DARTMOUTH – A University of Massachusetts Dartmouth public policy professor and a student from Portugal have teamed up to write an article on how commercial sea shipping policies can hurt the environment, The Herald News reported on Monday.
The article, to be published in February’s edition of the International Journal of Sustainable Development, criticizes policies such as “foreign flagging” which allows ship owners to register a vessel in a nation with few environmental regulations. The practice allows cheaper shipping and lower prices “subsidized through environmental degradation,” say authors Professor Chad McGuire and graduate student Helen Perivier, who met through UMass Dartmouth’s graduate online environmental policy certificate program.
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“Environmental laws, both domestic and international, are being skirted through an open registry system,” says the article, “allowing ship owners to shop for a flag state with little to no environmental standards or enforcement.” For example, Panama, Liberia and the Marshall Islands have the highest rates of vessel owners.
The Herald News also noted that “shipbreaking,” or the dismantling of a ship, releases asbestos, oil and other chemicals into the ocean.
McGuire and Perivier suggest restricting registration to an owner’s home country, generally limiting ownership to developed countries, enacting stricter environmental standards and cultivating willingness among consumers to take on the greater costs as a result, the newspaper said.
