2. Immediate International Action on POPs

by Ms. Agneta Sundén-Bylhén

UNEP's Governing Council, at its nineteenth session in February 1997 concluded that international action, including a global legally binding instrument, is required to reduce the risks to human health and the environment arising from the release of the 12 POPs (PCBs, dioxins and furans, aldrin, dieldrin, DDT, endrin, chlordane, hexachlorobenzene, mirex, toxaphene, and heptachlor). The Governing Council requested that UNEP prepare for and convene by early 1998 an intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC), with a mandate to prepare an international legally binding instrument for implementing international action, initially beginning with the 12 POPs. It further requested that an expert group be established under the INC to develop science-based criteria and a procedure for identifying additional POPs as candidates for future international action. The Governing Council also requested UNEP to initiate a number of immediate actions involving development and sharing of information; evaluation and monitoring of the success of implemented strategies; alternatives to POPs; identification and inventories of PCBs; available destruction capacity; identification of sources of dioxins and furans and aspects of their management.

POPs are chemical substances which are persistent, bioaccumulate and pose a risk of causing adverse effects to human health and the environment. It is widely accepted that the use of such persistent, bioaccumulating and toxic substances cannot be considered a sustainable practice. However, for different social and economic reasons such substances are still in use and/or released to the environment. With the evidence of long-range transport of these substances to regions where they have never been used or produced and the consequent threats they pose to the environment of the whole globe, the international community has called for urgent global actions to reduce and eliminate releases of these chemicals.

In UNEP Governing Council decision 18/32, the Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals (IOMC) was requested to initiate an assessment process on POPs, starting with the twelve substances. In addition, the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS) was requested to make recommendations and provide information needed for a possible decision regarding international action on POPs for consideration at the 1997 session of the UNEP Governing Council and the World Health Assembly.

The IFCS concluded at its meeting in Manila in June 1996, that there is sufficient information to demonstrate that international action, including a global legally binding instrument, is required to reduce the risks to human health and the environment arising from the release of the 12 POPs. IFCS recommended to the UNEP Governing Council and the World Health Assembly to decide that immediate international action should be initiated to protect human health and the environment through measures which will reduce and / or eliminate the emissions and discharges of the 12 POPs.

The UNEP Governing Council endorsed, in February 1997, the conclusions and recommendations of the IFCS, and requested that UNEP, together with relevant international organizations, prepare for and convene an intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC), with a mandate to prepare an international legally binding instrument for implementing international action, initially beginning with the 12 POPs. It also requested that at the first meeting of the INC in early 1998, an expert group be established to develop science-based criteria and a procedure for identifying additional POPs as candidates for future international action.

The UNEP Governing Council further requested UNEP to initiate immediate actions on other measures needed with regard to: the development and sharing of information; evaluation and monitoring of the success of implemented strategies; alternatives to POPs; identification and inventories of PCBs; available destruction capacity; identification of sources of dioxins and furans and aspects of their management. UNEP will during 1997 also cooperate with the IFCS Ad Hoc Working Group on POPs in preparing for the first meeting of the INC by organizing awareness raising workshops and collecting relevant information for the expert group regarding criteria for adding further POPs candidates.

The POPs related activities on which UNEP intends to focus its efforts in 1997 are briefly described below. Most of the activities will be continued into 1998 when the first INC meeting will take place. These activities are meant to be both preparatory and catalytic regarding global, regional and national actions. Information products will, to the extent possible, be made self-sustainable through interactive processes via INTERNET and other tools whereby contributors will be able to provide information as it becomes available. Further activities will depend on the needs required throughout the INC process.

This cluster of activities is intended for raising awareness of the current global, regional and national situation with regard to pollution due to various POPs. Five regional/sub-regional workshops will be organized in close partnership with the IFCS Ad Hoc Working Group on POPs, as well as with UN Economic Commission for Europe, UNEP Water (in relation to the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment) and the Secretariat for the Basel Convention, to cover all regions of developing countries and countries with economies in transition in 1997 and early 1998, before the start of the first session of INC/POPs. The workshops are intended to provide participants with an overall picture of the global POPs problem, and focus in some detail on the nature of the problem in countries in the region, as well as consideration of possible mechanisms to understand and address environmental releases of POPs that may be occurring. Among the topics for discussion are alternatives to POPs, case studies of POPs problems in the region, as well as studies of how some countries have addressed these problems, and barriers to addressing POPs problems, initiation of national inventories of POPs emissions, discharges and losses, dioxin emission sources and PCBs containing equipment as potential sources of PCBs releases. Proceedings will be issued in English and other UN languages specific to the region following such workshop and will be widely distributed throughout the region.

The well-informed participation of all countries will be essential for the success of the intergovernmental negotiations on POPs in addition to general awareness raising and supporting the ability of countries to take immediate action on POPs. UNEP Chemicals will therefore immediately initiate work to expedite the implementation of UNEP Governing Council Decision 19/13 regarding the development and sharing of information on the 12 POPs. The expected outcome will be the enhancement of the knowledge base of country representatives on POPs and a better evaluation of the scope of POPs issues in different regions.

