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EU GOVERNMENTS FAIL TO COMMIT TO FULL POLLUTION REPORTING

29 Nov 2002

Environmental organisations protested a number of decisions in this week's pollution treaty negotiations as European and Canadian negotiators compromised on commitments to provide the public with information about industrial toxics.

The public's right to know about amounts of pollutants held at industrial facilities were casualties of this week's near final negotiations. Previously expected to finish this week, the talks will now continue in January with the goal of a finished Protocol in time for signature at the pan-European Environment Minister's meeting next May.

Friends of the Earth Pollution Researcher, Mary Taylor, speaking for the NGO coalition European ECO Forum, said:

"Every time a compromise is reached, negotiators are reducing the public's right to information. This is not consistent with stated objectives of pollution prevention and environmental health and safety."

Lead by the European Union and Canada, negotiators are pushing to eliminate the originally mandated step-by-step approach - settling for a very limited number of reported substances and refusing to commit to broadening the scope of the public information in the future. A number of issues are being marginalised, including:

• the storage of hazardous pollutants on industrial sites;
• reporting on pollutants leaving industrial sites in products;
• disposal of pollutants on-site;
• development of criteria for incorporating new pollutants in the future.

These issues may be picked up by the future official Meeting of Parties, but this will not happen for many years. Sixteen countries have to ratify the Protocol before it enters into force.

Natural Resources Defense Council senior attorney, Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, said:
"This negotiation has failed to produce the strong right-to-know law expected under the Aarhus "public participation" Convention. The lack of vision shown, especially by the European Union countries, is appalling."

Background Note: Delegates are discussing a new protocol under the 1998 Aarhus "public participation" Convention, which will require participating countries to collect and publish information on quantities of pollutants released and transferred from certain industrial sources and eventually from diffuse sources such as traffic. The meeting follows a two-year process involving countries from Europe, Central Asia, the US and Canada, as well as representatives from environmental NGOs, including Friends of the Earth, Natural Resources Defense Council, and representatives from the chemical industry (CEFIC).

The information will be compiled in to "Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers" or "PRTRs". Such registers are already used in the UK and US and are believed to have helped drive down pollution levels and provided both the public and authorities with useful information.

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