[200111.EN.SEA] Eco-damage Done By Shipping, Says Massachusetts Professor

Commercial shipping policies cut cost at the price of the environment said a report by public policy professor of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and a graduate student.

Policies such as "foreign-flagging" are cheap shipping "subsidised through environmental degradation" and skirt around environmental laws through an open registry system said report authors Professor Chad McGuire and Lisbon-based Helen Perivier, graduate of University of Massachusetts (Umass) online environmental policy certificate programme.

This allows "ship owners to shop for a flag state with little to no environmental standards or enforcement," said the peer-reviewed paper to be published in the International Journal of Sustainable Development in February, citing Panama, Liberia and the Marshall Islands' high rates of vessel owners.

By restricting registration to an owner's home town the number of ownerships to developed countries will decrease. However, the tightening environmental standards will require consumers to meet higher costs as a result, said a report from the Fall River, Massachusetts, Herald News.

The dismantling of a ship, "shipbreaking", of obsolete vessels for recycling was also raised by Prof McGuire and Ms Pervier for its harm to the environment through release of hazardous waste into the ocean of asbestos, oil and other chemicals.

Source : HKSG, 14.01.11.