Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers AARHUS CONVENTION Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers PRTRs Now! 4th Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health Budapest, Hungary - 23 June 2004 Michael Stanley-Jones Environmental Information Management Officer Aarhus Convention Secretariat UN Economic Commission for Europe

UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters Adopted June 1998 Entered into force October 2001 Three pillars: information, participation, justice

PROTOCOL`S LEGAL BASIS IN CONVENTION Article 5, paragraph 9: Requires each Party “to take steps to establish progressively .. a coherent, nationwide system of pollution inventories or registers on a structured, computerized and publicly accessible database compiled through standardized reporting.”

ADOPTION OF PRTR PROTOCOL 21 May 2003: Protocol adopted and signed at 5th Ministerial ‘Environment for Europe’ conference in Kiev

MAIN FEATURES OF THE PROTOCOL (1) Obligation on each Party to establish a PRTR which is: publicly accessible and user-friendly presents standardized, timely data on a structured, computerised database covers releases and transfers from certain major point sources begins to include some diffuse sources (e.g. transport, agriculture, small- and medium-sized enterprises) has limited confidentiality provisions allows public participation in its development

MAIN FEATURES OF THE PROTOCOL (2) and is based on system of reporting which is: mandatory annual multimedia (air, water and land)     facility-specific (point sources) pollutant-specific for releases pollutant-specific or waste-specific for transfers

MAIN FEATURES OF THE PROTOCOL (3) Facilities covered (annex I) include: Thermal power stations and refineries Mining and metallurgical industries Chemical plants Waste and waste-water management plants Paper and timber industries Intensive livestock production and aquaculture Food and beverage production

MAIN FEATURES OF THE PROTOCOL (4) Pollutants covered (annex II) include: Greenhouse gases Acid rain pollutants Ozone-depleting substances Heavy metals Certain carcinogens, such as dioxins TOTAL: 86 pollutants National registers may include additional facilities and substances.

MAIN FEATURES OF THE PROTOCOL (5) Public access is fundamental: Objective of Protocol: “… to enhance public access to information through the establishment of coherent, integrated, nationwide PRTRs …” PRTRs should: Be accessible through the Internet free of charge Be searchable according to the separate parameters (facility, pollutant, location, medium etc) Provide links to other PRTRs and to other relevant registers Recommendation: Explore links to toxicity and health information systems

MAIN FEATURES OF THE PROTOCOL (6) Some general features: Protocol is minimum instrument - ‘a floor but not a ceiling’ Parties required to work towards convergence between PRTR systems Open to non-Parties to Convention and non-ECE States    

SOME ISSUES IN FUTURE DEVELOPMENT Next-step issues: Storage On-site transfers And possibly eventually: Products Water, energy and resource use Radioactive substances Radiation, noise, genetically modified organisms…

CHALLENGES Developing guidance for Parties to Protocol and guidance for data users Identification of environmental and public health “hot spots” Communicating PRTR information to general public and targeted sectors Use of PRTR information for pollution prevention initiatives Development of toxics release EH indicators

AVAILABLE ON THE AARHUS CONVENTION WEBSITE: MORE INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON THE AARHUS CONVENTION WEBSITE: http://www.unece.org/env/pp/prtr.htm