AARHUS CONVENTION

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AARHUS CONVENTION

• Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer
  Registers

PRTRs Now! 4th Ministerial Conference on
Environment and Health Budapest, Hungary - 23
June 2004
Michael Stanley-Jones Environmental Information
Management Officer Aarhus Convention
Secretariat UN Economic Commission for Europe
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UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public
Participation in Decision-making and Access to
Justice in Environmental Matters

• Adopted June 1998
• Entered into force October 2001
• Three pillars information, participation, justice

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PROTOCOLS LEGAL BASIS IN CONVENTION

• Article 5, paragraph 9 Requires each Party to
  take steps to establish progressively .. a
  coherent, nationwide system of pollution
  inventories or registers on a structured,
  computerized and publicly accessible database
  compiled through standardized reporting.

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ADOPTION OF PRTR PROTOCOL

• 21 May 2003 Protocol adopted
• and signed at 5th Ministerial Environment
  for Europe conference in Kiev

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MAIN FEATURES OFTHE PROTOCOL (1)

• Obligation on each Party to establish a PRTR
  which is
• publicly accessible and user-friendly
• presents standardized, timely data on a
  structured, computerised database
• covers releases and transfers from certain major
  point sources
• begins to include some diffuse sources (e.g.
  transport, agriculture, small- and medium-sized
  enterprises)
• has limited confidentiality provisions
• allows public participation in its development

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MAIN FEATURES OFTHE PROTOCOL (2)

• and is based on system of reporting which is
• mandatory
• annual
• multimedia (air, water and land)    
• facility-specific (point sources)
• pollutant-specific for releases
• pollutant-specific or waste-specific for transfers

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MAIN FEATURES OFTHE PROTOCOL (3)

• Facilities covered (annex I) include
• Thermal power stations and refineries
• Mining and metallurgical industries
• Chemical plants
• Waste and waste-water management plants
• Paper and timber industries
• Intensive livestock production and aquaculture
• Food and beverage production

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MAIN FEATURES OFTHE PROTOCOL (4)

• Pollutants covered (annex II) include
• Greenhouse gases
• Acid rain pollutants
• Ozone-depleting substances
• Heavy metals
• Certain carcinogens, such as dioxins
• TOTAL 86 pollutants
• National registers may include additional
  facilities
• and substances.

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MAIN FEATURES OFTHE PROTOCOL (5)

• Public access is fundamental
• Objective of Protocol to enhance public
  access to information through the establishment
  of coherent, integrated, nationwide PRTRs
• PRTRs should
• Be accessible through the Internet free of charge
• Be searchable according to the separate
  parameters (facility, pollutant, location, medium
  etc)
• Provide links to other PRTRs and to other
  relevant registers
• Recommendation Explore links to toxicity and
  health information systems

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MAIN FEATURES OFTHE PROTOCOL (6)

• Some general features
• Protocol is minimum instrument - a floor but not
  a ceiling
• Parties required to work towards convergence
  between PRTR systems
• Open to non-Parties to Convention and non-ECE
  States    

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SOME ISSUES IN FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

• Next-step issues
• Storage
• On-site transfers
• And possibly eventually
• Products
• Water, energy and resource use
• Radioactive substances
• Radiation, noise, genetically modified organisms

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CHALLENGES

• Developing guidance for Parties to Protocol
• and guidance for data users
• Identification of environmental and public
  health
• hot spots
• Communicating PRTR information to general
• public and targeted sectors
• Use of PRTR information for pollution prevention
  
• initiatives
• Development of toxics release EH indicators

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MORE INFORMATION

• AVAILABLE ON THE AARHUS CONVENTION WEBSITE
• http//www.unece.org/env/pp/prtr.htm