Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants

Transcription

1 UNITED NATIONS SC UNEP/POPS/COP.6/15 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants Distr.: General 31 January 2013 Original: English Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants Sixth meeting Geneva, 28 April 10 May 2013 Item 5 (d) of the provisional agenda* Matters related to the implementation of the Convention: implementation plans Implementation plans under Article 7 of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants Note by the Secretariat I. Transmission of national implementation plans 1. At its fourth meeting, held from 4 to 8 May 2009, the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants adopted amendments to Annexes A, B and C to the Stockholm Convention to list nine new persistent organic pollutants. 1 The above-mentioned amendments entered into force on 26 August 2010 for all parties, except those that had submitted a notification of non-acceptance in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 3 (b) of Article 22, or that had made a declaration in accordance with paragraph 4 of Article 25, in which case such amendments enter into force on the ninetieth day after the date of deposit of those parties instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession with regard to such amendments. 2. In the light of the above, pursuant to Article 7 paragraph 1 (c) of the Convention and taking into account decisions SC-1/12 and SC-2/7, those parties, for which the 2009 amendments entered into force on 26 August 2010, should transmit their revised and updated national implementation plans to the Conference of the Parties by 26 August Each remaining party will need to transmit its revised and updated national implementation plan within two years of the date on which the amendments enter into force for it. 3. At its fifth meeting, held from 25 to 29 May 2011, the Conference of the Parties adopted an amendment to Annex A to the Stockholm Convention to list technical endosulfan and its related isomers, with specific exemptions. 2 The amendment entered into force on 27 October 2012 for all parties, except those that had made a declaration in accordance with paragraph 4 of Article 25, in which case such amendment enters into force on the ninetieth day after the date of deposit of those parties instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession with regard to such amendment. 4. Likewise, those parties for which the amendment entered into force on 27 October 2012 should transmit their revised and updated national implementation plans to the Conference of the Parties by 27 October Each remaining party will need to transmit its reviewed and updated national implementation plan within two years of the date on which the amendment enters into force for it. K * UNEP/POPS/COP.6/1. 1 Decisions SC-4/10 to SC-4/18. 2 Decision SC-5/3.

2 5. As at 31 January 2013, 141 parties transmitted their implementation plans addressing the initial 12 persistent organic pollutants listed under the Convention. 6. Since May 2011, ten implementation plans were transmitted by Botswana, Georgia, Guatemala, Ireland, Jamaica, Nauru, Seychelles, South Africa, Surinam, and Swaziland. Only the national implementation plan transmitted by Ireland addresses the amendments to the Convention adopted in May 2009 and May As at 31 January 2013, the following 12 parties transmitted their revised and updated national implementation plans addressing the amendments to the Convention adopted in 2009 and 2011: Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Sweden and Switzerland. Electronic versions of the implementation plans are available on the Convention website A table indicating the deadlines by which each party to the Convention is to transmit its implementation plan pursuant to Article 7 of the Convention, its revised and updated implementation plan and the dates on which the plans were received by the Secretariat is set out in document UNEP/POPS/COP.6/INF/12. II. Feasibility of developing-country parties to update their national implementation plans 9. By paragraph 7 (e) of decision SC-5/14, the Conference of the Parties at its fifth meeting requested the Secretariat to prepare, within available resources, a report to the Conference of the Parties for consideration at its sixth meeting and subsequent action on the feasibility of parties, particularly developing-country parties, parties with economies in transition and small island developing States, to revise and update their implementation plans with information relating to the newly listed persistent organic pollutants, including recommendations on how to assist them with any difficulties encountered. 10. In response to the above request, the Secretariat prepared a report on the issue set out in document UNEP/POPS/COP.6/INF/14. III. Report on the legal opinion on Article In paragraph 7 (f) of decision SC-5/14, the Secretariat was requested to prepare, within available resources, a report to the Conference of the Parties for its consideration at its sixth meeting, and subsequent action on the legal opinion on Article 7 of the Convention regarding deadlines for the transmission of revised implementation plans, taking into account decisions SC-1/12 and SC-2/7, in particular when new chemicals are listed in Annexes A, B, or C. 12. In light of the above request, the Secretariat prepared a report on the issue set out in document UNEP/POPS/COP.6/INF/15. IV. Guidance for assisting parties in the preparation of national implementation plans 13. Pursuant to decision SC-1/12, the Conference of the Parties adopted the guidance for assisting countries in the preparation of national implementation plans. 4 In the same decision, the Secretariat was requested to develop additional guidance on social and economic assessment, calculation of action plan costs, including incremental and total costs and action plans for specific persistent organic pollutants and in doing so to take into consideration the particular circumstances of developing countries and countries with economies in transition UNEP/POPS/COP.1/INF/13 and UNEP/POPS/COP.1/INF/13/Add.1. 2

3 V. Additional guidance UNEP/POPS/COP.6/15 A. Draft guidance on socio-economic assessment for national implementation plan development and implementation under the Stockholm Convention 14. In decision SC-4/9, the Conference of the Parties invited and encouraged parties to use the guidance on socio-economic assessment in the development and implementation of their national implementation plans. Parties were also invited to provide the Secretariat with comments on how to improve the usefulness of that guidance based on their experience in using it. Furthermore, in paragraph 6 of the same decision, the Conference of the Parties requested the Secretariat to prepare a revised version of the socio- economic assessment guidance, taking into account the comments received from the parties, resources permitting, if sufficient information was provided to enable it to do so. 15. At the fifth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, the Secretariat informed parties 5 that it had reviewed the submissions received and it had determined that the information provided was insufficient to enable it to undertake a meaningful revision of the guidance at that time. 16. In paragraph 5 of decision SC-5/14, the Conference of the Parties encouraged parties to use the existing guidance under the Convention when developing, reviewing or updating their national implementation plans and to provide the Secretariat with comments on how to improve the usefulness of the guidance based on their experiences in using it. 17. Furthermore, in paragraph 7 (b) of decision SC-5/14, the Conference of the Parties requested the Secretariat to prepare a revised version of the social and economic guidance 6 taking into account the comments provided by parties, resources permitting, and if sufficient information was provided to enable it to do so. 18. In response to the above request, on 8 August 2011, the Secretariat sent an information request letter inviting parties and others to submit comments on the guidance by 30 October As at 31 January 2013, no specific comments on the guidance had been received the Secretariat therefore did not revise the guidance. B. Draft guidance on calculation of action plan costs, including incremental costs and action plans for specific organic pollutants 19. In decision SC-5/14, the Conference of the Parties encouraged parties to use the existing guidance under the Stockholm Convention when developing, reviewing or updating their national implementation plans and to provide the Secretariat with comments on how to improve the usefulness of the guidance based on their experiences in using it. 20. Furthermore, in paragraph 7 (c) of the same decision, the Conference of the Parties requested the Secretariat to prepare a revised version of the additional guidance on the calculation of action plan costs 7 taking into account the comments provided by parties, in addition to the amendments to Annexes A, B and C to the Convention, subject to the availability of resources. 21. In response to the request, the Secretariat sent a letter on 8 August 2011 inviting parties and others to submit their comments on the additional guidance on the calculation of action plan costs by 30 October As at 31 January 2013, no comments were received by the Secretariat. 22. The Secretariat, in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and with the financial support of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), has updated the draft guidance on the calculation of action plans costs, including incremental costs and action plans for specific organic pollutants, to address the chemicals listed in the Stockholm Convention in 2009 and 2011.The updated guidance is available at: C. Other additional guidance 23. In paragraph 6 of decision SC-4/9, the Secretariat was requested to identify any additional guidance that might be required to assist parties in their development and implementation of the 5 UNEP/POPS/COP.5/13. 6 The full title of the document is Draft guidance on socio-economic assessment, for the development and implementation of persistent organic pollutant national implementation plans and can be found in document UNEP/POPS/COP.3/INF/8. 7 UNEP/POPS/COP.4/INF/11. 3

4 Convention, to continue working on the development of the guidance called for in paragraph 5 of decision SC-1/12 and to report to the Conference of the Parties at its fifth meeting on progress made. 24. At the fifth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, the Secretariat reported in document UNEP/POPS/COP.5/13 that in the light of the amendments to Annexes A, B and C to the Convention adopted in 2009, which entered into force on 26 August 2010 for most parties, it was updating, in collaboration with UNIDO and UNITAR and with the financial support of GEF, the guidance mentioned in paragraph 13 of that document and it was identifying and developing guidance on the obligations arising from the inclusion of the nine new persistent organic pollutants in Annexes A, B and C. 25. In paragraphs 6 and 7 of decision SC-5/14, the Conference of the Parties took note of the progress made in developing guidance for the review and updating of national implementation plans with information relating to the newly listed persistent organic pollutants. It also requested the Secretariat to identify any additional guidance that might be required to assist parties in their implementation of the Convention and to continue to work on the development of guidance called for in paragraph 5 of decision SC-1/12 and to report to the Conference of the Parties at its sixth meeting on the progress made. 26. In response to the request, the Secretariat, in collaboration with UNIDO and UNITAR and with the financial support of GEF, developed new guidance documents to assist parties in developing, updating, and reviewing their implementation plans with information relating to the persistent organic pollutants listed in 2009 and The list of those guidance documents is set in the annex to the present note. The electronic versions of the guidance documents are also available on the Convention website 8 and parties have been invited to provide comments on them by 31 January A compilation of the comments received so far is contained in document UNEP/POPS/COP.6/INF/ The development of the guidance was accompanied by different activities including web-based activities, online training, national, regional and global workshops and pilot testing in two developing countries and in one country with an economy in transition, in cooperation with the Stockholm Convention regional centres. The guidance documents were revised through a peer review process, in which 44 experts and users in the chemicals management and persistent organic pollutant area participated. During this process, the documents were accompanied by a questionnaire to obtain feedback from the reviewers on specific questions regarding the usability and quality of each guidance document reviewed. This questionnaire assisted and structured the feedback process and maximized the usefulness of the peer review process. Information on these activities is set out in document UNEP/POPS/COP.6/INF/

5 VI. Proposed action 28. The Conference of the Parties may wish to consider and adopt a decision along the following lines: The Conference of the Parties 1. Welcomes the additional implementation plans transmitted by parties pursuant to Article 7, including the revised and updated plans; 2. Takes note of the report on the legal opinion on Article 7 regarding deadlines for transmission of revised national implementation plans; 1 3. Takes note of the deadlines for the transmission of revised and updated implementation plans; 2 4. Encourages those parties for whom the deadlines for transmitting their implementation plans have passed to transmit their plans as soon as possible, if they have not already done so; 5. Takes note of the report on the feasibility of parties particularly developingcountry parties, parties with economies in transition and small island developing States, to revise and update their national implementation plans with information relating to the newly listed persistent organic pollutants, and recommendations on how to assist them with encountered difficulties; 3 6. Takes note of the guidance listed in the annex to the present decision, comprising the revised and updated guidance for developing a national implementation plan for the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, updated in 2012 to include the chemicals listed in 2009 and 2011 and the additional guidance developed by the Secretariat; 7. Requests the Secretariat to make the guidance listed in the annex to the present decision available to the appropriate bodies of the Basel Convention, in particular to the small intersessional working group working on updating the general technical guidelines and the preparation or updating of specific technical guidelines on persistent organic pollutants; 8. Encourages parties to use the guidance listed in the annex to the present decision in developing, reviewing and updating their national implementation plans; 9. Requests parties and others to provide comments to the Secretariat, based on their experience in using the guidance listed in the annex to the present decision on how to improve its usefulness; 10. Also requests the Secretariat: (a) (b) To update the guidance listed in the annex to the present decision, as appropriate, on the basis of the comments received, resources permitting; To continue identifying any additional guidance that might be required to assist parties in the development and implementation of the Convention; (c) To report further progress on those matters to the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention for consideration at its seventh meeting. 11. Invites parties and others in a position to do so to provide the additional funding required for developing the additional guidance. 1 UNEP/POPS/COP.6/INF/15. 2 UNEP/POPS/COP.6/INF/12. 3 UNEP/POPS/COP.6/INF/14. 5

6 Annex to decision SC-6 [ ] List of available guidance to develop, review and update national implementation plans 4 Guidance for NIP development and update Guidance for Developing a National Implementation Plan for the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (updated in 2012 to include the POPs listed in 2009 and 2011) Additional guidance Draft guidance on Socio-Economic Assessment for National Implementation Plan Development and Implementation under the Stockholm Convention (2007) (not revised) Guidance on calculation of action plan costs for specific POPs (updated in 2012 to include the POPs listed in 2009 and 2011) Guidance for the inventory of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and related chemicals listed under the Stockholm Convention on POPs (Draft, 2012) Guidance for the inventory of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) listed under the Stockholm Convention on POPs (Draft, 2012) Guidance on best available techniques and best environmental practices for the use of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and related chemicals listed under the Stockholm Convention on POPs (Draft, 2012) Guidance on best available techniques and best environmental practices for the recycling and waste disposal of articles containing polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) listed under the Stockholm Convention on POPs (Draft, 2012) Guidance for the control of the import and export of POPs (Draft, 2012) 6 4 Also available on the Convention s website at: