Statement by the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention on Mercury at the 2025 BRS COPs

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

The collaboration between the Minamata Convention Secretariat and the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions has flourished during the past intersessional period on a broad array of:

• programmatic issues, such as mercury wastes and their environmentally sound management; the provision of technical assistance, financial resources, compliance, legal issues and effectiveness evaluation; and
• administrative issues, in particular with regard to the mutual support in the organization and servicing of our COPs, and outreach and awareness-raising efforts; and knowledge and information management.

I am very happy that Parties recognized this enhanced cooperation and expressed their strong support for it to continue by adopting a decision on the matter at our COP-5, which took place in November 2023 here in Geneva.

The support of the BRS Secretariat, as well as the support of other MEA secretariats and UNEP, was an important contribution to the success of COP-5. This is particularly true with respect to the adoption of COP-5 decision MC-5/10 on the establishment of mercury waste thresholds, which is of great relevance to the BRS Conventions. 

In the chemicals and wastes cluster, the expected establishment of the science-policy panel to contribute further to the sound management of chemicals and waste and to prevent pollution will be an important area of our future collaboration, in particular in areas where our conventions’ respective work and mandates converge.

Furthermore, the Global Framework on Chemicals - adopted by 5th session of International Conference on Chemicals Management in September of 2023 –provides a platform for strengthened cooperation among two secretariats as well as government institutions and stakeholder groups.

Beyond the chemicals and wastes cluster, one important occasion for collaboration was UNEA-6 in February 2024. The agenda item on cooperation with MEAs provided a structured entry point to highlight the importance of strengthening UNEP’s cooperation with MEAs, as well as cooperation among the MEAs themselves. The adoption of two resolutions related to synergies testifies to that. During UNEA-6 our secretariats collaborated closely as active participants to the MEA-day and to our joint side-event on cooperation between MEAs implementation and compliance committees.

The secretariats have undertaken several other joint activities to highlight the contributions of the conventions to broader environmental agendas including on biodiversity.

Pollution has specifically been addressed in target 7 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework as a key driver of biodiversity loss, while many other targets of the framework are also highly relevant to the chemicals and waste sector, as recognized by our respective COPs.

There is still a lot we can do together to demonstrate and maximize the co-benefits arising from the implementation of the Minamata Convention, BRS Conventions and the Global Framework on Chemicals on one hand and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework on the other.  The Minamata Convention Secretariat is looking forward to further collaboration and coordination with the secretariats of BRS, GFC and the CBD secretariat in this regard.  

I would also like to underscore the importance of the upcoming GEF-9 replenishment. GEF has been instrumental in supporting both the implementation of the Minamata Convention and of the Stockholm Convention. Collaboration between our secretariats in the past GEF replenishment was crucial in amplifying our messages on funding needs and resulted in increased funding for both the Minamata and Stockholm conventions. I am already collaborating with the Executive Secretary Rolph Payet and hope for similar outcomes.

Further, I am grateful for inviting the Secretariat to contribute to the programme of the 2025 BRS Secretariat’s training of potential chairs and negotiators and for extending participation at the training to the Minamata Convention chairs.  

Before I conclude, I would like to appreciate the excellent work of the BRS Secretariat in organizing the High-Level Segment during this COP. This is an excellent opportunity to engage with Ministers and other high-level representatives on matters related to the Minamata Convention.

Thank you.