24. Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution and Its Protocols

by Mr. Lars Nordberg

CONVENTION

The Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution is one of the main means of protecting our environment. Over the years, it has served as a bridge between different political systems and as a factor of stability in times of political change. It has substantially contributed to the development of international environmental law and created the essential framework for controlling and reducing the damage to human health and the environment of transboundary air pollution. It is a successful example of what can be achieved through intergovernmental cooperation.

The history of the Convention dates back to the 1960s, when scientists demonstrated the link between sulphur emissions in continental Europe and the acidification of Scandinavian lakes. The 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm marked the start of active international cooperation in combating acidification. Between 1972 and 1977 several studies confirmed the hypothesis that air pollutants could travel several thousand kilometres before deposition and damage occurred. This also implied that cooperation at international level was necessary to solve problems such as acidification.

In response to these acute problems, a High-level Ministerial Meeting on the Protection of the Environment took place within the framework of the ECE in November 1979 in Geneva. It resulted in the signature of the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution by 34 Governments and the European Community (EC). The Convention was the first international legally binding instrument to deal with problems of air pollution on a broad regional basis. Besides laying down the general principles of international cooperation for air pollution abatement, the Convention set up an institutional framework associating research and policy.

PROTOCOLS

The Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, ratified as of 2 June 1998 by 43 Parties, has, since its entry into force in 1983, been extended by five specific protocols:

(i) The 1984 Protocol on Long-term Financing of the Cooperative Programme for Monitoring and Evaluation of the Long-range Transmission of Air Pollutants in Europe (EMEP), ratified by 37 Parties;

(ii) The 1985 Protocol on the Reduction of Sulphur Emissions or their Transboundary Fluxes by at least 30 per cent, ratified by 21 Parties;

(iii) The 1988 Protocol concerning the Control of Nitrogen Oxides or their Transboundary Fluxes, ratified by 25 Parties;

(iv) The 1991 Protocol concerning the Control of Emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds or their Transboundary Fluxes, signed by 23 and ratified by 17 Parties; and

(v) The 1994 Protocol on Further Reduction of Sulphur Emissions, signed by 28 Parties and ratified by 17.

In 1995, the Executive Body for the Convention started preparing three new protocols on the following pollutants:

Negotiations on POPs and heavy metals were concluded in February 1998, while work on NO_x is continuing.

SECRETARIAT

As stipulated in article 11 of the Convention, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Europe provides the secretariat for the Executive Body of the Convention. It does so within the ECE Environment and Human Settlements Division.