A newly developed guidance on National Implementation Plan (NIP) development, review and update is now available. As per decision SC-5/14 parties are encouraged to provide the Secretariat with comments on how to improve the usefulness of the guidance. The deadline for sending comments is 31 January 2012.

Candidate chemicals to be considered for listing in Annexes A, B, and/or C to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants

11 October 2012, Geneva – The Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC), a subsidiary body of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), will consider five chemicals proposed for listing in Annexes A, B, and/or C to the Convention, a step which helps eliminate POPs and protect human health and the environment. 

The Committee will consider draft risk profiles of chlorinated naphthalenes, hexachlorobutadiene, a revised draft risk profile of short-chained chlorinated paraffins, and further consider its recommendation to the COP on the listing of hexabromocyclododecane. The Committee will also consider the proposal for listing pentachlorophenol and its salts and esters.

The Committee will then discuss assessment of alternatives to endosulfan, DDT, and the use of PFOS in open applications. ‘Open applications’ is a term used in contrast to applications found in closed systems. In the case of application of a chemical in a closed system, no significant quantities of the chemical are expected to reach humans and the environment during their production and use. With open applications, the opposite is the case.

The Committee will further consider climate change and POPs, the evaluation of brominated diphenyl ethers and PFOS, its salts and PFOSF, work in collaboration with other scientific bodies and the effective participation of parties in the Committee’s work.

The eighth meeting of the POPRC will be held at the Conference Centre Varembé in Geneva, Switzerland, from 15 to 19 October 2012.

Announcements about the meeting will be tweeted @brsmeas.

Contact:

Kei Ohno, Programme Officer, Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (UNEP), Geneva, tel. +41 (22) 917 8201, e-mail: kohno@pops.int

Michael S. Jones, Public Information Officer, Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (UNEP), Geneva, tel. +41-22-917-8668; (m) + 41-79-730-4495, e-mail: SafePlanet@unep.org

The exhibition of artwork featuring 13 winning entries as well as a selection of other entries opened on 20 June 2012 at the United Nations Office of Geneva. The exhibition ran through 11 July.

To mark the tenth anniversary of the Convention in May 2011, the Secretariat of the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants organized a global art contest for children and youth on the theme "Stockholm at 10: Chemical Challenges, Sustainable Solutions" and what this means to young people around the world.

One hundred and sixty submissions, mainly drawings and paintings, were received from 18 countries. Due to the low number of entries submitted in the photography and video categories, as well as their insufficient relevance, the jury decided not to award any prizes for these art categories.

The exhibition of winning drawings/paintings was on display in the Passerelle of the Palais des Nations, Geneva (Entrance 40 from Pregny Gate). The exhibition opening coincided with the opening of Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Three of the Stockholm Convention’s Regional Centres organized parallel virtual exhibitions of the winning entries:

• Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment (RECETOX) in Brno, Czech Republic
• Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) in Kuwait City, Kuwait
• Stockholm Convention Regional Centre in Dakar, Senegal

To view the winning artwork and all other entries:  
   

 To view the speeches made at the exhibition opening:

Speech by Mr. David Chikvaidze Chairman of the Cultural Activities Committee

Speech by Mr. David Ogden Acting Chief of Conventions Operations Branch

To view the opening reception pictures:

The Secretariat would like to congratulate the winners and warmly thank all of the artists for their participation in this contest!

Geneva, 29 November 2011 – The Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions cordially invites children and youths 5 to 20 years of age to participate in a unique global contest highlighting the ways persistent organic pollutants (POPs) enter people’s bodies, change ecosystems, and affect the life of our planet.

The Stockholm Convention’s 10th anniversary global art contest, “Chemical Challenges, Sustainable Solutions” was announced at the 5^th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention, in May 2011. The Stockholm Convention was adopted on 22 May 2001 in Stockholm, Sweden.

POPs are substances that persist for a long time in the environment. They build up in the bodies of animals and are toxic. By altering hormonal balances and damaging the immune systems of exposed individuals as well as their offspring, POPs can affect generations of humans. Years or even decades after exposure, POPs can also cause cancer and harm a person’s ability to reproduce.

Children are among the most sensitive populations to many types of pollutants, including POPs.

The contest will explore the reasons why the planet’s “chemical temperature” is rising and how people can protect themselves and nature from these harmful substances.

