1. “PRTRs in Action: The Kiev Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers and its relevance to SAICM”
Michael Stanley-Jones
Environmental Information Management Officer
Environment, Housing and Land Management Division
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
PRTRs in Action, Side event to the Central and Eastern Europe Regional Meeting on the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management
4-6 December 2006, Riga, Latvia

2. OUTLINE
I. The role of PRTRs in SAICM Global Plan of Action and Overarching Policy Strategy
II. Introduction to the Kiev Protocol on PRTRs
III. Tools for promoting international coordination of PRTR capacity building
IV. Some applications to Multilateral Environmental Agreements

3. PRTRs in SAICM Global Plan of Action and Overarching Policy Strategy
Cooperative action on global priorities
Encouraging implementation of existing internationally recognized standards, tools and approaches, such as GHS and PRTRs (Executive summary, para. 8 (c))
Activities
Knowledge and information
124. Develop a national PRTR/emission inventory design process involving affected and interested parties
125. Use PRTRs tailored to variable national conditions as a source of valuable environmental information for industry, Governments and the public and as mechanisms to stimulate reductions in emissions

4. PRTRs in SAICM 2 Governance
177. Establish the required framework for creating national PRTRs
178. Promote a political consensus in in favour of public access to national environmental information
178. Manage information dissemination from PRTRs so that risks are communicated in a timely and accurate fashion without unduly alarming the public
192. Promote within the industrial sector the adoption of PRTRs and cleaner production methods

5. PRTRs in SAICM 3 Capacity-building and technical cooperation
222. Strengthen mechanisms for reporting and consolidating information necessary to produce baseline overviews that will help determine domestic management priorities and gaps (e.g., PRTRs and inventories)…

6. From the Aarhus Convention to the Protocol on PRTRs
UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters
25 June Adoption of the Convention at the 4th Ministerial “Environment for Europe” Conference, Aarhus, Denmark. Signed by 39 countries and the European Community
30 Oct Entry into force of the Convention
21 May Adoption of the Protocol on PRTRs at extra-ordinary meeting of the Parties, within the framework of the 5th Ministerial “Environment for Europe” Conference (Kiev, Ukraine)
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
recently described the drafting as having global significance
as a 'giant step forward in the development of international law in this field'
it is the first legally binding UN instrument to address the issues covered by what we might call environmental democracy in a detailed and systematic way
Secretary General: Rio +10 meeting: examine the global relevance of the Convetion prinicples

7. Status of Convention Ratifications
Kyrgyzstan
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg *
Malta
Moldova, Rep. of
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Ukraine
United Kingdom
European Community *
Albania
Armenia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Belgium
Bulgaria
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
Former Yugoslav
Rep. of Macedonia
France
Georgia
Greece
Hungary
Italy
Kazakhstan
Convention total = 39 Parties (PRTR Protocol: 37 Signatories, including Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Serbia & Montenegro. Protocol Parties as 1 Sep 2006 indicated by * )

8. Access to information provisions
Selected features of Convention article 5 “Active Dissemination”
Transparency and accessibility of information systems
Immediate dissemination of information in cases of imminent threat to health or environment
Sufficient product information to ensure informed environmental choices
Pollutant release and transfer registers
Increased access to information through Internet
Article 5, paragraph 3
… each Party to ensure that environmental Information progressively becomes available In electronic databases which are easily accessible to the public through public telecommunication networks
Requirement for p.a. to actively disseminate certain types of information. In a transparant and accessible way f.I. by public registers and lists.
Categories of information
Parties must take steps in developing a Pollutant Release and Transfer Register.
Use of Internet
Parties must publish and disseminate state of the environment reports

9. Legal basis of PRTR Protocol in Aarhus Convention
Legal basis: article 5, para. 9 and article 10, para. 2 (e) and (i) of the Aarhus Convention, requiring 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.” (art. 5, para. 9)
… taking into account international processes and developments, including the elaboration of an appropriate instrument concerning pollution release and transfer registers or inventories ….” (art. 10, para. 2(i) )

10. Requirements of Protocol on PRTRs
Facilities and pollutants covered
General obligations placed on Parties
Obligations placed on owners / operators
Elements of reporting
Quality assessment and validation
Future steps
and
Possible applications (not required)

11. Facilities covered 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
Textiles, Tanneries, Shipbuilding

12. Pollutants covered Pollutants covered (annex II) include:
Greenhouse gases
Acid rain pollutants
Ozone-depleting substances
Heavy metals
Certain carcinogens, such as dioxins
TOTAL: 86 pollutants
N.B. National registers may include additional facilities and substances, e.g. European Union includes 91 individual substances or groups of substances

13. Government
Chooses among various technical options for the design of a central, publicly accessibly register to determine the institutional framework required for ensuring a coordinated system of information flow to it
Sets forth the rights and responsibilities of
various key players, e.g.
the obligation of pollutant-emitting facilities to report, and
the right of the general public to participate in decisions concerning PRTRs

14. Elements explicitly set forth in the Protocol
or implicit in its requirements
1. Institution to manage the national PRTR system (art. 2, para. 5)
2. Structure for inter-agency coordination
3. Appropriate systems for enforcement (art. 3, para. 1)
Collection, validation and management of data
4. Collection of data submitted by owners or operators of reporting
facilities (art. 7, paras. 2 and 5)
5. Assessment of the quality of the data collected in terms
of completeness, consistency and credibility (art. 10, para. 2)
6. Collection of information on releases from diffuse sources
(art. 7, para. 4)
8. Development and management of a register comprising
a structured, computerized database able to maintain data
for 10 reporting years (art. 4, para. (j) and art. 5, para. 3)
9. Dissemination of information and training (arts. 8, 11 and 15).

