Highlights and images for 7 November 2025

On the final day of the sixth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-6), delegates made arrangements for the work of the Convention leading up to COP-7 in two years time. They elected a new Bureau, chaired by Marie-Claire Lhenry (France), as well as members of the Implementation and Compliance Committee (ICC), and the Governing Board of the Specific International Programme to support Capacity Building and Technical Assistance (SIP).

The last day of COP-6 also took a wide range of substantive decisions. The decision to phase out dental amalgam by 2034, and to add several phasedown measures for Parties to adopt in the meantime, received a standing ovation. What to do about dental amalgam has haunted the Convention from its inception, and its phase out has been championed by the African Group since COP-4.

Delegates adopted a decision to address the continued presence of mercury-containing cosmetics in global trade despite a Convention-mandated phaseout. Among other things, it calls for a report on enforcement challenges, work with the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), the World Customs Organization, and others on combating illicit trade, and help from the World Health Organization in developing an illustrative national, public health system-wide strategy countries can use that focus on reducing use of mercury-added cosmetics.

Faced with requests from Bangladesh, India, and Thailand to extend their temporary exemptions from phaseout obligations for various categories of mercury-added products, the COP adopted two decisions.  One addressed the three petitions, granting them. The second dealt with timelines for consideration of future such requests. The former notes that, apart from the three extensions granted by COP-6, all registered exemptions from the 2020 phaseout dates listed in Annexes A and B to the Convention will expire on 31 December 2025 and cannot be requested again.

A decision on waste asks Parties and relevant stakeholders to submit any proposed updates to the lists of wastes covered by paragraph 2 (definition) of Article 11 on waste. It also requests the Secretariat to compile and summarize submissions regarding scientific and regulatory data on the effectiveness of the threshold for wastes contaminated with mercury or mercury compounds, as well as on challenges and experiences related to its use, for consideration by COP-7.

A decision on artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) covers, inter alia, just transitions, open data, supply chains, and Indigenous Peoples. Among other things, it calls for a report to COP-7 on measures taken to implement ASGM national action plans, and identifying successful strategies and activities, achievements in implementation, and challenges and barriers encountered in reducing and eliminating the use, emissions, and releases of mercury in ASGM.

Opposition by a single Party prevented COP-6 from declaring that mercury-free alternatives for vinyl chloride monomer are technically and economically feasible, so a COP-6 decision forwards this matter to COP-7. The feasibility declaration would set in motion a five-year clock toward phaseout under Annex B.

Delegates also adopted a decision urging Parties to provide support for the effective participation of Indigenous Peoples as well as local communities in work and meetings under the Convention.

In the closing hours of COP-6, delegates adopted the budget and programme of work for the 2026–27 biennium.

The meeting closed at 5:38 pm.