EMEP Contribution to the Preparatory Work for the Review of the CLRTAP Protocol on POPs: REVIEW OF AVAILABLE POP EMISSIONS DATA

MSC-E Information Note 11/2004

O. Rozovskaya, S. Dutchak, E. Mantseva

ABSTRACT

The activities related to the examination and prevention of environmental pollution by Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) attract the attention of many international programmes and organizations: the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM), the Oslo-Paris Commission for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR) and others. A considerable progress in this area has been achieved in the framework of the UN ECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (hereinafter CLRTAP).

In 1998 the Protocol to the CLRTAP on Persistent Organic Pollutants (hereinafter the Protocol on POPs) was signed by thirty-five countries and the European Union. After being ratified by sixteen Parties to the Convention it entered into force in October 2003. By now (as of 9 June 2004) twenty Parties to the Convention have ratified the Protocol. Its main objective is "to control, reduce or eliminate any discharges, emissions and losses of POPs" (Article 2) [ECE/EB.AIR/66]. The following list of substances (aldrin, chlordane, chlordecone, dieldrin, endrin, hexabromobiphenyl, mirex, toxaphene, DDT, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, polychlorinated biphenyls, hexachlorocyclohexane (including lindane), dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) is in the focus of the Protocol. In addition to the fulfillment of their basic obligations, in compliance with Article 8 of the Protocol on POPs the Parties to the Protocol shall encourage research, development, monitoring and co-operation related, in particular, to emission inventory.

According to the 2004 Work-Plan on the Implementation of the Convention [ECE/EB.AIR/79/Add.2] "EMEP will support the preparatory work on the review of the Protocol on POPs, in particular the work of the proposed Task Force on POPs". The Executive Body for the Convention established the Task Force on POPs at its twenty-first session in December 2003. The Task Force set up under the Working Group on Strategies and Review addresses the technical needs of the reviews and reassessments required by the Protocol on POPs and the procedures adopted by Executive Body Decision 1998/2.

At the second meeting of the Task Force on POPs (Prague, 31 May - 3 June) it was agreed that "MSC-E would prepare the synthesis document on the best available country-submitted emissions data" [EB.AIR/WG.5/2004/1].

To support the activities of the Task Force on POPs MSC-E has prepared this Information Note. It is devoted to the description of changes in POP emissions in the countries, which are Parties to the Convention, for the considered period. The official emission data submitted to the UN ECE Secretariat by the Parties and available expert estimates are taken into account. The analysis of available information for a 13-year-long period (1990-2002) has been performed.

The annex contains data on the total emissions of POPs in particular countries for the considered period.