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Appendix 2: Stockholm Convention

Articles 1 and 5 and the referred Annex C from the Stockholm Convention are reproduced in full in this Appendix. These excerpts are of direct relevance to the current action plan, and outline New Zealand's obligations under the terms of this convention.

Article 1

Objective

Mindful of the precautionary approach as set forth in Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, the objective of this Convention is to protect human health and the environment from persistent organic pollutants.

Article 5

Measures to reduce or eliminate releases from unintentional production

Each Party shall at a minimum take the following measures to reduce the total releases derived from anthropogenic sources of each of the chemicals listed in Annex C, with the goal of their continuing minimization and, where feasible, ultimate elimination:

  1. Develop an action plan or, where appropriate, a regional or subregional action plan within two years of the date of entry into force of this Convention for it, and subsequently implement it as part of its implementation plan specified in Article 7, designed to identify, characterize and address the release of the chemicals listed in Annex C and to facilitate implementation of subparagraphs (b) to (e). The action plan shall include the following elements:
    1. An evaluation of current and projected releases, including the development and maintenance of source inventories and release estimates, taking into consideration the source categories identified in Annex C;
    2. An evaluation of the efficacy of the laws and policies of the Party relating to the management of such releases;
    3. Strategies to meet the obligations of this paragraph, taking into account the evaluations in (i) and (ii);
    4. Steps to promote education and training with regard to, and awareness of, those strategies;
    5. A review every five years of those strategies and of their success in meeting the obligations of this paragraph; such reviews shall be included in reports submitted pursuant to Article 15;
    6. A schedule for implementation of the action plan, including for the strategies and measures identified therein;
  2. Promote the application of available, feasible and practical measures that can expeditiously achieve a realistic and meaningful level of release reduction or source elimination;
  3. Promote the development and, where it deems appropriate, require the use of substitute or modified materials, products and processes to prevent the formation and release of the chemicals listed in Annex C, taking into consideration the general guidance on prevention and release reduction measures in Annex C and guidelines to be adopted by decision of the Conference of the Parties;
  4. Promote and, in accordance with the implementation schedule of its action plan, require the use of best available techniques for new sources within source categories which a Party has identified as warranting such action in its action plan, with a particular initial focus on source categories identified in Part II of Annex C. In any case, the requirement to use best available techniques for new sources in the categories listed in Part II of that Annex shall be phased in as soon as practicable but no later than four years after the entry into force of the Convention for that Party. For the identified categories, Parties shall promote the use of best environmental practices. When applying best available techniques and best environmental practices, Parties should take into consideration the general guidance on prevention and release reduction measures in that Annex and guidelines on best available techniques and best environmental practices to be adopted by decision of the Conference of the Parties;
  5. Promote, in accordance with its action plan, the use of best available techniques and best environmental practices:
    1. For existing sources, within the source categories listed in Part II of Annex C and within source categories such as those in Part III of that Annex; and
    2. For new sources, within source categories such as those listed in Part III of Annex C which a Party has not addressed under subparagraph (d).
      When applying best available techniques and best environmental practices, Parties should take into consideration the general guidance on prevention and release reduction measures in Annex C and guidelines on best available techniques and best environmental practices to be adopted by decision of the Conference of the Parties;
  6. For the purposes of this paragraph and Annex C:
    1. "Best available techniques" means the most effective and advanced stage in the development of activities and their methods of operation which indicate the practical suitability of particular techniques for providing in principle the basis for release limitations designed to prevent and, where that is not practicable, generally to reduce releases of chemicals listed in Part I of Annex C and their impact on the environment as a whole. In this regard:
    2. "Techniques" includes both the technology used and the way in which the installation is designed, built, maintained, operated and decommissioned;
    3. "Available" techniques means those techniques that are accessible to the operator and that are developed on a scale that allows implementation in the relevant industrial sector, under economically and technically viable conditions, taking into consideration the costs and advantages; and
    4. "Best" means most effective in achieving a high general level of protection of the environment as a whole;
    5. "Best environmental practices" means the application of the most appropriate combination of environmental control measures and strategies;
    6. "New source" means any source of which the construction or substantial modification is commenced at least one year after the date of:
      1. Entry into force of this Convention for the Party concerned; or
      2. Entry into force for the Party concerned of an amendment to Annex C where the source becomes subject to the provisions of this Convention only by virtue of that amendment.
  7. Release limit values or performance standards may be used by a Party to fulfill its commitments for best available techniques under this paragraph.

Article 7

Implementation plans

  1. Each Party shall:
    1. Develop and endeavour to implement a plan for the implementation of its obligations under this Convention;
    2. Transmit its implementation plan to the Conference of the Parties within two years of the date on which this Convention enters into force for it; and
    3. Review and update, as appropriate, its implementation plan on a periodic basis and in a manner to be specified by a decision of the Conference of the Parties.
  2. The Parties shall, where appropriate, cooperate directly or through global, regional and subregional organizations, and consult their national stakeholders, including women's groups and groups involved in the health of children, in order to facilitate the development, implementation and updating of their implementation plans.
  3. The Parties shall endeavour to utilize and, where necessary, establish the means to integrate national implementation plans for persistent organic pollutants in their sustainable development strategies where appropriate.

