Mandate and Decisions

Article 9 of the Stockholm Convention requests Parties to facilitate or undertake the exchange of information relevant to alternatives to POPs, including information relating to their risks and their economic and social costs. Article 10 also encourages parties, in providing information on POPs and their alternatives, to use a broad range of means of communication.

In order to enable Parties to take measures to reduce or eliminate releases of POPs from intentional production and use in conformity with Article 3, for which alternatives do not exist yet or are not readily available, the Convention allows Parties to register specific exemptions for a specific period of time pursuant to Article 4 of the Convention. Annexes A and B of the Convention describe the specific exemptions and acceptable purposes that are available with respect to the relevant POPs.

By its decision SC-4/3, the Conference of the Parties to the Convention (COP) encouraged those parties that might seek specific exemptions for future persistent organic pollutants to make efforts to introduce alternative measures as soon as possible.

In response to that decision and with a view to assisting parties to implement their obligations under Articles 9 and 10 of the Convention, the Secretariat launched at the end of 2010 activities on POPs-free products and processes.

At its fifth meeting in Geneva in April 2011, the COP took note of the POPs-free activities, which were integrated into the work programme of the secretariat in decision SC-5/28 with the understanding that that the Secretariat will provide the COP at its sixth meeting with results and outcomes of the implementation of the POPs-free programme.

 

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 Items: 2 Files: 4
SC-4/3Exemptions75.5 K9.32 K
 
 
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1. Notes the cancellation of all specific exemptions that were recorded in the Register of Specific Exemptions for the persistent organic pollutant chemicals listed in Annexes A or B of the Convention at the time of its adoption;

2. Also notes that, with the exception of polychlorinated biphenyls, all current exemptions listed in Annex A and Annex B of the Convention will be unavailable to Parties after 17 May 2009;

[...]
4. Agrees to extend the expiration date in paragraph 6 of the review process for entries in the Register of Specific Exemptions to 2015;

SC-5/28Financing and budget for the biennium 2012–2013932 K114.01 K
 
 
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The Conference of the Parties

1. Approves the programme of activities and operational budget for the biennium 2012–2013 of 5,779,576 United States dollars for 2012 and 6,066,761 dollars for 2013 for the purposes set out in table 1 of the present decision, which are presented by budget code line in table 2;