Minamata Convention on Mercury

The Minamata Convention on Mercury is an international treaty designed to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds. The convention was a result of three years of meeting and negotiating, after which the text of the convention was approved by delegates representing close to 140 countries on 19 January 2013 in Geneva and adopted and signed later that year on 10 October 2013 at a diplomatic conference held in Kumamoto, Japan. The convention is named after the Japanese city Minamata. This naming is of symbolic importance as the city went through a devastating incident of mercury poisoning. It is expected that over the next few decades, this international agreement will enhance the reduction of mercury pollution from the targeted activities responsible for the major release of mercury to the immediate environment.
The objective of the Minamata Convention is to protect the human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds. It contains, in support of this objective, provisions that relate to the entire life cycle of mercury, including controls and reductions across a range of products, processes and industries where mercury is used, released or emitted. The treaty also addresses the direct mining of mercury, its export and import, its safe storage and its disposal once as waste. Pinpointing populations at risk, boosting medical care and better training of health-care professionals in identifying and treating mercury-related effects will also result from implementing the convention.
The Minamata Convention provides controls over a myriad of products containing mercury, the manufacture, import and export of which will be altogether prohibited by 2020, except where countries have requested an exemption for an initial 5-year period. These products include certain types of batteries, compact fluorescent lamps, relays, soaps and cosmetics, thermometers, and blood pressure devices. Dental fillings which use mercury amalgam are also regulated under the convention, and their use must be phased down through a number of measures.
Background on mercury.
Mercury is a naturally occurring element. It can be released to the environment from natural sources – such as weathering of mercury-containing rocks, forest fires, volcanic eruptions or geothermal activities – but also from human activities. An estimated 5500-8900 tons of mercury is currently emitted and re-emitted each year to the atmosphere, with much of the re-emitted mercury considered to be related to human activity, as are the direct releases.
Due to its unique properties, mercury has been used in various products and processes for hundreds of years. Currently, it is mostly utilised in industrial processes that produce chloride (PVC) production, and polyurethane elastomers. It is extensively used to extract gold from ore in artisanal and small-scale gold mining. It is contained in products such as electrical switches (including thermostats), relays, measuring and control equipment, energy-efficient fluorescent light bulbs, batteries and dental amalgam. It is also used in laboratories, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, including in vaccines as a preservative, paints, and jewellery. Mercury is also released unintentionally from some industrial processes, such as coal-fired power and heat generation, cement production, mining and other metallurgic activities such as non-ferrous metals production, as well as from incineration of many types of waste.
The single largest source of human-made mercury emissions is the artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector, which is responsible for the release of as much as 1,000 tonnes of mercury to the atmosphere every year.
History of the negotiations.
Mercury and mercury compounds have long been known to be toxic to human health and the environment. Large-scale public health crises due to mercury poisoning, such as Minamata disease and Niigata Minamata disease, drew attention to the issue. In 1972, delegates to the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment witnessed Japanese junior high school student Shinobu Sakamoto, disabled as the result of methylmercury poisoning "in utero". The United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment, previously UNEP) was established shortly thereafter. UN Environment has been actively engaged in bringing the science of mercury poisoning to policy implementation. In 2001, the executive director of UN Environment was invited by its governing council to undertake a global assessment of mercury and its compounds, including the chemistry and health effects, sources, long-range transport, as well as prevention and control technologies relating to mercury.
In 2003, the governing council considered this assessment and found that there was sufficient evidence of significant global adverse impacts from mercury and its compounds to warrant further international action to reduce the risks to human health and the environment from their release to the environment. Governments were urged to adopt goals for the reduction of mercury emissions and releases and UN Environment initiated technical assistance and capacity-building activities to meet these goals.
A mercury programme to address the concerns posed by mercury was established and further strengthened by governments in 2005 and 2007 with the UNEP Global Mercury Partnership. In 2007, the governing council concluded that the options of enhanced voluntary measures and new or existing international legal instruments should be reviewed and assessed in order to make progress in addressing the mercury issue. In February 2009, the governing council of UNEP decided to develop a global legally binding instrument on mercury.
An intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC) was promptly established, through which countries negotiated and developed the text of the convention. Other stakeholders, including intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations also participated in the process and contributed through sharing of views, experience and technical expertise. The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee was chaired by Fernando Lugris of Uruguay and supported by the Chemicals and Health Branch of UN Environment's Economy Division. The INC held five sessions to discuss and negotiate a global agreement on mercury:
On 19 January 2013, after negotiating late into the night, the negotiations concluded with close to 140 governments agreeing to the draft convention text. The Convention was adopted and opened for signature for one year on 10 October 2013, at a conference of plenipotentiaries (diplomatic conference) in Kumamoto, Japan, preceded by a preparatory meeting from 7–8 October 2013. The European Union and 86 countries signed the convention on the first day it was opened for signature. A further 5 countries signed the Convention on the final day of the diplomatic conference, 11 October 2013. In total, the convention has 128 signatories.
Fernando Lugris, the Uruguayan chair delegate, proclaimed, "Today in the early hours of 19 January 2013 we have closed a chapter on a journey that has taken four years of often intense but ultimately successful negotiations and opened a new chapter towards a sustainable future. This has been done in the name of vulnerable populations everywhere and represents an opportunity for a healthier and more sustainable century for all peoples."
Further to the adoption of the convention, the intergovernmental negotiating committee was mandated to meet during the interim period preceding the opening of the first meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention to facilitate its rapid entry into force and effective implementation upon entry into force. Two sessions of the INC were held:
Discussions covered a number of technical, financial as well as administrative and operational aspects.
The convention required to enter into force the deposit of fifty instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession by states or regional economic integration organizations. This fifty-ratification milestone was reached on 18 May 2017, hence the convention entered into force on 16 August 2017.
The first meeting of Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury (COP1) took place from 24 to 29 September 2017 at the International Conference Center in Geneva.
The second meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP2) took place from 19 to 23 November 2018 at the International Conference Center in Geneva, Switzerland.
The third meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP3) took place from 25 to 29 November 2019 at the International Conference Center in Geneva, Switzerland. At its third meeting, the Conference of the Parties agreed on a number of action items to effectively implement the Minamata Convention.
After the convention entered into force, the Conference of the Parties took place yearly for the first three years. From now onward, next Conference of the Parties (COPs) will be convened in every two years.
The fourth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP4) will take place in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia from 1 to 5 November 2021.
Provisions.
The convention has 35 articles, 5 annexes and a preamble.
The preamble of the convention states that the parties have recognized that mercury is, "a chemical of global concern owing to its long-range atmospheric transport, its persistence in the environment once anthropogenically introduced, its ability to bioaccumulate in ecosystems and its significant negative effects on human health and the environment." It further refers to previous relevant decisions including of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme as well as to the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development "the future we want". The preamble recalls the lessons of the Minamata disease, in particular the serious safety and environmental effects resulting from mercury pollution and the need to ensure proper management of mercury and the prevention of such events in the future.
The importance of financial, technical, and technological and capacity building support, particularly for developing countries and countries with economies in transition to strengthen national capabilities for the management of mercury and order to promote the proper implementation of the Convention is stressed. The preamble also recognizes the activities of the World Health Organization in the protection of human health related to mercury as well as the roles of relevant multilateral environmental agreements, recognizing that the Convention and other international agreements in the field of environment and trade are mutually supportive.
Mercury Club.
Within the conference a "Mercury Club" was established to support the negotiating process for the legally binding instrument on mercury. Three different types of awards, gold, silver and bronze, were presented and established "according to the level of contributions received in the time period between the 25th session of the UNEP Governing Council, where the decision to convene negotiations was taken, and the sixth session of the intergovernmental negotiating committee." The recipient of award included governmental bodies, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and individuals. Contributions could be made in different form such as in cash or acts like hosting of a meeting directly related to the negotiations process.
Money contributions were awarded as follows:
GOLD certificates awarded to:
SILVER certificates awarded to:
BRONZE certificates awarded to: 