15. Basic obligation of operators
To submit the information specified with respect
to those pollutants and waste for which thresholds
were exceeded
Each Party decides with respect to a particular pollutant
to apply either a release threshold or a manufacture,
process or use (MPU) threshold will be used
Facility operators do not choose under which requirement
(pollutant threshold or MPU) to report

16. (Article 7 - continued) Reporting requirements of operators
Each Party shall require owners or operators of facilities specified
in annex I who
Release any pollutant specified in annex II in quantities exceeding
applicable thresholds,
Transfer off-site any pollutant in annex II in quantities exceeding
Transfer off-site hazardous waste exceeding 2 tons per year
or other waste exceeding 2,000 tons per year, where the Party has
opted for waste-specific reporting (as in the European Union)
Transfer off-site any pollutant specified in annex II in waste water
destined for waste-water treatment in quantities exceeding the applicable
threshold or
Undertake one or more activities specified in annex I at or above
the employee threshold specified in annex I, and
Manufacture, process or uses any pollutant specified in annex II

17. Specific reporting elements
Name, street address, geographical location and activities
of the reporting facility
Name of the owner or operator and, as appropriate, company
Name and numerical identifier of each specified pollutant
Amount of each specified pollutant released to the environment,
both in aggregate and according to whether release is to air, to
water, or to land, including underground injection
either
amount of each pollutant transferred off-site in the reporting
year, distinguishing between amounts for disposal and for recovery,
and
name and address of facility receiving the transfer, or
amount of waste transferred off-site, distinguishing between
hazardous waste and other waste, for any operations, indicating
whether waste is destined for recovery or disposal
and for transboundary movements of hazardous waste,
name and address of the recoverer or disposer and
actual site receiving the transfer

18. Reporting elements (continued)
Amount of each specified pollutant in waste water transferred off-site
Type of methodology used to derive information on amounts,
indicating whether based on measurement, calculation or estimation
(M, C, E)
Information to include releases and transfers from routine and from
extraordinary events
Owners or operators to be required to collect releases and transfers
data needed “with appropriate frequency”, and to
Records of the data from which the reported information was derived
must be kept available for the competent authorities for 5 years,
including description of M, C or E.

19. Quality assessment (Article 10)
Owners or operators are to assure the quality of the information
they report
Quality assessment of data duty of the Parties, in particular as to
completeness – consistency – credibility
taking into account guidelines developed by the MOP
Draft Guidance to implementation of the Protocol on PRTRs
Penultimate version released 31 July 2006 available on
web sites of UNECE Working Group on PRTRs and WGEMA

20. ‘Best Available Information’ (BAI) standard (article 9, para. 2)
Owners or operators of facilities required to ensure the quality
of information they report and to use “best available information”
‘Best available information’ may include
monitoring data
emission factors
mass balance
equations
indirect monitoring or other calculations
engineering judgments, and
other methods
Nb. EU adopting more stringent guidance on BAI

21. Quality assurance and control
Calibration and maintenance of the monitoring system
Use of recognized quality management systems
Periodic checks by an external accredited laboratory
Certification of instruments and personnel under
recognized certification schemes
Elements for guidelines on strengthening environmental
monitoring and reporting by enterprises, para 36 (i)
(ECE/CEP/AC.10/2006/4)

22. Validation Where appropriate, validation should be done in accord
with internationally approved methodologies
e.g. ISO, European Committee for Standardization (CEN)
However, in some cases, national or sector methodologies
may be superior to Internationally-approved ones,
or such approval may be pending (“HOT ISSUE”)
Validation of data may be more easily achievable if
responsibility is delegated to local or regional authorities
or to the regional or local offices of national authorities,
since they will be closer to the operators and are more likely
to have an overview of their activities
Guidance on validation is evolving

23. Next steps for Protocol’s future implementation
Setting up the Protocol’s institutional architecture:
rules of procedure and compliance review mechanism
financial arrangements
technical assistance mechanism,
international cooperation and reporting
International PRTR Coordinating Group
SAICM / ICCM etc
Completion of technical guidance on implementation
Further guidance on dissemination of PRTR information
or data users’ guide suggested

24. Possible future applications
Pan-European Environment and Health Information System (Environment-for-Europe Ministerial Conference / WHO Europe)
Commercial property management information systems (“due diligence” research, e.g. Environment Agency of England and Wales)
Integration into Global Reporting Initiative, Socially Responsible Investment (SRI), and evolving ISO standards and OECD guidelines
SAICM national performance tracking under ICCM
Convergence of regional PRTR systems (North American Taking Stock, European PRTR, East Asia?)

25. PRTR success story
“For the 10-year period from 1988 to 1997, atmospheric emissions of some 260 known carcinogens and reproductive toxins from the United States Toxics Release Inventory reporting facilities have been reduced by approximately 85% in the State of California, and by some 42% in the rest of the country (i.e., for all chemicals listed in California as known to cause either cancer or reproductive toxicity and reported as air emissions under TRI ).”
From P. Sand (2002)

26. MORE INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON THE AARHUS CONVENTION WEBSITE:
Aarhus Clearinghouse