The navy mentioned in an announcement that the operation to sink the São Paulo, a Clemenceau-class provider, was carried out with the mandatory technical competencies and security measures in “order to keep away from logistical, operational, environmental and financial losses to the Brazilian state.”
Regardless of these assurances, it was a close to certainty that not everybody would see it that manner. Shipbreaking Platform, a coalition of nonprofits that advocates for the protected recycling of ships, mentioned final week {that a} managed sinking would “equate to a state-sponsored environmental crime.”
Earlier than Friday’s operation, the São Paulo had been on the heart of a months-long odyssey, with governments on a number of continents refusing to let it dock.
Final summer season, the ship left Brazil and set sail for Turkey, the place a neighborhood firm that purchased the ship in 2021 deliberate to recycle it safely and promote its scraps. However that voyage got here to a halt close to Gibraltar.
Environmental teams had argued that the vessel contained a lot bigger portions of poisonous supplies, together with asbestos, than had been acknowledged. The Turkish authorities rescinded the ship’s import permission.
The São Paulo rotated and went again to Brazil, however neither officers right here nor the navy would enable it to dock. It circled round. The navy mentioned just lately that the situation of the ship was deteriorating and that harm to the hull meant there was a excessive danger that it might run aground, sink uncontrollably or block waterways.
So the navy deliberate to sink it itself.
In a observe final month, Ibama, Brazil’s environmental company, detailed the doable penalties of sinking the ship.
The pollution packed inside its construction might impede the expansion of aquatic organisms. The influence of the ship on the ocean flooring might kill species and degrade ecosystems. The hydrofluorocarbons — chemical compounds hundreds of instances extra highly effective than carbon dioxide in warming the planet — used to insulate rooms might degrade the ozone layer.
Ibama mentioned this week that it sought extra info from the navy earlier than it moved to sink the ship. The federal government filed lawsuits, however they had been rejected. The navy mentioned it might sink the vessel removed from environmental safety areas, and away from undersea communication cables.
Brazil purchased the 30,000-ton São Paulo from France in 2000 and decommissioned it in 2018.
