In order to enable Parties to the Convention to take measures to reduce or eliminate releases of POPs from intentional production and use in conformity with Article 3 of the Stockholm Convention on POPs, for which alternatives do not exist yet or are not readily available, the Convention allows to register specific exemptions for a specific period of time pursuant to Article 4 of the Convention. Annexes A and B of the Convention describe the specific exemptions and acceptable purposes that are available with respect to the relevant POPs.
Several decisions related to exemptions have been adopted by the Conference of the Parties in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2011. In addition to the provisions of the Convention as adopted in 2001, the above decisions are now also part of the legal framework according to which the exemption processes operate.
Parties may register for specific exemptions listed in Annex A or B pursuant to paragraph 3 of Article 4. These specific exemptions have a limited timeframe of five (5) years after their date of entry into force as stated in paragraph 4 of Article 4, unless an earlier date is indicated in the Register by the Party or an extension is granted pursuant to paragraph 7 of Article 4.
Parties may also register for acceptable purposes. These are decided upon the adoption of the chemicals by the Conference of the Parties and have no limited timeframe. Two POPs are endowed with such registers: DDT and PFOS, its salts and PFOS-F.
The Convention also allows registration for articles in use exemptions, i.e. for chemicals occurring as constituents of articles manufactured or already in use before or on the date of entry into force of the obligation with respect to these chemicals. Similarly, exemptions can also be registered for chemicals listed as closed-system site-limited intermediates (Annex A and Annex B of the Convention).