OECD working party favours Green Growth in shipbuilding

FRANCE: Maritime industries such as shipbuilding, shipping and ship recycling/breaking use materials and manufacturing practices that impact on the environment, cause climate change and have an effect on sustainable development. On July 7-8, the OECD working party on shipbuilding (OECD WP6) organized a workshop on Green Growth in Shipbuilding, in Paris, to share best practices and extend the policy dialogue to non-OECD economies and related maritime industries.

Life-cycle thinking was one of the most important concepts shared in the workshop. For example, the shipping operation phase in an oil tanker's life-cycle accounts for more than 98 per cent of CO2 emissions. Construction and recycling (shipbreaking) only produce 1.5 per cent of emissions. In order to reduce emissions, it is therefore sensible to focus on the operation phase. The shipbuilding industry and machinery and equipment manufacturers can, however, contribute in all phases to reduce CO2 emissions and their environmental impact by using "green" and recycle-friendly technologies in the shipbuilding process.

On the labour side Kan Matsuzaki, IMF director for shipbuilding-shipbreaking, participated on behalf of TUAC. Matsuzaki raised issues of environmental protection, sustainable job creation, and the situation of shipbreaking workers who have been left behind in the transition to life cycle and "green" thinking. He also underlined the need for a cooperative linkage between shipbuilding and shipbreaking, in order to promote Green Growth in all maritime sectors and for all workers.  

The participants of the workshop realized that co-operation across sectors is crucial. The question is now how to facilitate this. The secretariat of OECD WP6 will prepare a report using the outcome of this workshop.

Documents and presentations of the workshop are available at the OECD WP6 website.