The Secretariat recently extended its agreement with IMPEL on illegal waste and chemicals trafficking to include cooperation relevant to all three conventions.

Addressing amendments made at COP-4, COP-5 and COP-6, Turkey has transmitted its revised and updated National Implementation Plan.

The 2015 Stockholm Convention amendments listing: hexachlorobutadiene; PCP its salts and esters; and PCNs, enter into force for most Parties on 15 December 2016.

The report of the joint meeting of the COPs bureaux held on 3 and 4 November 2016 is now available.

The effectiveness evaluation committee, established by the Conference of the Parties at its seventh meeting, met for the second time from 4 to 7 October 2016 in Geneva to finalize the first six-year evaluation cycle.

The committee concluded, among others, that the Stockholm Convention provides an effective and dynamic framework to regulate POPs throughout their lifecycle, addressing the production, use, import, export, releases, and disposal of these chemicals worldwide. However, inadequate implementation is the key issue that has been identified in this evaluation. Mechanisms and processes required by the Convention to support Parties in meeting their obligations have all been put in place, with the exception of procedures and mechanisms on compliance. A key challenge in undertaking the evaluation was the limited data available from national reports and national implementation plans, and recommendations have been made to address these and other implementation issues. Monitoring results indicate that regulations targeting POPs are succeeding in reducing levels of POPs in humans and the environment. For legacy POPs, concentrations measured in air and in human populations have declined and continue to decline or remain at low levels due to restrictions on POPs that predated the Stockholm Convention and are now incorporated in it. For the newly listed POPs, concentrations are beginning to show decreases, although in a few instances, increasing and/or stable levels are observed.

The effectiveness evaluation report, including an executive summary in the six UN languages, will be submitted for consideration at the eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention.

SCRC Kuwait is hosted by the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), which was established in 1967 to carry out applied scientific research and to provide consulting services for both governmental and private sectors in Kuwait, the Gulf region and the Arab World. KISR was nominated by the parties of the Asia region, and endorsed by the Conference of the Parties of the Stockholm Convention in 2009 to serve as a Stockholm Convention Regional Centre. The centre serves basically the countries located in the West Asia region, namely: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Yemen, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. The main objective of the SCRC Kuwait is to strengthen and further develop the capabilities of countries in the West Asia region in implementing the Stockholm Convention, through capacity building and the transfer of environmentally sound technologies adopted and used under the Stockholm Convention.

The priorities of the centre are as follows:

1. Coordinate with the 10 served members regarding the compliance of the stated recommendations by the POPRC and the conference of the parties;
2. Provide all served members with needful technical support to assist them in fulfilling the requirement of the convention;
3. Upgrade the centre with up to date facilities such as equipment for providing better services.

As such the vision for evolving the RC in the next 5 to 10 years is to ensure that all members would have the means and support needed from the RC to reach the level of full compliance with the Stockholm Convention.

SCRC Kuwait/KISR has emerged as a centre of excellence in the field of laboratory analysis of various environmental samples, including POPs and has a proven track record in laboratory management. The main laboratories and support sectors available in KISR that are related to the work of SCRC Kuwait are:

1. Laboratories
   • The Central Analytical Laboratory
   • Environmental Organic and inorganic Chemistry
   • Ecotoxicology and bio-monitoring Laboratories
   • Radioecology and radiochemistry
   • Remote Sensing              
2. Support sectors
   • National Scientific & Technical Information Centre
   • Manpower Development Division  

KISR/SCRC Kuwait has been undertaking a wide range of environmental studies particularly on the monitoring of POPs in various matrices and producing a significant number of articles in the peer review journals in recent years. Some of the notable works related to the Stockholm Convention include:

• Capacity-Building Workshop for the Development of Ambient Air Monitoring Network for Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) including the newly added POPs to the Stockholm Convention in the region of West Asia;
• A study on Polybrominated diphenyl ethers in car dust from Kuwait: Implications for human exposure; and
• A study on “Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in Kuwait’s atmosphere: Building the capacity to fulfil data requirements of the Stockholm Convention on POPs” .

For more information please visit: www.kisr.edu.kw.