Final day

The third day of the conference was very intense, with KIMO having significant input into the shipping section.

We had some noticeable successes such as the acknowledgment of a liability by ship-owners on the loss of containers. This had been stubbornly opposed by some of the countries previously, but now it is part of the declaration.

A serious set-back on the transportation of nuclear waste from Sellafield to Sweden, with the UK “red-lining” any possibility of the mandatory use of “Best Available Technology” on the ships. This seems baffling at first, as the nuclear industry already claim to use BAT. It is just that they don’t want be forced to do so, and have the absolute backing of the UK in doing so.

A lot of manoeuvring involving Norway, the rewording of motions and some compromising, a water-down motion goes through. However, we are happy, as for the first time ever there has been an agreement that nuclear transportation is an issue to be considered by the Ministers.

We leave the conference tired, drained, but by and large happy. We’ll have to review the final declaration in due course, but we have taken some large steps forward in protecting the environment despite the UK Government who seemed to support big business above all.

A mad dash to the airport lies ahead and I’ll probably see more of Gothenburg during the taxi ride than I have all week.

Update: 6/6/06
The Shetland Times reports some of KIMOs successes at the meeting

Update: 7/6/06
The final declaration is available here in Word format.