Policy

Background
The POPs Convention

Background

From the Washington Declaration on the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land Based Activities:"...Strongly supporting the processes set forth in decisions 18/31 and 18/32 of 25 May 1995 of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme for addressing at the global level the priority issues of persistent organic pollutants...

The UN Global Program of Action (GPA) for the protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities UNEP (1995) has been developed in response to Agenda 21 of the Rio Declaration (UN Publications 1992, COCF 1993), to build on the earlier work of the 1985 Montreal Guidelines on Marine Pollution from Land-based Sources. Under the GPA, the 19th session of the UNEP Governing Council decided to establish a negotiating committee to prepare a global, legally -binding agreement on at least 12 persistent organic pollutants. This latter initiative, together with the POP protocol developed by the UN ECE, are significant in addressing the threats to the Marine Environment globally.(AMAP,1998).

Countries that signed the Washington Declaration on the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land Based Activities agreed on the policy of phasing persistent organic pollutants out or limiting their use. Therefore the signatory countries are supporting UNEP's action towards the definition of an international convention on POPs. This policy will be gradually implemented with the future final goal of banning production, trade and use of POPs, as well as defining a procedure to assess and include more chemicals in the convention.

The POPs Convention

The Stockholm convention on persistent organic pollutants stipulates provisions in four main areas:

• General obligations.
• Control provisions for:
  • intentionally produced POPs such as: pesticides and PCBs,
  • unintentionally produced POPs as dioxins, furans, HCB and PCBs and
  • POPs in stockpiles and wastes.
• Procedure for adding new POPs.
• Financial and technical assistance.

The goal for intentionally produced POPs (pesticides and industrial chemicals as PCBs), is to eliminate production and use: to achieve this goal, the production and use will be either eliminated or restricted and, in each case, trade will be restricted.

• Annex A lists nine chemicals slated for elimination:
  • Aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, chlordane, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), mirex, PCBs and toxaphene,
• Annex B lists one chemical, DDT, slated for restriction, for which there is a specified "Acceptable Purpose": public health use (e.g. malaria).

Chemicals listed in Annexes A and B are subject to exemptions (e.g. exemptions in quantity or specific exemptions) and trade will be restricted for them.

The goal for unintentionally produced POPs is to continuing minimisation and, where feasible, ultimate elimination of the total releases of chemicals in Annex C (dioxins, furans, hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and PCBs) derived from anthropogenic sources. The goal of reducing or eliminating releases will be reached trough the promotion of strategies and measures as reducing sources by feasible practical means or, preventing formation and releases.

The goal for POPs in stockpiles and wastes is their environmental sound management as well as for products and articles, upon becoming wastes, that consist of, contain or are contaminated by POPs.

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