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Potential measures for reduction of releases of heavy metals, POPs, HCFCs, BFRs and industrial greenhouse gases with particular reference to Russia, Ukraine and China

Appendix 1 International agreements in short

A1-1 The Stockholm Convention

The Stockholm Convention requires that all Parties endeavour to develop and implement a plan for meeting their obligations under the Stockholm Convention. The plan is to be transmitted to the Conference of the Parties within two years of the date on which the Convention enters into force. Further, the plan is to be reviewed and updated, as appropriate, on a periodic basis and in a manner to be specified by a decision of the Conference of the Parties.

The Stockholm Convention does not specify what should be the size and coverage of a survey, action plan or any other of the NIP elements. It is fully up to the country to decide how comprehensive and detailed they should be. The only condition is that they should serve as appropriate tools for meeting the obligations of the Stockholm Convention listed below.

PCBs. Concerning intentional uses of PCBs the Stockholm Convention requires that all Parties must:

  • cease the production of new PCBs immediately (at the date of entry into force);
     
  • eliminate the use of PCBs in equipment (e.g. transformers, capacitors or other receptacles containing liquid stocks) by 2025;
     
  • make determined efforts to identify, label and remove from use, equipment containing greater than 10% PCBs and volumes greater than 5 litres;
     
  • make determined efforts to identify, label and remove from use, equipment containing greater than 0.05% PCBs and volumes greater than 5 litres;
     
  • endeavour to identify and remove from use equipment containing greater than 0.005% PCBs and volumes greater than 0.05 litres of PCBs;
     
  • prohibit export and import of PCBs and PCB-containing equipment (except for environmentally sound management of wastes);
     
  • not allow recovery of liquids with a PCB content above 0.005% for reuse in other equipment, except for maintenance and servicing operations;
     
  • achieve environmentally sound management of PCB wastes as soon as possible and not later than 2028;
     
  • develop and implement strategies for identifying stockpiles, products and articles in use and wastes containing PCBs;
     
  • manage stockpiles in a safe, efficient and environmentally sound manner until they are deemed to be wastes;
     
  • take measures to handle, collect, transport and store PCB wastes in an environmentally sound manner and dispose of the wastes in a way that destroys the PCB content, or otherwise in an environmentally sound manner taking into account international rules, standards and guidelines;
     
  • not allow recovery, recycling, reclamation, direct reuse or alternative uses of PCBs.
     
  • not transport these materials across international boundaries taking into account international rules (e.g. the Basel Convention);
     
  • develop strategies for identifying contaminated sites and, if remediation is attempted, do it in an environmentally sound manner.

Unintentional releases of PCDD/PCDFs, PCB and HCB. Releases of unintentionally produced by-products listed in Annex C (dioxins, furans, PCBs and HCB) are subject to continuous minimisation with, as objective, the ultimate elimination where feasible. The main tool for this is the National Action Plans, which should cover the source inventories and release estimates as well as plans for release reductions.

The Stockholm Convention requires that all Parties must:

  • Promote application of available, feasible and practical measures to achieve realistic and meaningful levels of release reduction or source elimination;
     
  • Promote development and, where appropriate, require use of substitute or modified materials, products and processes to prevent formation and release of Annex C POPs;
     
  • Promote and phase in best available techniques (BAT) as soon as practicable, but no later than 4 years after entry into force for new sources within specified industrial source categories that have potential for comparatively high formation and release of POPs to the environment (Annex C, Part II);
     
  • Promote the use of BAT and BEP (best environmental practice) for existing sources within all categories (Annex C Part II and III) and new sources within categories specified in (Annex C Part III).

Pesticides. The POPs pesticides covered by the Stockholm Convention consist of mainly chlorinated insecticides and include aldrin, chlordane, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), mirex and toxaphene (Annex A, Part I) and DDT (Annex B).

