ICMGP 2022: Reducing mercury emissions to achieve a greener world

26 Jul 2022

On 25 July 2022, the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention on Mercury took part in the 15th meeting of the International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant (ICMGP). The meeting is taking place as a week-long virtual event. At the beginning of the day, Dr. Lynwill Martin (South Africa), chair of ICMGP, declared the meeting open, underlining the overall theme “reducing mercury emissions to achieve a greener world.”

ICMGP2022

Executive Secretary of the Minamata Convention, Monika Stankiewicz, congratulated the organizers and participating scientists on the first ICMGP meeting hosted in Africa. In her opening remarks, she stated: “Science has been driving the development and implementation of the Minamata Convention. I am glad to see the conference programme addresses the triple planetary crisis, with sessions on climate change and ecosystem impact. I look forward to working with the scientific community in supporting the implementation of the Convention, following up on COP decisions, and placing mercury in a larger context of variety of pressures and impacts on ecosystems and human health.”

The Conference, preceded by a series of workshops, consists of four plenary sessions and a number of thematic sessions. The first plenary session on Monday 25 July addressed the linkage between climate change and mercury pollution. Thematic sessions include key topics such as artisanal and small-scale gold mining, effectiveness evaluation of the Minamata Convention, global mercury transport and mercury in southern hemisphere. Synthesis papers are being developed based on researches presented at the Conference.

A thematic session titled "How are we doing in implementing the Minamata Convention?" was also held on the first day. The presentation of Eisaku Toda, Senior Programme Officer of the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention, demonstrated the substantial contribution of "Mercury science driving the implementation of the Minamata Convention”, and exemplified further scientific input for the implementation of the Convention. Read the full presentation here.

The Conference will continue until 29 July 2022: learn more and register here. The Secretariat of the Minamata Convention will further cooperate with the organizer to plan Minamata Online Season 3 to follow up on the key messages from the conference. The next meeting of the ICMGP will be held face-to-face in Cape Town in July 2024.

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MC/COP6/2025/19
| 12 Feb 2025

Study of the global supply, production, trade and use of mercury compounds

At its fifth meeting, which took place from 30 October to 3 November 2023 in Geneva, Switzerland, the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury adopted decision MC-5/3 requesting the Secretariat to: (a) initiate a study of the global supply, production, trade and use of merc