STOCKHOLM CONVENTION HANDBOOK:


  POPS Handbook - open new window

The POPs Handbook
for the United Nations Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants:


Introduction

The POPs Handbook - all you need to know about the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.

The United Nations negotiations for a convention on the Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) aimed to develop a legal instrument to phase out and eventually eliminate the ‘dirty dozen’ persistent organic pollutants; PCBs, DDT, hexachlorobenzene, dioxin and furans, dieldrin, aldrin, endrin, chlordane, heptachlor, toxaphene, mirex.

These chemicals pose a significant risk to human health and the environment.

The IPEN Handbook describes the POPs Convention, article by article, presenting a description of the purpose of each article.

Case studies have been selected to illustrate some of the issues concerning the persistent organic pollutants. Some are ‘success stories’ which demonstrate what can be achieved when communities work together to solve common problems. There are examples of the implementation of effective alternatives to POPs or POPs producing technologies.

The Handbook also provides a list of IPEN contact groups and position papers as well as a summary of available non-incineration destruction technologies.

A Short History of the POPs negotiations

The convention has its origins in the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) (Earth Summit) in held in Rio in 1992 and the adoption of Agenda 21.

In May 1995, the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) released its Decision 18/32 -25 on POPs noting:

  • Chapters 17 Agenda 21, the Protection of the Oceans which identifies reduction and elimination of emissions and discharges of organohalogens and other persistent organic pollutants as a priority action,
  • Chapters 19 Agenda 21, concerned with the environmentally sound management of toxic chemicals and
  • the precautionary approach as stated in Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development

    • UNEP invited the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS), a joint program of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNEP, as well as the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS) and their ad hoc working group to initiate a process for short-listing potential POPs. The shortlist was to draw on the UN Economic Commission for European Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution adopted Geneva 3/11/l979.

    The group aimed to:

  • - consolidate information on POPs, analyse their pathways and origins, review their transport and global deposition
  • - examine sources, risk/benefits, production and use;
  • - evaluate substitutes, their availability, costs and efficacy
  • - assess strategies and appropriate policies,
  • - consider the special needs of developing countries and those with economies in transition and
  • - review the results and outcomes of the Washington Conference on Land Based Sources of Marine Pollution

    • The Washington Conference held in 1995 had been an intergovernmental meeting to adopt a global program of action for the protection of the marine environment from land-based activities, including persistent organic pollutants. The Conference acknowledged that POPs are transported globally by air and sea, resulting in increasing concentrations far from the original site of use or release.

    Paragraph 17 of the Washington Declaration on the Protection of the Marine Environment from Landbased Activities, committed Governments to:

    "Acting to develop, in accordance with the provisions of the Global Programme of Action, a global, legally binding instrument for the reduction and/or elimination of emissions, discharges and, where appropriate, the elimination of the manufacture and use of the persistent organic pollutants identified in decision 18/32 of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme. The nature of the obligations undertaken must be developed recognizing the special circumstances of countries in need of assistance. Particular attention should be devoted to the potential need for the continued use of certain persistent organic pollutants to safeguard human health, sustain food production and to alleviate poverty in the absence of alternatives and the difficulty of acquiring substitutes and transferring of technology for the development and/or production of those substitutes."

    In February 1997 at the 19th session of UNEP's Governing Council noted with appreciation the assessment process carried out in the framework of the Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals, together with the International Programme on Chemical Safety and the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety, on the initial list of twelve persistent organic pollutants. The conclusions and recommendations made by the Ad Hoc Working Group on Persistent Organic Pollutants of the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety were accepted.

    The Executive Director was requested to 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 twelve specific persistent organic pollutants.

    The Governing Council also noted the need to develop science-based criteria and a procedure for identifying future POPs and requested the intergovernmental negotiating committee to establish an expert group (CEG).

    Aware of the serious concerns of the international community regarding the risks posed by the initial list of twelve persistent organic, the Governing Council requested that the intergovernmental negotiating committee commence its work by early 1998.

    In June 1998, the first intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC1) was held. This was followed in January 1999 with INC2 in Nairobi, INC3 in Geneva in September 1999 and INC4 in Bonn in March 2000. The final negotiation session was held in South Africa in December 2000. A final text was agreed upon, with the following highlights:

  • Precaution as the guiding principle and operationalized throughout the Convention,
  • Funding commitments to enable full participation of all countries,
  • Elimination of intentionally produced POPs,
  • Ultimate elimination of the POPs byproduct where feasible,
  • Environmentally sound management and disposal of POPs wastes including stockpiles, products, articles in use, and materials contaminated with POPs.
  • Strict limitations and bans on trade except for the purpose of environmentally sound disposal or in other very limited circumstances.
  • Limited and transparent exemptions.




    •   POPS Handbook - open new window



    Version: 2.0 (June 1, 2006)