Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 5 • Number 4 • 4th March 2005

Countries Divide Over Regulating Mercury at UNEP Council

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Delegates meeting for the 23rd session of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Governing Council (GC) on 21-25 February in Nairobi, Kenya, were unable to agree on the need for a legally binding international instrument governing mercury. While Switzerland, Norway and the EU supported calls for a binding instrument to constrain production and trade of the lethal chemical, the US, Australia and Japan said that they preferred voluntary partnerships. The G77/China opposed holding negotiations on a binding agreement now, saying that many developing countries had little understanding of the mercury problem or the capacity to address it and that UNEP’s SAICM (Strategic Approach to Integrated Chemicals Management) process has not yet been finalised. In their final decision (UNEP/GC.23/CW/L.4), the 136 countries represented at the meeting asked UNEP Executive Director Klaus Töpfer to prepare a report that summarised supply, trade and demand information on mercury for the 24th GC meeting — a move that sources speculate may be a first step towards an international agreement on mercury — and urged governments to undertake partnerships to reduce mercury emissions.

For daily reporting, see IISD Linkages.

ICTSD Reporting; “Governments Move to Assess and Control Mercury Pollution,” ENS, 25 February 2005; ENB Vol. 16 No. 47, 28 February 2005.