The first set of activities in this area will lead to the establishment of a network of POPs contact points. This will facilitate the collection and delivery of information at the country level and the enhancement of the clearinghouse site for POPs information on Internet. Both the human network and the electronic facilities will then be used to promote information exchange among all parties.

Special attention will be given to information delivery to developing countries and countries in transition, through the production of alternative information products (hardcopies, diskettes) from the INTERNET site and the database. Short technical documents on the 12 POPs based on existing documents will also be produced to facilitate the digestion of the information by countries with shortage of technical capacity.

A POPs inventory database providing references to major sources of existing toxicological and regulatory information from different countries will be developed and made available via the Internet Homepage on POPs and through other media.

To help characterize the present situation as regards POPs and associated problems and issues in individual countries and in regions, especially in those of developing countries and countries with economies in transition, information will be collected from governments on the present status, use and release of the different POPs substances in their country; on case studies describing particular problems and issues; and on actions, planned or implemented, to reduce / eliminate releases (or use) of any of the twelve POPs. Information packages for the different regions will be developed and distributed to all countries and others concerned through the Internet Homepage and via other means.

The information exchange activity area, will be integrated with other activities addressing alternatives to POPs, PCBs and dioxins/furans.

The Governing Council of UNEP requested in February 1997, that immediate action be initiated to improve the availability of information and expertise on alternatives to POPs through information exchange and education programmes to enable governments to make their own decisions on replacing POPs with alternatives, and to develop guidance on the selection of replacements for POPs pesticides.

A report on alternatives to the 12 POPs was developed through a Swedish project for the IFCS meeting in June 1996. UNEP will further improve the information base and collect more data from Governments, IGOs, NGOs and academia, also covering information on planned and implemented projects and / or action plans aimed at reducing or eliminating the releases of any of the 12 POPs. A user-friendly format for both entering and searching the information will be developed and made available through the UNEP's Internet Homepage on POPs as well as through publications. The product will not only address alternative substances for various uses of the POPs but will also address alternative techniques and methodologies which can lead to reduction / elimination of releases of the 12 POPs. When available, information on expertise for the various substitutes / techniques / projects will be provided.

The information collected on alternatives and especially experiences from planned and implemented projects and action plans will provide useful input for the development of guidance on the selection of replacements for POPs . UNEP will attempt to involve the best available expertise for the development of such guidance, and anticipates that this could be developed for all types of POPs, covering various considerations relevant for alternative substances, techniques and methodologies.

In a later phase of this activity, expertise will be engaged in developing training modules on decision making regarding the replacements of POPs and reductions of their releases, as well as in implementing a training programme in different regions. Different training modules will focus on different types of POPs, i.e. industrial chemicals and contaminants as well as pesticides used for agricultural and public health purposes. It is anticipated that these activities will subsequently provide a good basis for developing regional / sub-regional and national action plans for replacing / reducing releases of POPs.

The objectives of this project are: to assist countries to identify where PCBs are found and in developing inventories of PCBs in use, in storage and in waste; to develop an inventory of available destruction capacity worldwide; and to develop a checklist or simple guidelines on how to identify PCB-containing materials.

As an initial step, UNEP will develop a compendium of available national guidance on the identification of PCBs in use, stockpiles and waste-containing PCBs. The compendium will focus on what has already been done and is available for governments to study. The compendium will be available as a publication and via Internet.

In co-operation with the Secretariat of the Basel Convention, UNEP Chemicals will identify the worldwide capacity to destroy PCBs and issue a report listing facilities that can handle PCBs, and relevant information on those facilities.

UNEP Chemicals, in cooperation with the Secretariat for the Basel Convention, will develop a checklist or simple guidelines on how to identify PCB containing materials that would be useful for countries who have not yet made such an identification, especially developing countries or countries with economies in transition. This checklist or guidelines will to a large extent be based on information collected from Governments and Industry.

Information on sources of releases of dioxins and furans that have been identified in countries will be collected and consolidated in 1997. For this purpose a network of partners (institutions and experts) from international and regional organizations, national governments, industry, academia and NGOs will be established and country visits will be organized. An inventory of such information will be issued in early 1998 to be used as a general reference for governments as well as at catalytic-type regional/sub-regional workshops. A compendium of guidance materials on management of releases of dioxins and furans from various sources, including conditions influencing the amount released from similar sources and other relevant factors, will be prepared by the end of 1998 to facilitate national action programmes in this area. Field visits and clearing house activities will also be organized to support national efforts to identify dioxin and furan sources.

UNEP Governing Council Decision 13, Paragraph 9 requests that the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) for the negotiations of the POPs Convention, establish an expert group to develop science-based criteria and a process to identify POPs candidates for international action in addition to those included in the initial list of substances to be covered by the convention. To ensure that the expert group has the information it needs to begin work expeditiously, UNEP and IFCS will work cooperatively to collect available information pertinent to the criteria development process through their networks of national government, nongovernment, and intergovernmental sources and develop a compilation of this information. This compilation will be made available to parties at the first Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee.