all of the casualties of this toxic trade are unknown," said Marietta Harjono of Greenpeace International, in Geneva at the launch of a new report produced jointly by Greenpeace and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) on ship breaking. The report follows the story of 110 workers who have died during accidents in ship breaking yards of India and Bangladesh.

"While the talking continues so does the dying," said Harjono. "This week discussions must conclude-at a minimum-that until the IMO provides new regulations for ship breaking that the shipping industry should adhere to the Basel Convention and international human rights conventions."