Our second 2-page briefing paper with policy recommendations – this time on shipbreaking – has just been published in our resource library. As we speak, it is being used in Basel – where policymakers from all over the world are discussing matters related to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal. EU policymakers involved in the issue of shipbreaking are present there and a specialised NGO – shipbreaking platform – is urging them to stop the environmental injustices that are a result of the current legal framework and will continue to arise if the European Parliament would adopt the commission proposal made in March 2012. While they have worked hard on dismantling the legality of the current proposal, we have worked hard on putting some specific case studies in their proper environmental justice context – showing the lack of consistency, respect and justice when it comes to dumping the ships we use. We are working together on this issue and the fact that shipbreaking platform is using our report and policy recommendations show that our work does not end with a report. That is rather where it starts.
This policy briefing sums up what the problem with shipbreaking is, what the EU is doing wrong and what policymakers can actually change.
The project ENVJUSTICE has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 695446)