Annex C

UNINTENTIONAL PRODUCTION

Part I: Persistent organic pollutants subject to the requirements of Article 5

This Annex applies to the following persistent organic pollutants when formed and released unintentionally from anthropogenic sources:

Chemical

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/PCDF)
Hexachlorobenzene (HCB) (CAS No: 118-74-1)
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB)

Part II: Source categories

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans, hexachlorobenzene and polychlorinated biphenyls are unintentionally formed and released from thermal processes involving organic matter and chlorine as a result of incomplete combustion or chemical reactions. The following industrial source categories have the potential for comparatively high formation and release of these chemicals to the environment:

  1. Waste incinerators, including co-incinerators of municipal, hazardous or medical waste or of sewage sludge;
  2. Cement kilns firing hazardous waste;
  3. Production of pulp using elemental chlorine or chemicals generating elemental chlorine for bleaching;
  4. The following thermal processes in the metallurgical industry:
    1. Secondary copper production;
    2. Sinter plants in the iron and steel industry;
    3. Secondary aluminium production;
    4. Secondary zinc production.

Part III: Source categories

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans, hexachlorobenzene and polychlorinated biphenyls may also be unintentionally formed and released from the following source categories, including:

  1. Open burning of waste, including burning of landfill sites;
  2. Thermal processes in the metallurgical industry not mentioned in Part II;
  3. Residential combustion sources;
  4. Fossil fuel-fired utility and industrial boilers;
  5. Firing installations for wood and other biomass fuels;
  6. Specific chemical production processes releasing unintentionally formed persistent organic pollutants, especially production of chlorophenols and chloranil;
  7. Crematoria;
  8. Motor vehicles, particularly those burning leaded gasoline;
  9. Destruction of animal carcasses;
  10. Textile and leather dyeing (with chloranil) and finishing (with alkaline extraction);
  11. Shredder plants for the treatment of end of life vehicles;
  12. Smouldering of copper cables;
  13. Waste oil refineries.

Part IV: Definitions

  1. For the purposes of this Annex:
    1. "Polychlorinated biphenyls" means aromatic compounds formed in such a manner that the hydrogen atoms on the biphenyl molecule (two benzene rings bonded together by a single carbon-carbon bond) may be replaced by up to ten chlorine atoms; and
    2. "Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins" and "polychlorinated dibenzofurans" are tricyclic, aromatic compounds formed by two benzene rings connected by two oxygen atoms in polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and by one oxygen atom and one carbon-carbon bond in polychlorinated dibenzofurans and the hydrogen atoms of which may be replaced by up to eight chlorine atoms.
  2. In this Annex, the toxicity of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans is expressed using the concept of toxic equivalency which measures the relative dioxin-like toxic activity of different congeners of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans and coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls in comparison to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin. The toxic equivalent factor values to be used for the purposes of this Convention shall be consistent with accepted international standards, commencing with the World Health Organization 1998 mammalian toxic equivalent factor values for polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans and coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls. Concentrations are expressed in toxic equivalents.

Part V: General guidance on best available techniques and best environmental practices

This Part provides general guidance to Parties on preventing or reducing releases of the chemicals listed in Part I.

  1. General prevention measures relating to both best available techniques and best environmental practices - Priority should be given to the consideration of approaches to prevent the formation and release of the chemicals listed in Part I. Useful measures could include:
    1. The use of low-waste technology;
    2. The use of less hazardous substances;
    3. The promotion of the recovery and recycling of waste and of substances generated and used in a process;
    4. Replacement of feed materials which are persistent organic pollutants or where there is a direct link between the materials and releases of persistent organic pollutants from the source;
    5. Good housekeeping and preventive maintenance programmes;
    6. Improvements in waste management with the aim of the cessation of open and other uncontrolled burning of wastes, including the burning of landfill sites. When considering proposals to construct new waste disposal facilities, consideration should be given to alternatives such as activities to minimize the generation of municipal and medical waste, including resource recovery, reuse, recycling, waste separation and promoting products that generate less waste. Under this approach, public health concerns should be carefully considered;
    7. Minimization of these chemicals as contaminants in products;
    8. Avoiding elemental chlorine or chemicals generating elemental chlorine for bleaching.
  2. Best available techniques - The concept of best available techniques is not aimed at the prescription of any specific technique or technology, but at taking into account the technical characteristics of the installation concerned, its geographical location and the local environmental conditions. Appropriate control techniques to reduce releases of the chemicals listed in Part I are in general the same. In determining best available techniques, special consideration should be given, generally or in specific cases, to the following factors, bearing in mind the likely costs and benefits of a measure and consideration of precaution and prevention:
    1. General considerations:
      1. The nature, effects and mass of the releases concerned: techniques may vary depending on source size;
      2. The commissioning dates for new or existing installations;
      3. The time needed to introduce the best available technique;
      4. The consumption and nature of raw materials used in the process and its energy efficiency;
      5. The need to prevent or reduce to a minimum the overall impact of the releases to the environment and the risks to it;
      6. The need to prevent accidents and to minimize their consequences for the environment;
      7. The need to ensure occupational health and safety at workplaces;
      8. Comparable processes, facilities or methods of operation which have been tried with success on an industrial scale;
      9. Technological advances and changes in scientific knowledge and understanding.
    2. General release reduction measures: When considering proposals to construct new facilities or significantly modify existing facilities using processes that release chemicals listed in this Annex, priority consideration should be given to alternative processes, techniques or practices that have similar usefulness but which avoid the formation and release of such chemicals. In cases where such facilities will be constructed or significantly modified, in addition to the prevention measures outlined in section A of Part V the following reduction measures could also be considered in determining best available techniques:
      1. Use of improved methods for flue-gas cleaning such as thermal or catalytic oxidation, dust precipitation, or adsorption;
      2. Treatment of residuals, wastewater, wastes and sewage sludge by, for example, thermal treatment or rendering them inert or chemical processes that detoxify them;
      3. Process changes that lead to the reduction or elimination of releases, such as moving to closed systems;
      4. Modification of process designs to improve combustion and prevent formation of the chemicals listed in this Annex, through the control of parameters such as incineration temperature or residence time.
  3. Best environmental practices - The Conference of the Parties may develop guidance with regard to best environmental practices.
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