The contest is open to children 5 to 10, youths 11 to 15 and young adults 16 to 20 years of age, working in three art media categories:

• Drawing
• Photography
• Short videos

The contest opens on 1 January 2012 and the deadline for entering the contest is 16 March 2012. National entries are to be submitted through your country’s Official Contact Point. Full details of the contest rules and eligibility may be found at the Stockholm Convention website (in English, French and Spanish).

Each country can submit up to 27 entries (9 per art media category, in which 3 per age category).

Winning entries will be displayed at the European Headquarters of the United Nations during the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 20-22 June 2012, as well as appear electronically at the Rio+20 conference venue and in the Stockholm Convention’s Regional Centres across the world.

In celebration of the Stockholm Convention’s 10^th anniversary and in recognition of the International Year of Chemistry 2011, the Czech Republic launched its national art contest at the beginning of the academic year 2011-12. The International Year of Chemistry 2011 is a worldwide celebration of the achievements of chemistry and its contributions to the well-being of humankind proclaimed by the United Nations.

Ms. Kateřina Šebková, an expert on chemicals at the Czech Republic’s Ministry of Environment, said: "We were pleased to see the initiative for the 10th anniversary of the Stockholm Convention, and as the current goals of this contest meet three out of four goals set up for the International Year of Chemistry, we simply had to join to further help raise awareness of the significance of chemicals among the general public. We are a very active Party and also host the Central and Eastern European POPs centre for the Stockholm Convention, so we will also try to pursue the idea regionally. Now is the time to join the contest!"

Contact:

Michael Stanley-Jones, Press Focal Point/Public Information Officer, Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, +41-22-917-8668; (m) + 41-79-730-4495, e-mail: msjones@pops.int

Stockholm Convention POPs Review Committee assesses hazards of two industrial chemicals nominated for elimination and agrees to prepare guidance on alternatives to pesticide endosulfan.

Geneva (Switzerland), 14 October 2011 – The Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee, a scientific body to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), took action this week to help eliminate POPs from the global marketplace and protect human health and the environment.  The Committee adopted more than a dozen separate decisions, including one recommending that the chemical hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) be listed under the Convention.

HBCD is a flame retardant used mainly in polystyrene. It is also used in textile coatings and in high impact polystyrene for electrical and electronic equipment. HBCD was proposed by Norway for listing under the Convention as a chemical slated for elimination from the global marketplace.

 “With this week’s decisions, the POPs Review Committee has again cleared the high bar set by Governments for rigorous  scientific review of chemicals proposed for action and advanced the global agenda of eliminating the world’s most dangerous toxic chemicals,” said Jim Willis, Executive Secretary of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions. 

Meeting for the seventh time, the committee of 31 scientific experts initiated risk profiles of two industrial chemicals newly proposed for elimination under the global chemicals treaty. The committee found evidence that chlorinated naphthalenes and hexachlorobutadiene are persistent organic pollutants, which bio-accumulate in organisms (i.e. increases in concentration up the food chain), are transported over long distances from their sources, and are toxic to the environment and human health.

Chlorinated naphthalenes (CNs) were used for decades for wood preservation, as additive to paints and engine oils, and for cable insulation and in capacitors. Until the 1970s, CNs were high volume chemicals.  Hexachlorobutadiene (HCBD) was a widely used fumigant used to control pests and as an industrial solvent. HCBD also occurs as a by-product during production of other chlorinated solvents.

The Committee agreed to continue its assessment of a third chemical, pentachlorophenol (PCP), which is an organochlorine compound used as a pesticide and a disinfectant.

All three chemicals were proposed by the European Union for consideration for listing under the Convention.

The Committee also agreed to prepare guidance on alternatives to the pesticide endosulfan, expanding its work into a new area recently mandated by the Parties to the Convention. Endosulfan, which is commonly used to control agricultural pests, was added to the Convention’s list of 22 POPs at the fifth meeting of the Conference of the Parties in April 2011.

In addition, the Committee agreed to evaluate the POPs characteristics of the chemical alternatives to DDT. DDT is widely used in tropical and sub-tropical countries to control mosquitoes which serve as a vector for the deadly malaria parasites.

