Czech Republic | Prague / Litice | Jan 19, 2003
We, the participants of IPEN European Working Group Meeting and of International Workshop on Non-Combustion Destruction Technologies of POPs and others who are concerned on POPs, would like to
- give our strong support to the groups that are working on elimination and minimization of POPs and other toxic substances worldwide,
- give our strong support to the efforts of NGOs and their Governments involved in preparation of National Implementation Plans/Enabling Activities
- call upon Governments around the world to ratify the Stockholm Convention as soon as possible,
- express our strong support for NGOs and communities working to identify and eliminate stockpiles of obsolete POPs, including stockpiles of obsolete pesticides and industrial chemicals, and encourage governments to facilitate and assist with data gathering and identification of stockpiles,
We recognize that proven Non-Combustion Technologies for the destruction of obsolete POPs stockpiles already exist and are commercially available. We demand that such technologies must be used in preference to those which form or release POPs, such as incineration.
We emphasise waste minimization at source and demand appropriate non-combustion technologies must replace existing technologies that are creating and releasing POPs.
We stress that we are not satisfied with the UNEP Toolkit and would like to express our strong concern at the lack of scientific references as to the facilities chosen in obtaining the emission figures used.
UNEP should
- address all by-product POPs
- include coherent strategy for identifying sources, including development of Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR) legislation
- incorporate emission factors as a range (low, high)
- include emission factors appropriate for sources in developing countries and for countries with economies in transition.
Douglas Kaziro
Version: DRAFT 2.0 (June 1, 2006)