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Rotterdam Convention Second meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade
Rome, Italy | 27-30 September 2005
United Nations
 
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Nigerian Minister of Environment Addresses COP-2

Noting that African countries are net importers of chemicals, Nigeria's Minister of Environment, Iyorchia Ayu, called for an effective financial mechanism with new and additional financial resources which are sustainable, predictable, and sufficient. He said such mechanism would provide the technical skills and infrastructure needed for African countries to handle chemicals safely.


Wednesday, 28 September
Plenary

Delegates met in Plenary during the morning to start deliberations on, among others: report of the open ended ad-hoc group on non-compliance, proposals by the CRC to COP including risk evaluation and clarification on the meaning of trade names, and implementation of the Convention. In the afternoon the plenary addressed: financial report by the Secretariat, the programme of work, the 2006 budget and options for a financial mechanism. In the evening, contact groups on non-compliance and budget met.

Anne O'Toole, Canada, said risk evaluations from other Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) were useful, but that it was important for countries to indicate prevailing national conditions.

Kyunghee Choi, Republic of Korea, supported the use of risk evaluation from other MEAs for the purposes of the Rotterdam Convention.

George Krhoda, Kenya, warned against repeating assessments done under other MEAs.

Yue Ruisheng, China, said the Convention requires that risks be evaluated in light of prevailing national conditions.

Adama Cham, the Gambia, said that parties were not equal with respect to global risks.

Mohammed Khashashneh, Jordan, said that since the Montreal Protocol and the Stockholm Convention are milestones in the integrated management of chemicals at the international level, their work on risk evaluations should not be repeated by the Rotterdam Convention.

Michael Morelli, CropLife International, stressed the need to clarify whether the use of "trade names" was intended to refer to a brand name, or a company name.

Barbara Dinham, Pesticide Action Network, suggested governments indicate not only reduction of a product's availability or of its uses, but also the reduction of exposure to people or the environment.

Arturo Correa, Chile, supported the EU's proposal that the Secretariat's paper on DGD scope investigate alternative ways to make information available other than including them in DGDs.

Yun Zhou, Secretariat, presented a report on the activities of the Rotterdam Convention Secretariat.

Jill Hanna, EU, looked forward to pursuing the "nitty-gritty" of budget details in the budget contact group.

Georg Karlaganis, Switzerland, said its contribution to the voluntary special trust fund was earmarked, and encouraged parties to submit projects focusing on synergies among the Stockholm, Rotterdam and Basel Conventions.

Mona Aarhus, Norway, said keeping the status quo of funding was not acceptable.

Marcus Abbo, Cameroon, asked that the contact group on financing take into account the views of developing countries.

Bademba Sow, Guinea, said that maintaining the status quo of funding would lead the Convention up a blind alley.

The Contact Group on Non-Compliance, chaired by Denis Langlois, Canada, discussed the non-paper on non-compliance.

The Contact Group on Finance, chaired by Jean-Louis Wallace, Canada, addressed: the budget increase; FAO's contribution in kind, namely three Secretariat staff posts; and the amount of the capital reserve for the 2005-2006 biennial budget and the costs of the proposed Compliance Committee.

Related Links

Rotterdam Convention web site
PIC COP-2 Documents
UNEP Chemicals Unit

Related ENB Coverage

Linkages Chemicals page
ENB Coverage of PIC INC-11 and COP-1
ENB Coverage of PIC INC-10
ENB Coverage of SAICM PrepCom-3
ENB Coverage of SAICM PrepCom-2
A brief introduction to the Rotterdam PIC Convention

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