The Committee examined implications of the 2011 study, Climate Change and POPs: Predicting the Impacts and agreed to develop guidance on evaluating how global warming processes affect the fate, transport and toxicity of POPs.

The seventh meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee was held from 10 - 14 October 2011 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Note to Editors

The Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC) is composed of 31 members appointed by the Conference of the Parties – who are all highly placed scientists representing their regions around the globe. The meetings of the Committee are also open to observers from the NGO community, industry, research organizations and governments. Its mandate is to review proposals to add new chemicals to the Stockholm Convention.

POPs are substances that are persistent and toxic and can affect generations of humans. Exposure to POPs is known to effect health and can be the source of cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders and cancer. Some POPs are also considered to be endocrine disrupters and by altering the hormonal system, can also damage human reproductive and immune systems.

Currently, there are twenty-two chemicals listed in the Convention, including DDT, lindane, PCBs and dioxins and furans and some brominated flame retardants. The objective of the Convention is to restrict and eliminate these chemicals from production and use in order to protect human health and the environment. The Convention has 176 Parties as of 14 October 2011.

Since the beginning of its operations, the POPRC has recommended ten chemicals for listing and all ten were accepted by the Conference of the Parties of the Convention. Amendments incorporating the first nine of these chemicals into the annexes of the Convention entered into force on 26 August 2010. The tenth amendment, which will add endosulfan to Annex A, is pending entry into force in accordance with the procedure provided in Article 22 of the Convention.

The study, Climate Change and POPs: Predicting the Impacts, which was released at the 26th session of the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum, in Nairobi, in February 2011, highlighted the ways global warming increases the volubility and long-range mobility of some POPs, with potentially harmful impacts on vulnerable populations.

For More Information Please Contact:

Kei Ohno, Programme Officer, Secretariat of the Stockholm Convention, Geneva, +41 (22) 917 8201, e-mail: kohno@pops.int

Michael Stanley-Jones, Public Information Officer, Joint Services of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, UNEP Geneva, + 41 (22) 917 8668; (m) + 41 79 730 4495, e-mail: msjones@pic.int or SafePlanet@unep.org

Further information is available at https://www.pops.int or by emailing ssc@pops.int.

Register to the Briefing on the outcomes of the seventh meeting of POPRC webinar

Geneva (Switzerland), 7 October 2011 – The Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee, a scientific body to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, will meet next week to review three new chemicals proposed for listing under the global chemicals treaty. The Committee will have before it new proposals for listing chlorinated naphthalenes, hexachlorobutadiene, and pentachlorophenol, its salts and esters in Annexes A, B and/or C to the Stockholm Convention.  

Chlorinated naphthalenes (CNs) were used for decades for wood preservation, as additive to paints and engine oils, and for cable insulation and in capacitors. Until the 1970s CNs were high volume chemicals. Hexachlorobutadiene was a widely used fumigant used to control pests. Pentachlorophenol (PCP) is an organochlorine compound used as a pesticide and a disinfectant. All three chemicals were proposed by the European Union for consideration for listing under the Convention.

The committee will also evaluate possible control measures for the chemical hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), the last step on the road to considering whether to phase the chemical off the global marketplace.  HBCD is a flame retardant used mainly in polystyrene. It is also used in textile coatings and in high impact polystyrene for electrical and electronic equipment.  HBCD was proposed by Norway for listing under the Convention.

The committee will consider information requirements for the risk profile of short-chained chlorinated paraffins (SCCP). SCCP are a group of industrial chemicals used in metalworking, and the formulation and manufacturing of products such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics and metalworking fluids. They are of concern because they are persistent, have been found in remote areas such as the Arctic, and could accumulate to levels that are toxic to fish and other aquatic organisms.

The seventh meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC7) will be held from 10 to 14 October 2011 at the Conference Centre Varembé in Geneva (Website: www.cicg.ch; Address: 9-11 Rue de Varembé, Geneva).

A provisional agenda of the meeting is set out in document UNEP/POPS/POPRC.7/1.

Note to Editors

The Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC) is composed of 31 members appointed by the Conference of the Parties– who are all highly placed scientists representing their regions around the globe. The meetings of the committee are also open to observers from the NGO community, industry, research organizations and governments. Its mandate is to review proposals to add new chemicals to the Stockholm Convention.

