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First Meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the Stockholm Convention
2-6 May 2005 | Punta del Este, Uruguay
Daily Web Coverage & Daily Reports (in English, French & Spanish):

Highlights from Tuesday, 3 May 2005

Delegates met in a brief morning plenary session. In the morning and afternoon, delegates met in a Committee of the Whole (COW), a legal working group, and the POPs Review Committee (POPRC) contact group. Contact groups on financial mechanisms and on Best Available Techniques (BAT) and Best Environmental Practices (BEP), and the legal working group, convened in evening sessions.



Plenary
Panel from the morning session. From left to right: Maria Cristina Cardenas (Secretariat); COP President Mariano Arana (Uruguay); John Buccini (Secretariat); David Ogden (Secretariat).
Chair Arana presided over the nominations of Co-Chairs of the legal working group. Barry Stemshorn, Environment Canada, nominated his colleague Anne Daniel, also of the Canadian delegation, to Co-Chair the legal group. Tarek Eid El Ruby, Egypt, was nominated as Co-Chair of the legal working group.

Committee of the Whole (COW)
Panel from the morning session of the COW.
Chair Mark Hyman, Australia, presides over the COW. Elena Sobakina, UNEP, introduced agenda items on specific exemptions and related issues. John Buccini, Acting Executive Secretary for the Secretariat of the Stockholm Convention.
Ibrahima Sow, Senegal, gave a report from the POPRC Contact Group. David J. Atkinson, Director, Chemical Policy, Australian Government, proposed amendments to the register of specific exemptions. The European Union (Nicola Lettington, UK.) stressed that exemptions should be granted only in exceptional and justified cases.
Yue Ruisheng, China, State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) highlighted a problem related to the use of DDT in protecting ship hulls. Liselott Säll, Norway, supported review of exemptions by the POPRC. Georg Karlaganis, Switzerland, opposed establishing an expert group.
Barry Stemshorn, Environment Canada. Maria Cristina Cardenas, Secretariat, introduced agenda items on financial resources, mechanisms and related financial arrangements. The European Union proposed amendments to enhance consistency with the convention text and with the GEF's operational modalities (Linda Brown, UK.)
DemetrioL. Ignacio, Jr., Phillippines, spoke on behalf of GEF-eligible countries in the Asia-Pacific Region, and emphasized the need for a sorter budget cycle in the GEF. Eisaku Toda, Ministry of the Environment of Japan, noted its differences from GEF-eligible countries in the Asia-Paciric region. Luis Almagro, MRREE, Uruguay, called for adopting the GEF as the ongoing financial mechanism.
O. O. Dada, Nigeria, said that any financial mechanism for the convention must be viable, adequate, predictable, and also include multiple source funding approaches. J M Matjilla, South Africa, noted that the draft guidance did not incorporate all of the Convention's requirements. Henrik Hallgrim Eriksen, Norway suggested staying with the GEF's "winning team."
Raphael Azeredo, Brazil reminded delegates that regional consultations would occur on the issue. Deon Stewart, Bahamas, expressed concern that eligibility criteria other than those outlined in the convention might be used. Thérèse Yarde, Barbados, emphasized the needs of small island developing states.
John Michael Matuszak, United States, expressed support for the guidance. Laurent Granier, Global Environment Facility (GEF), introduced the GEF's report to COP-1. Iran said the COP's authority to question decisions on project eligibility taken by the GEF is too low.
Bilouundar Bayaksaikhan, Mongolia, opposed deferral of the review of the financial mechanism to COP-3. Indrani Chandraselcha Ran, Ministry of Envieronment and Forests - Government of India, noted than over 100 countries have received assiatnce from the GEF and called for the development of criteria by which to review the performance of the GEF as a financial mechanism at COP-2. Rachel A. Arungah, Kenya, supported deferral of the review of the financial mechanism to COP-3, but called for early consideration of calculation of incremental cost and co-funding.
Ellen Hagerman, Canada, supported deferal of the review of the financial mechanism to COP-3.
Participants to the Morning Plenary.

Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC) Contact Group
The POPRC contact group met in the morning and afternoon under the chairmanship of Ibrahima Sow (Senegal). Participants successfully addressed all but one of the outstanding issues in the revised and anotated draft terms of reference of the POPRC. They continued to rely on the model of the Rotterdam Convention's Chemical Review Committee. They agreed on the process for the initial appointment of POPRC members, on their terms of appointment and on procedures for dealing with vacancies. Agreement was also reached on the invitation of up to 30 experts and on attendance by observers. Delegates could not agree on the POPRC's working language, with some preferring meetings be conducted in all six UN languages, while others preferred work to be conducted only in English, citing budgetary and efficiency concerns. The work of the contact group will be considered by the COW on Wednesday.
Colin Church, UK, and a Japanese delegate pouring over language. Participants follow the changes in the text.
Participants follow the changes in the text. Ibrahima Sow, Senegal , the contact group's Chair was applauded for his guidance at the close of the meeting.

Legal and Administrative Matters' Contact Group

The legal working group, co-chaired by Anne Daniels ( Canada ) and Haddad El Gottary ( Egypt ) met on Tuesday morning to address the rules or procedure, arbitration, financial rules and non-compliance.

Co-Chair Anne Daniels, Canada. Patrick Szell, Secretariat.
The EU proposed holding an open ended workshop on compliance prior to COP-2. Argentina and Brazil proposed using the Basel guidelines on compliance as a basis for a negotiating text on this issue for COP-2.
Participants to the Contact Group. China opposed deleting text on the need to notify Parties of requests for observer status by any body, agency or NGO.

Afternoon COW Session
Panel of the afternoon under the direction of Chair Hyman.
Jacob Williams, World Health Organization (WHO), presented a revised draft decision on DDT prepared by the Secretariat in consultation with the WHO. Hewk Bouwman, South Africa, suggested adding references to “non-Parties” so that all countries producing, using, exporting, importing and/or maintaining stocks of DDT be invited to submit data. Jack Weinberg, IPEN, emphasized the need to work on strategies for integrated vector control, non-chemical alternatives and adequate public health measures.
Susan Hazen, United States, proposed noting that strategies on cost-effective alternatives to DDT must not only be developed but also “deployed.” Nicola Lettington, UK. Francis Kihumba N., Kenya, suggested adding adequate public health measures to the list of GEF-supported activities.

From left to right: Heidelore Fiedler, Secretariat, David Ogden, Secretariat, Chair Mark Hyman, and John Buccini, Acting Executive Secretary for the Secretariat of the Stockholm Convention.
David Ogden, Secretariat, drew attention to the Co-Chair's report of the expert group. Angelita Brabante, Department of Environment and Natural Resources of the Philippines. Sergio Vives P., Chilean Copper Commission, presented the Co-Chair's report of the BAT/BEP Expert Group.
Shizuko Ota, Ministry of the Envronment of Japan. Icti Taulàlo, Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment & Meteorology of Samoa. Gamal Allozy, Ministry of Water and Evironment of Yemen, emphasized the need to address developing country situations
Cama T. Tuiloma, Ministry of Local Government, Housing, Squatter Settlement & Environment of Fiji, noted the situations of small island developing states. Clifton Curtis, WWF-International, supported continued intersessional work on BAT/BEP. Heidelore Fiedler, Secretariat, introduced the standardized toolkit for identifying and quantifying dioxin and furan releases.

UNITAR side events on strengthening the basic infrastucture for chemicals management, and on the relationship between the Stockholm Convention and the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS)
Panel of the side event on the relationship between the Stockholm Convention and GHS, organized by UNITAR in co-operation with Uruguay.
Federico Perazza, Uruguay. Reiner Arndt, Germany. Craig Boljkovac, UNITAR.
Estefania Blount - ICFTU. Georg Karlaganis, Switzerland.

Contact Group on the Financial Mechanism
A contact group co-chaired by Luis Almagro (Uruguay) and Jozef Buys (EC) met in the evening to review the draft guidance to the financial mechanism of the Stockholm Convention. Participants introduced several amendments to the draft decision and draft guidance on the financial mechnism, which were left in brackets for further discussion.
Linda Brown (UK) said the GEF must "internalize" guidance from the COP to achieve the objectives of the Convention.

Miscellaneous photos
Marta Ligia Pérez, Colombia ENB writer, Soledad Aguilar (Argentina)
Christian Pastore, UNON

Relevant Links

Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) website
Information about the meeting
Meeting Documents
ENB Summary report of the Rotterdam Convention  COP-1 and PIC INC-11 (HTML, PDF, TEXT)
ENB Summary report of the Seventh Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention (HTML, PDF, TEXT)
ENB Summary report of the Seventh Meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs INC-7): English (HTML, PDF, TEXT) French (HTML, PDF, TEXT)
ENB Coverage of meetings on Chemicals Management


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