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P A N U P S
Pesticide Action Network Updates Service
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POPs Negotiations Slow
April 20, 2000
A handful of countries--led by the U.S. and Australia--brought negotiation
of an international treaty to eliminate persistent organic pollutants (POPs)
to a near standstill at a recent meeting in Bonn, Germany. Delegates from
121 countries met in late March for the fourth of five sessions to draft a
treaty targeting POPs, starting with an initial list of 12 chemicals
including nine pesticides.* At the session's end, the draft treaty text
remained riddled with "bracketed" (contested) language reflecting key
unresolved issues as government delegates head toward final negotiations
this December in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The three main areas of contention are (1) whether the treaty's ultimate
goal will be elimination, rather than management of POPs; (2) whether the
precautionary principle will be integrated into the treaty in a meaningful
way; and (3) whether industrialized countries will agree to a binding
financial commitment to support developing countries and countries with
economies in transition to implement the treaty. The financial commitment
issue was clearly the most contentious. At one point in the negotiations,
the U.S. delegation offered a cynic's version of the Golden Rule**: "He who
has the gold, rules." Many developing country delegates have repeatedly
stated that without a strong financial commitment, there can be no treaty.
The ultimate success of negotiations depends in large part on resolution of
this critical issue.
In terms of the type of financial mechanism to be adopted, most developing
countries support establishment of an independent multilateral fund similar
to that under the Montreal Protocol, while many industrialized countries
support use of existing mechanisms such as the Global Environment Fund
(GEF). Disagreements regarding criteria by which additional POPs chemicals
would be identified for global elimination remain unresolved as well.
At the third negotiating session in September 1999, government delegates
reached preliminary agreement to eliminate production and use of the POPs
pesticides aldrin, endrin and toxaphene without exemptions. They also agreed
to phase out chlordane, dieldrin, heptachlor, mirex and hexachlorobenzene
with country-specific exemptions. The exact nature of these exemptions,
however, has not yet been defined and was not addressed at the Bonn meeting.
The U.S. has proposed a number of controversial open-ended "general"
exemptions as well.
Agreement has not been reached on the approach for the remaining chemicals
on the initial list (DDT, PCBs, dioxins and furans).
More than 80 NGOs from around the world, including many PAN groups,
participated in both the official session and a pre-meeting weekend workshop
organized by the International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN). During
negotiations, NGOs distributed a regularly updated scorecard reporting
delegate positions on elimination and precaution. In the final version of
the scorecard, only a dozen of the 121 participating countries had very weak
or negative positions on elimination and precaution. Key countries among
this small group include the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and Russia. The
European Union and most African, Arab and Asian countries support both the
elimination goal and strong precautionary language, while many Latin
American countries remain undecided.
Other NGO activities surrounding the meeting included a panel discussion for
delegates co-sponsored by PAN International and the World Wildlife Fund
highlighting the benefits of integrated pest management as an effective
alternative to POPs pesticides, and distribution of a "StopPOPs"
advertisement challenging U.S. officials to strengthen their positions on
the treaty. The advertisement appeared in the New York Times, USA Today and
on CNN television before and during the negotiations. In addition,
Commonweal and the Environmental Ministry of the Netherlands hosted a
luncheon session for delegates on the precautionary principle and the
science of endocrine disruption.
The Bonn meeting was the fourth of five sessions in a process which began in
1998 and is scheduled to conclude by the end of this year. If these sessions
result in a treaty, a signing ceremony will be held in Sweden in 2001.
* POPs are a group of chemicals that are toxic, persist in the environment,
accumulate in animal tissue and particularly body fat, and can travel great
distances. The initial twelve POPs addressed in the treaty are aldrin,
chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, mirex,
toxaphene, PCBs, dioxin and furans.
** A more common understanding of the Golden Rule is: "Do unto others as you
would have them do unto you."
The final IPEN Scorecard is available at http://www.ipen.org.
Source/contact: PANNA.
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Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA)
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Phone: (415) 981-1771
Fax: (415) 981-1991
Email: panna@panna.org
Web: http://www.panna.org
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