The Minamata Convention on Mercury requires Parties to control mercury releases to land and water from relevant point sources. It promotes the use of best available techniques and best environmental practices to minimize pollution from industrial activities.
The Conference of the Parties (COP) requested the group of technical experts, in its decision MC-4/5, to develop the guidance on best available techniques and best environmental practices, in line with the road map contained in document UNEP/MC/COP.4/31, with a view to adopting the guidance pursuant to paragraph 7 of article 9 of the Convention at COP-5.
Parties and other stakeholders are invited to submit existing information on national regulations or industry practices relating to the control of mercury releases from relevant sources by 30 June 2022 (extended to 15 July). The following submissions have been received.
The list of members of the expert group can be found here. The group started working online in June 2022. The group elected Mr. Cristián Enrique Brito Martínez (Chile) and Ms. Bianca Hlobsile Mkhatshwa-Dlamini (Eswatini) as co-chairs.
The group has developed a first draft of the guidance as available from the link below, accompanied by technical reference materials. Parties and stakeholders are invited to provide comments and input to this draft, using the commenting form, to the secretariat by Friday 17 February 2023.
Comments have been received from Argentina, EU and its member states, Jamaica, Japan, Nigeria, Thailand, US, Association of Lighting and Mercury Recyclers (ALMR), International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), International Dental Manufacturers Association (IDM), IPEN, Alfa Laval Technologies AB, Atium and OASIS. The draft guidance and technical reference document were revised and submitted to COP-5 as UNEP/MC/COP.5/8 and UNEP/MC/COP.5/INF/11 respectively. The responses to the comments are available here.
Intersessional work and Submissions for COP-4
Releases of mercury
COP3 requested the group of technical experts to continue to work by electronic means, with the possibility of one face-to-face meeting, in line with the road map set out in annex II to document UNEP/MC/COP.3/6, to produce a report including draft guidance on the methodology for preparing inventories of releases, the proposed categories of point sources of releases and a road map for the development of guidance on best available techniques and best environmental practices.
Parties were invited to confirm the current members of the group of technical experts, nominate new members or replace members as appropriate, through the Bureau members by 31 March 2020. Bureau members were informed that the Secretariat would wait for the nominations until 15 April. The list of nominated members and observers is available here. Parties and other stakeholders were invited to submit existing information on the calculation of releases and on other methodologies for the estimation of releases from the source categories identified in UNEP/MC/COP.3/6. The following submissions have been received.
The group of technical experts works on-line to develop a report including draft guidance on the methodology for preparing inventories of releases, the proposed categories of point sources of releases and a road map for the development of guidance on best available techniques and best environmental practices. The group agreed to post the draft general guidance for release inventories (PDF), noting that it will be updated after agreeing on the list of point source categories.
The draft report to be submitted to COP-4 (PDF and Word versions) was posted on the web on 25 June 2021. Please note that the group of technical experts is still to further discuss some wording, such as the reference to wastewater in the table of relevant release categories, at its meeting after the commenting period. Parties and other stakeholders were invited to submit comments on the draft by 23 July 2021 to: mea-minamatasecretariat [at] un.org (mea-minamatasecretariat[at]un[dot]org) . The draft is being revised taking into account the comments received, to be submitted as a COP-4 document.
Intersessional work and Submissions for COP-3
Mercury releases to land and water
Pursuant to Decision MC-2/3 a group of technical experts on guidance in relation to mercury releases was established to prepare a report on the identification of significant anthropogenic point source of release categories not addressed in the provisions of the Convention other than article 9, for consideration by COP-3. The list of members and observers of the group is available here. The group will work electronically.
Parties and other stakeholders were invited to submit information related to the identification of relevant point source categories of release by 15 February 2019.
Draft report from the group of technical experts, based on the discussion at its two teleconferences, was posted here on 15 May 2019. Parties, signatories and other stakeholders were invited to submit comments by 15 June 2019. The following comments have been received. The group of technical experts will finalize the report taking into account the comments received.
