1. 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

2. 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

3. 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.”

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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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

10. 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    

11. 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…

12. 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

13. AVAILABLE ON THE AARHUS CONVENTION WEBSITE:
MORE INFORMATION
AVAILABLE ON THE AARHUS CONVENTION WEBSITE: