Green Light for Global Mercury Treaty

Green light for global mercury treaty

ENDS Europe Daily, 20 February 2009 - World environment ministers unanimously agreed to establish a binding international treaty to tackle mercury pollution at a UN meeting in Nairobi on Friday. Formal negotiations on the treaty will begin next year, with final adoption planned for 2013.

A mandate for negotiations agreed by the ministers in Nairobi calls for "the elaboration of a legally binding instrument on mercury, which could include both binding and voluntary approaches".

UNEP executive director Achim Steiner said the agreement followed "seven years of patient, often frustrating debate on how to tackle the issue of mercury". Mr Steiner added that the successful outcome was "in large part due to the rapid change in position by the new US administration".

Environment ministers agreed that the treaty should include provisions to reduce the global supply and demand of mercury, cut atmospheric emissions, and address mercury-containing waste and the remediation of contaminated sites. It should also provide for "technical and financial assistance" to developing countries to implement their obligations, they said.

The ministers added that the current negotiating mandate "may be supplemented by further decisions of the UNEP governing council" – an oblique reference to the possibility of expanding the treaty to cover other hazardous substances.

Friday's agreement was "a huge breakthrough", according to Elena Lymberidi-Settimo from the Zero Mercury Working Group – a coalition of 75 international NGOs. "We will continue working to ensure that the treaty addresses the most significant sources of mercury pollution in a legally binding manner", she told ENDS.

In other business, environment ministers called on UNEP to examine the pros and cons of establishing an "IPCC-like body" to advise policymakers on biodiversity and ecosystem services issues. They also agreed to set up a high-level ministerial group to develop options for improving international environmental governance.

Follow-up: UNEP, plus meeting homepage and press release. See also Zero Mercury Working Group press release 

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