Highlights for Thursday, 6 September 2018

Co-Chairs huddle with Secretariat over a point of order raised by Brazil

The Eleventh Meeting of the Open-ended Working Group of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal (OEWG11) opened for its final day on Thursday, 6 September 2018 in Geneva, Switzerland. The OEWG met in plenary all day.

OEWG11 adopted decisions on:

• guidelines for environmentally sound management;
• technical guidelines on the environmentally sound management of wastes consisting of, containing or contaminated with persistent organic pollutants (POPs);
• technical guidelines on transboundary movements of electric and electronic wastes (e-waste) and used electrical and electronic equipment, in particular regarding the distinction between waste and non-waste under the Basel Convention;
• technical guidelines on incineration on land and specially engineered landfill;
• types of waste for which practical guidance on the development of national inventories would be useful;
• electronic approaches to notification and movement documents;
• marine plastic litter and microplastics;
• the creation of a new Partnership on Plastic Waste and its possible terms of reference;
• consideration of an amendment of the Convention Annexes reclassifying plastic wastes;
• waste containing nanomaterials;
• comments on the development of guidance by the Basel Convention Committee Administering the Mechanism for Promoting Implementation and Compliance;
• the way forward for a review of Convention Annexes I, III and IV and related aspects of Annex IX;
• the Partnership on Household Waste; and
• cooperation with the World Customs Organization on the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System.

Delegates also reviewed its draft biennial work programme for 2020-2021 and approved the report of the meeting.

OEWG11 Co-Chair Mohammed Khashashneh (Jordan) gaveled the meeting to a close at 1:52 pm.

ENB Summary and Analysis: The Earth Negotiations Bulletin summary and analysis of OEWG11 is available in HTML and PDF.

Alejandra Acosta, Argentina

Michel Tschirren, Switzerland

Charles Ikeah, Nigeria

Nero Cunha Ferreira, Brazil