Paragraph 2 of parts IV and V of Annex A to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants provides that at its sixth ordinary meeting and every second meeting thereafter the Conference of the Parties shall evaluate the progress that parties have made towards achieving their ultimate objective of elimination of hexabromodiphenyl ether and heptabromodiphenyl ether and tetrabromodiphenyl ether and pentabromodiphenyl ether contained in articles and review the continued need for a specific exemption for those chemicals. The paragraph also provides that the specific exemptions will in any case expire at the latest in 2030.
By decision SC-6/3, the Conference of the Parties adopted a process for the evaluation and review of brominated diphenyl ethers pursuant to paragraph 2 of parts IV and V of Annex A as set out in the annex to that decision and committed itself to undertaking the evaluation and review at its eighth meeting (COP-8) and every second ordinary meeting thereafter. According to the process, the Secretariat is to analyse the information submitted by parties and any other pertinent and credible information available and prepare a report, with advice from relevant experts such as the members of the POPs Review Committee, for consideration by the Conference of the Parties to assist it in undertaking the evaluation and review of brominated diphenyl ethers.
By decision SC-7/4, the Conference of the Parties adopted the format for the submission of information for the evaluation and review of brominated diphenyl ethers. By the same decision, the Conference of the Parties took note of both the information provided by parties on their experience in implementing the recommendations set out in the annex to decision POPRC-6/2 and the report by the Secretariat on the main challenges encountered by parties in implementing the recommendations and decided to take them into account in the evaluation and review of brominated diphenyl ethers at COP-8.