A chemical can be listed in the Stockholm Convention as a persistent organic pollutant when it shows that it persists in the environment, bioaccumulates in organisms (increases in concentration up the food chain), travels through the environment over long distances from the region of its release to other regions of the globe, and is toxic to the environment and human health.

Currently, there are twenty-two chemicals listed in the convention including DDT, lindane, PCBs and dioxins and furans and some brominated flame retardants. The objective of the convention, which has 175 Parties as of 19 September 2011, is to restrict and eliminate these chemicals from production and use in order to protect human health and the environment.

Since the beginning of its operations, the POPRC has recommended ten chemicals for listing and all ten were accepted by the Conference of the Parties of the Convention. Amendments incorporating the first nine of these chemicals into the annexes of the Convention entered into force on 26 August 2010. The tenth amendment, which will add endosulfan to Annex A, is pending entry into force in accordance with the procedure provided in Article 22 of the Convention.

Further information is available at www.pops.int and https://chm.pops.int/tabid/221/Default.aspx or by emailing ssc@pops.int.

Contact

Kei Ohno, Programme Officer, Secretariat of the Stockholm Convention, Geneva, +41 (22) 917 8201, e-mail: kohno@pops.int

Michael Stanley-Jones, Press Focal Point/Public Information Officer, Joint Services of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, UNEP Geneva, + 41-22-917-8668; (m) + 41-79-730-4495, e-mail: msjones@pic.int or SafePlanet@unep.org

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Geneva, 14 June 2011 - The Multilateral Environmental Agreements Information and Knowledge Management Initiative (MEA IKM), launched today develops harmonized MEA information systems to assist Parties and the environment community at large access information from multiple agreements from one location. Supported by UNEP the initiative currently includes 17 MEAs from 12 Secretariats hosted by three UN organizations and IUCN. It is open to observers involved in MEA information and data management.

The first project– InforMEA, the United Nations Information Portal on Multilateral Environmental Agreements – was launched on 14 June at the occasion of the initiative’s 2^nd Steering Committee Meeting, attended by Ms. Maria Louisa Silva, Executive Secretary of the Barcelona Convention, Mr. John Scanlon, Secretary General of Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and Mr. Jim Willis, Executive Secretary of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions.

“With the launch of InforMEA the global environmental community has taken a major stride forward in making access to information more transparent and easier to apply in solving the complex challenges we face in the Information Age”, Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) 

The InforMEA Portal presents Conference of the Parties decisions and resolutions, news, calendars, events, country specific MEA Membership, national focal points, as well as in the near future national reports and implementation plans organized against a set of 200 hierarchical terms taken from MEA Conference of the Parties (COP) Agendas.

In contrast to similar endeavors this project harvests and displays information directly from MEA Secretariats websites and data bases, who remain the custodians of their data. This allows for accurate and timely data availability in a cost effective manner. MEA secretariats individually implement the technical solution identified.

Harmonization of information standards and formats will facilitate the development of many other knowledge tools among conventions. For example, the Convention on Migratory Species and CITES could display the species listed on their respective appendices or the Stockholm Convention may feature decisions related to endangered migratory species threatened by POPs. Once such an application is developed, the tool is maintained at minimal cost.

www.informea.org - Making key MEA information “speak to one another”

For further information please contact: Marcos Silva (CITES) and marcos.silva@cites.org, and Eva Duer (UNEP) eva.duer@unep.org, (respective MEA representative)

Geneva, Switzerland, 3 May 2011 - Representatives from 127 Governments meeting in Geneva last week agreed to add endosulfan to the United Nations’ list of persistent organic pollutants to be eliminated worldwide. The action puts the widely-used pesticide on course for elimination from the global market by 2012.

The decision was among more than 30 measures taken by Parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) to boost global action against POPs.

The Parties agreed to list endosulfan in Annex A to the Convention, with specific exemptions. When the amendment to the Annex A enters into force in one year, endosulfan will become the 22nd POP to be listed under the Convention.

A Party may extend the phase out period of the pesticide by five years but only for a small number of uses.

"The conference recognized that financial and technical support is required to facilitate the replacement of the use of endosulfan in developing countries and countries with economies in transition," said UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

"In establishing a consultative process on finance for the chemicals and waste conventions, UNEP has responded to the need of those countries by seeking to make the sound management of hazardous chemicals a development priority of the green economy in which all countries can fully and fairly participate," he added.