The Stockholm Convention requires that all Parties must:

  • prohibit and/or take legal and administrative measures necessary to eliminate production, use, import and export of Annex A POPs pesticides upon entry into force - except as provided for in the Convention and where Parties that have registered specific production and use exemptions as provided for in Annex A;
     
  • monitor the use of Annex A POPs pesticides for non time-limiting purposes such as laboratory-scale research, reference standards, unintentional trace contaminant in products and articles;
     
  • limit the import and export of Annex A POPs pesticides only as allowed according to Article 4 (exemptions registered with the Secretariat) or for purposes of disposing of Annex A POPs pesticides in an environmentally sound manner. Export to non-Parties is further restricted by certification requirements;
     
  • develop and implement strategies to identify stockpiles, products and articles in use and wastes containing Annex A POPs pesticides;
     
  • prohibit the recovery, recycling, reclamation, direct reuse or alternative uses of Annex A POPs pesticides;
     
  • manage stockpiles in a safe, efficient and environmental safe manner until they are deemed to be wastes;
     
  • take measures to handle, collect, transport and store Annex A POPs pesticide wastes in an environmentally safe manner and dispose of such wastes in a way that destroys the POPs content or irreversibly transforms it such that it does not exhibit the characteristics of POPs, or otherwise dispose of it in an environmentally safe manner taking into account international rules, standards and guidelines.

A1-2 CLRTAP HM and POPs protocols

The objective of the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) is to protect man and his environment against air pollution and to endeavour to limit and, as far as possible, gradually reduce and prevent air pollution including long-range transboundary air pollution. The Convention sets up an institutional framework, bringing together policy and research components. It establishes a number of co-operative programmes for assessing and monitoring the effects of air pollution.

The Convention requires Parties to develop policies and strategies that will serve as a means of combating the discharge of pollutants, by means of exchanges of information, consultation, research and monitoring. Parties are also required to co-operate in the conduct of research into and/or development of technologies for reducing emissions of major air pollutants, instrumentation and other techniques for monitoring and measuring emission rates and ambient concentrations of air pollutants, improved models for understanding the transmission of long-range transboundary air pollutants, the effects of major air pollutants on human health and the environment and education and training programmes related to the environmental aspects of pollution by major air pollutants. Implementation of the Convention has already contributed successfully in reducing sulphur emissions across Europe, and there has also been progress in reducing emissions of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds.

The Convention and its protocols are open to member States of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), as well as States having consultative status with the UNECE and regional economic integration organizations, constituted by sovereign States Members of the UNECE. The UNECE has 55 member States, mainly from Central and Eastern Europe, but also includes Canada and the United States of America as members.

The Convention entered into force on 16 March 1983 and had 49 Parties as of 1 October 2002. Since its entry into force, it has been extended by eight protocols, of these the 1998 Aarhus Protocol on Heavy Metals and the 1998 Aarhus Protocol on Persistent Organic Pollutants.

The CLRTAP HM-Protocol

The Executive Body of the Convention adopted the Protocol on Heavy Metals on 24 June 1998 in Aarhus, Denmark. It targets three particularly harmful metals: cadmium, lead and mercury, and requires Parties to the Protocol to reduce their releases for these three metals. It aims to cut emissions from industrial sources (iron and steel industry, non-ferrous metal industry), combustion processes (power generation, road transport) and waste incineration. It lays down stringent limit values for emissions from stationary sources and suggests best available techniques for these sources. The Protocol requires Parties to phase out leaded petrol and introduces measures to lower heavy metal releases from other products. Emission levels must be reported using as a minimum methodologies specified by the Steering Body of EMEP, the Cooperative Programme for Monitoring and Evaluation of Long-range Transmission of Air Pollutants in Europe.

Article 3 describes the following basic obligations set out in the Protocol:

A) Reduction of total annual emissions of the substances into the atmosphere, compared to the reference year for the Party (1990, or an alternative year between 1985 and 1995 set when becoming a Party), through application of best available techniques, product control measures or other emission reduction strategies.

B) Use of best available techniques for stationary sources - for new plants within 2 years, for existing plants within 8 years. The standards for best available techniques are given as examples in Annex III to the Protocol, and include both cleaning technology and substitution of the substances, e.g. substitution of mercury based technology, for example in chlor/alkali plants.

C) Application of limit values to control emissions from major stationary sources, both new and existing – Limit values for a number of sources are specified in Annex V of the Protocol, for example for particulate emissions from combustion plants, mercury emissions from chlor-alkali plants and mercury emissions from municipal, medical and hazardous waste incineration.

