Statutory framework for MONARPOP

One of the characteristic traits of POPs is their ability to travel long distances and cross borders, via atmospheric or marine transport.

POPS are deposited in regions even as remote as the arctics (where they accumulate in the food chain and influence human and animal health). Obviously, singular national regulations are insufficient to solve this problem.

Two multilateral environmental agreements were developed to deal effectively with this class of chemicals:

1. The POPs Protocol is part of the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution. It is not a global agreement but confined to members of the UNECE, the UN Economic Commission for Europe, a forum which includes the countries of North America, western, central and eastern Europe and central Asia. Both convention and protocol deal specifically with air pollution and the spread of pollutants throughout the atmosphere. The protocol contains extensive technical guidelines which include limit values for emissions of unintentionally produced POPs (mainly dioxins and furans) as well as descriptions of best available technologies (BATs).

2. The Stockholm Convention is a global multilateral environmental agreement. It sets up bans for the "dirty dozen" (the most notorious POPs), allows for additional bans on new POPs and deals with POPs transport to all environmental compartments (also water bodies, soil and migratory species).

RELATED LINKS

POPs Protocol

History of relevant protocols

Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution

Stockholm Convention

Managing POP wastes: the Basel Convention

Global monitoring of POPs