Regional workshop on updating national implementation plans and reporting under the Stockholm Convention

Regional workshop on updating national implementation plans and reporting under Stockholm Convention
Montevideo, Uruguay
from 5 to 8 August 2014

Background: The addition of chemicals to Annexes A, B or C of the Convention triggers the need for most parties to review and update the national implementation plans (NIPs) in accordance with decision SC-1/12. In 2009, nine new chemicals were added to the Annexes of the Convention and in 2011, endosulfan was added to Annex A of the Convention.

The process of reviewing and updating the NIPs can be challenging for parties that lack adequate resources and technical capacity. Parties have expressed the need for assistance in that regard and in particular in addressing newly listed POPs that are widely used for industrial purposes and are contained in products and articles. In accordance with decision SC-4/9 that requested the Secretariat to identify any additional guidance that might be required to assist parties in their development and implementation of the Convention, a set of guidance documents has been developed to assist parties in reviewing and updating their NIPs with information relating to newly listed POPs. These documents should assist parties in developing strategies to restrict and eliminate the newly listed POPs by providing guidance on establishing inventories, controlling the import of new POPs, monitoring the presence of products and articles containing new POPs, selecting best available techniques and best environmental practices for the management of new POPs.

While updating their NIPs in order to address the newly listed POPs parties should also evaluate effectiveness of the action plans and strategies included in the original NIP. Reviewing of the adopted strategies and measures to reduce or eliminate releases of Annex C POPs, will require to elaborate updated release inventories in order to evaluate whether the unintentional releases actually decreased.

Parties to the Stockholm Convention are also required to transmit national reports every four years to the Secretariat of the Stockholm Convention. The reports contain qualitative information on the measures taken to implement the Convention and on the effectiveness of such measures. Additionally, Parties are required to report quantitative information which includes statistical data on the production, import and export of the chemicals listed in Annexes A and B, among others. Based on these obligations, the Secretariat has developed electronic reporting systems, one for each convention, where Parties can report directly online.

Organized by

The training was organized by the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions in cooperation with the Regional Centre for the Basel and Stockholm Conventions based in Uruguay. The European Union kindly provided the funding for this training course.

Working language(s)

Spanish was the working language of the workshop.

Objectives of the workshop

The objectives of this workshop were:

  • Fostering participants’ understanding of the scope of the obligations to update and review their NIPs under article 7 of the Convention in light of POPs listed in 2009 and 2011;
  • Increasing participants’ capacity to make an effective use of the guidance documents and other training tools when updating their NIPs, leading to increased capacity for sustained implementation of the Conventions;
  • Strengthening the capacity of parties to develop effective strategies and action plans towards the elimination of POPs and enable them to meet their obligation under the Convention to transmit updated NIPs to the COP;
  • Providing guidance to parties in evaluating effectiveness of activities undertaken as a result of implementation of the initial NIPs, to evaluate their impact and derive lessons learnt that can favour the development of more effective strategies for updating NIPs; and
  • Enhancing understanding of the reporting obligations of the Parties to the Stockholm Conventions.

Target audience

The training session targeted countries that have started the process of reviewing and updating their national implementation plans (NIPs) and brought together national officials from ten Spanish-speaking countries from Latin America: Argentina, Cuba, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela . In addition, representatives of the Basel Convention Regional Centre for Central America and Mexico (BCRC-CAM) and the Basel Convention Regional Centre in Argentina (BCRC-Argentina) took part in the workshop.

Outcome

Participants received training which combined presentations, practical exercises and working group discussions on procedural and substantive issues related to updating and reviewing NIPs under article 7 in light of the newly added POPs and the national reporting obligations under the Stockholm Convention. Participants also learned how the work undertaken in this regard could facilitate their reporting under Article 15 of the Stockholm Convention. Furthermore, participants benefited from a field visit to a state-of-the-art cement kiln and exchanged important information regarding standards, technical options and legislation.

Workshop documents

Report

Photos Gallery

Contact information

For questions regarding the training please contact Tatiana Terekhova (Tatiana.Terekhova@brsmeas.org).