Venue: International Environment House I (IEH-1), 11-13, Chemin des Anémones, 1219, Châtelaine-Geneva, Switzerland.
Highlights: The expert meeting on Best Available Techniques (BAT) and Best Environmental Practices (BEP) and the Toolkit for Identification and Quantification of Releases of Dioxins, Furans and Other Unintentional Persistent Organic Pollutants under the Stockholm Convention (Toolkit) was held in Geneva, Switzerland, on 24 and 25 November 2014.
With respect to the work on BAT and BEP, the collection and evaluation of new information provided by parties and others to revise and/or supplement the guidelines and guidance was one of the main areas of work included in the workplan for the biennium 2014-2015. The meeting aimed at taking stock of the information submitted intersessionally in view of assessing the aspects that can be addressed and integrated in the near future for development of documents for consideration at the seventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-7) and the issues that require further information collection and evaluation in the next intersessional period. The experts have evaluated the information and comments submitted on the guidelines and guidance on BAT and BEP (the list of comments and responses is attached to the meeting report as Annex III) and developed the workplan for the ongoing review and update of the guidelines and guidance in the biennium 2016–2017.
With respect to the Toolkit, the experts have developed the methodology and agreed on the workplan for the preliminary analysis of the information on unintentional releases of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) provided through national reports pursuant to Article 15 for consideration by the effectiveness evaluation committee by January 2016.
The conclusions and recommendations of the Toolkit and BAT and BEP experts towards COP-7 are included in the meeting report.