Overview

At its fourth and fifth meeting held in 2009 and 2011, the Conference of the Parties (COP), by decisions SC-4/10 to SC-4/18 and decision SC-5/3, adopted amendments to Annexes A (elimination), B (restriction) and C (unintentional production) of the Stockholm Convention to list ten additional chemicals as persistent organic pollutants (new POPs).

By decision SC-4/19, the COP decided to undertake a work programme to provide guidance to Parties on how best to restrict and eliminate these newly listed persistent organic pollutants and invited Parties to support work on the evaluation of alternatives and other work related to the restriction and elimination of these new POPs. 

At its fifth meeting in April 2011, the Conference of the Parties adopted decision SC-5/5 that encourages Parties and other relevant stakeholders to implement where appropriate, taking into account national circumstances, the recommendations of POPRC set out in the annex to decision POPRC-6/2 on the elimination from the waste stream of brominated diphenyl ethers that are listed in Annex A to the Convention and on risk reduction for perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, its salts and perfluorooctane sulfonyl fluoride. Parties were invited to submit to the Secretariat information on their experiences in implementing the recommendations for consideration by the COP at its sixth meeting. Furthermore in decision SC-5/9, on measures to reduce or eliminate releases from wastes, the COP requested that the recommendations be made available to the appropriate bodies of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal to support their work.

At its sixth meeting in May 2013, the Conference of the Parties adopted decision SC-6/7 on the work programme on brominated diphenyl ethers and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, its salts and perfluorooctane sulfonyl fluoride, where it encourages parties and observers to implement where appropriate the recommendations that pertain to them.

Implications of listing new chemicals

The implications, for the implementation of the Stockholm Convention, of listing new chemicals include:

  • Implement control measures for each chemical (Article 3 and 4);
  • Develop and implement action plans for unintentionally produced chemicals (Article 5);
  • Develop inventories of the chemicals' stockpiles (Article 6);
  • Review and update the National Implementation Plan (Article 7);
  • Include the new chemicals in the reporting (Article 15);
  • Include the new chemicals in the programme for the effectiveness evaluation (Article 16).

See also the Frequently Asked Questions page.