"New POPs present new challenges, as we are usually dealing with chemicals that are still widely used commercially," said Jim Willis, the newly appointed Executive Secretary of the Basel, Stockholm, and UNEP-part of the Rotterdam Convention Secretariats. "Parties have demonstrated that they can find creative solutions to speed the elimination of POPs and protect environment and human health from these dangerous chemicals."

The conference evaluated the continued need for DDT for disease vector control to combat mosquitoes carrying the deadly malaria parasite. On the basis of available scientific, technical, environmental and economic information, it saw a continued need to use DDT while effective alternatives were being sought and implemented by an increasing number of countries.

"Despite all efforts, malaria remains one of the world’s tragedies with almost a million fatalities every year. All means are needed to combat this vector," said Victoria Mupwaya, director of the Environmental Council of Zambia.

The first assembly of the Global Alliance for alternatives to DDT, held on the 26 April 2011, concurred with the WHO findings. Although there is no deadline for the elimination of DDT, the goal of the Alliance is to reduce reliance on DDT for disease vector control by strengthening countries capacities to deploy safer alternatives.

The conference requested UNEP to take over administration of the Global Alliance, in collaboration with the World Health Organization. UNEP was also requested to take over the PCB Elimination Network.

Monique Barbut, chief executive officer of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), speaking at the "Finance Forum for Sustainable Solutions" on the opening day of the conference, announced the GEF would provide USD 250,000 in support to countries to update their national implementation plans in response to the adoption of new POPs to the Convention. In total, the GEF had in recent years funded more than USD 1 billion to address implementation of hazardous chemicals and waste cluster agreements.

Seven new Stockholm Convention regional centres were endorsed by the conference: in Algeria, Kenya, India, Iran, Senegal, South Africa and the Russian Federation. The Russian region centre is conditional on the Russian Federation’s ratification of the Convention.

Karel Blaha (Czech Republic) was elected president of the conference on the opening day. Osvaldo Alvarez (Chile) was elected to serve as president of the 6th meeting of the conference, to be held in May 2013.

Over 700 participants took part in the conference, which was held from 25 to 29 May 2011. Under the theme, Stockholm at 10: Chemical Challenges, Sustainable Solutions, the conference marked the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention in 2001.

Contacts

Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson, tel: +254 20 7623084 or email: nick.nuttall@unep.org

David Ogden, Coordinator, Stockholm Convention secretariat, tel: +41 22 917 8161 or email: dogden@pops.int

Michael Stanley-Jones, Public Information Officer, mobile/text message: +41 (0)79 730 4495 or email: msjones@pops.int

Nairobi, 21 February 2011 - Climate change increases the planet’s vulnerability to highly toxic chemicals, according to a global study released jointly by the Stockholm Secretariat and the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) at the UNEP Governing Council today. 

The first systematic and authoritative review of the impact of climate change on the release of POPs into the environment, their long range transport and environmental fate, and human and environmental exposure found that climate change threatens to undermine the Stockholm Convention’s effort to reduce exposures to POPs. 

Donald Cooper, the Executive Secretary of the Stockholm Convention says "Robust information on processes leading to increased levels of POPs in the environment, higher exposure of ecosystems and human populations, and increased toxicity of chemicals is essential to allow appropriate policy responses through the Stockholm Convention and regional and national strategies to address the complex challenge posed by POPs and global environmental change."  

Increased POPs emissions triggered by global warming increases the availability of POPs to enter the food chain, threatening the health of humans and animals. 

Higher temperatures can make wildlife more sensitive to exposure of certain pollutants. In the Arctic region, climate change can alter the exposure levels of marine mammals, such as seals or the polar bears, through a variety of means including changes in long-range atmospheric and oceanographic transport along with the melting of the ice caps. 

The study suggests that the expected increase in the incidence of vector-borne diseases, such as malaria, associated with climate change may increase demand for and release of DDT in some regions. 

The study, “Climate Change and POPs: Predicting the Impacts”, was conducted by climate and chemical experts from 12 countries. The study was jointly published by the Secretariat of the Stockholm Convention and Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP). The full study will be presented to the 5th meeting of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention in April 2011. The objective of the Stockholm Convention is to protect human health and the environment from POPs.