HARMFUL SUBSTANCES AND HAZARDOUS WASTE – 38
Mercury falling UNEP in 2013 made progress across the board on harmful substances and hazardous waste, in particular through its instrumental role in delivering the first new global convention on environment and health for close to a decade—not only setting the stage for concerted action on a major challenge, but delivering fresh momentum to intergovernmental cooperation on the environment. After four years of negotiations, sparked at UNEP’s 25th Governing Council meeting in 2009, 92 countries and the European Union signed up to the Minamata Convention on Mercury, which aims to reduce emissions of the toxic metal and phase out products that contain it. Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin that, once emitted, causes global contamination of ecosystems, animals and the human food chain. The treaty, adopted in Kumamoto, Japan on October 10, is named after the place where thousands of people were poisoned by mercury-tainted industrial wastewater in the mid-20th century, leading to crippling symptoms that became known as Minamata disease. The major highlights of the convention include a ban on new mercury mines, the phase-out of existing ones, control measures on air emissions, and international regulation of informal artisanal and smallscale gold mining. The United States was the first to ratify the treaty, the initial step towards the 50 ratifications needed to bring the treaty into force. UNEP has been actively engaged in bringing the science of mercury poisoning to policy implementation for a decade—from its role in the Global Mercury Partnership, which galvanizes on-the-ground action, to convening the Minamata negotiations to reports such as the Global Mercury Assessment—and so fittingly hosts the secretariat for the new convention. Providing the science, policy and implementation support needed to turn the convention into concrete action will be a key part of UNEP’s work in 2014 and beyond. UNEP is already tackling the challenge of reducing mercury in many of the ways specified in the convention: working on the phase down of dental amalgam in East Africa, assisting Panama and Mexico to deliver national action plans on environmentally sound waste management and interim storage of excess mercury, and assisting small-scale gold miners in Indonesia to reduce their mercury usage.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
UNEP’s 2013 Global Mercury Assessment
Coal burning and deforestation release about 735 tonnes of mercury annually to air and water Production of metals (include mining, smelting and production) releases to air about 348 tonnes per year
“The Minamata Convention will protect people and improve standards of living for millions around the world, especially the most vulnerable.” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Small-scale gold mining accounts for over 35 per cent of mercury emitted into the air and threatens the health of 10-15 million miners in more than 70 countries Man-made releases to air and water have doubled mercury in the top 100 metres of the world’s oceans over the last 100 years
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Global lead phase out
Taking the lead on lead UNEP’s history has shown that international cooperation, through global partnerships and conventions such as Minamata, can bring rapid and remarkable results. For example UNEP, through the Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles (PCFV), has supported the near elimination of leaded fuels worldwide. When the PCFV was launched in 2002, about half of the countries around the world still used leaded petrol. As of October 2013, this had dropped to only six. In 2013, UNEP entered into an agreement with a regional partner to develop a clean fuels road map for West Asia and North Africa, which includes eliminating lead from petrol in Algeria, Yemen and Iraq. Algeria stopped leaded petrol production in two of its refineries in 2013, with the third expected to halt production in 2015. Lead, however, remains a concern. It has been over 90 years since the League of Nations called for a ban on lead in paint, yet children and pregnant mothers in the
When the PCFV was launched in 2002, about half of the countries around the world still used leaded petrol. As of October 2013, this dropped to only six.
2002
2014
Leaded
Leaded and unleaded