Highlights for Friday, 21 September 2018

POPRC Chair Estefânia Gastaldello Moreira, Brazil, gaveled the meeting to a close at 4:11 pm.

On the final day of the fourteenth meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC-14), delegates gathered in plenary to address the outstanding items on the Committee’s agenda.

The Committee adopted three decisions on industrial chemicals, including on:

• a risk profile on perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PHFxS), its salts, and related compounds, which concludes that these substances are likely, as a result of long-range environmental transport, to lead to significant adverse effects on human health and the environment such that global action is warranted;
• a decision to recommend listing pentadecafluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), its salts, and related compounds in Annex A of the Convention with specific exemptions for some uses, including fire-fighting foams; and
• and a decision on perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), its salts, and perfluorooctane sulfonyl fluoride (PFOSF) that, inter alia, recommends to the COP that some uses of this chemical permitted by the Convention should be eliminated, due to the availability of safer alternatives for these applications.
  

After brief concluding remarks by POPRC Chair Estefania Gastaldello Moreira (Brazil) in which she thanked participants for sharing their expertise and congratulated them on the successful completion of challenging technical work, POPRC-14 was gaveled to a close at 4:11 pm.

The Earth Negotiations Bulletin summary and analysis of POPRC-14 will be available on Monday, 24 September 2018.

The dais during the morning plenary, L-R: Kei Ohno Woodall, BRS Conventions Secretariat; POPRC Chair Estefânia Gastaldello Moreira, Brazil; Rolph Payet, Executive Secretary, BRS Conventions Secretariat; and Abiola Olanipekun, BRS Conventions Secretariat

A view of the room on the final day of negotiations

Victorine Augustine Pinas, Suriname

Abiola Olanipekun, BRS Conventions Secretariat

Jean-François Ferry, Canada, reported on the work of the contact group on PFOA.

Tamara Kukharchyk, Belarus

Observers consider the text on PFOS, L-R: Trine Celius, Norway; Timo Seppälä, Finland; and Zhanyun Wang, International Panel on Chemical Pollution

Delegates review text before the afternoon plenary.