D) Application of product control measures concerning mercury – The Protocol requires Parties to achieve specific mercury levels in alkaline manganese batteries within 5 years, or 10 years for Parties with economies in transition. Alkaline manganese button cells and batteries composed of button cells are exempted from this obligation. In addition, Parties should consider applying additional product control measures as described in Annex VII of the Protocol. Recommendations are given for mercury-containing products such as electric equipment, electrical components (thermostats, switches), measuring devices (thermometers, manometers, barometers), fluorescent lamps, dental amalgam, pesticides including seed dressings, paints and batteries other than alkaline manganese batteries, and include prohibition of specific products, voluntary agreements and recycling programmes.

The CLRTAP POPs Protocol

The Executive Body of the Convention adopted the Protocol on Persistent Organic Pollutants on 24 June 1998 in Aarhus, Denmark.

The basic obligations of the Protocol stipulate a wide range of actions ranging from production and use bans and phase-outs, restricted uses and emission controls, and conditions for the disposal of POPs. The 16 substances included in the present Protocol are:

  • The pesticides aldrin, chlordecone, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH), mirex, and toxaphene;
     
  • The industrial chemicals hexabromobiphenyl and PCBs;
     
  • Unintended byproducts - PCDD/PCDFs, HCB and PAHs.

PCBs. Concerning intentional uses of PCBs the POPs protocols requires that all Parties must:

  • Cease the production of new PCBs immediately (at the date of entry into force); eliminate the use of PCBs in equipment (e.g. transformers, capacitors or other receptacles containing liquid stocks) by Dec 2010;
     
  • Make determined efforts designed to lead to:
     
    • The elimination of the use of identifiable PCBs in equipment containing PCBs in volumes greater than 5 dm³ and having a concentration of 0.05% PCBs or greater, as soon as possible, but no later than 31 December 2010, or 31 December 2015 countries with economies in transition;
       
    • The destruction or decontamination in an environmentally sound manner of liquid PCBs referred to in the paragraph above and other liquid PCBs containing more than 0.005% PCBs as soon as possible, but no later than 31 December 2015, or 31 December 2020 for countries with economies in transition;
       
    • The decontamination or disposal of equipment containing PCBs in volumes greater than 5 dm³ and having a concentration of 0.05% PCBs or greater in an environmentally sound manner.

Unintentional releases of PCDD/PCDFs, PAHs and HCB. Releases of unintentionally produced by-products listed in Annex III of the Protocol (PCDD/PCDFs, PAHs and HCB) are su bject to continuous minimisation with, as objective, the ultimate elimination where feasible.

The POPs Protocol requires that all Parties must:

  • Reduce its total annual emissions from the level of the emission in a reference year by taking effective measures appropriate in its particular circumstances;
     
  • Apply BAT to new or existing stationary sources within a major stationary source category for which the annex V to the Protocol identifies best available techniques (different requirements for new and existing sources);
     
  • Apply limit values for PCDD/PCDF emission. A Party may, as an alternative, apply different emission reduction strategies that achieve equivalent overall emission levels (different requirements for new and existing sources);
     
  • Apply effective measures to control emissions from mobile sources.

Aldrin, chlordecone, chlordane, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), mirex, toxaphene and PCBs.

The POPs Protocol requires that all Parties must:

  • Eliminate production and use of the substances ;
     
  • Ensure that, when the substances are destroyed or disposed of, such destruction or disposal is undertaken in an environmentally sound manner;
     
  • To endeavour to ensure that the disposal of the substances is carried out domestically, taking into account pertinent environmental considerations;
     
  • To ensure that the transboundary movement of the substances listed is conducted in an environmentally sound manner, taking into consideration applicable subregional, regional, and global regimes governing the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes;
     
  • Develop appropriate strategies for identifying articles still in use and wastes containing such substances, and shall take appropriate measures to ensure that such wastes and such articles, upon becoming wastes, are destroyed or disposed of in an environmentally sound manner.

DDT and hexachlorocyclohexane

The POPs Protocol requires that all Parties must:

  • Restrict the substances to the uses described in annex II of the protocol.
     
  • Develop appropriate strategies for identifying articles still in use and wastes containing such substances, and shall take appropriate measures to ensure that such wastes and such articles, upon becoming wastes, are destroyed or disposed of in an environmentally sound manner.

 

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Version 1.0 May 2006, © Danish Environmental Protection Agency