Background
At the first meeting of the Signatories, a Task Force on pollution inventories or registers was established with the Czech Republic as a lead country to facilitate the implementation of Article 5, paragraph 9, of the Aarhus Convention. The mandate of the Task Force was to prepare recommendations for the future work on PRTR to be presented to the Signatories or Parties in accordance with Article 10, paragraph 2 (i). At the second meeting of the Signatories, the Task Force presented its findings in the report of its first meeting. Based on these, the meeting of the Signatories decided to propose to the Committee on Environmental Policy that an open-ended intergovernmental working group should be established, charged with the preparation of a legally binding instrument with a view to having a draft ready for the Fifth "Environment for Europe" Ministerial Conference (Kiev 2003). At its seventh session, the Committee on Environmental Policy decided to establish the Working Group on pollutant release and transfer registers here.
At the first meeting of the Parties, which took place in Lucca, Italy on 21-23 October 2002, the ownership of the Working Group was formally taken over by the Meeting of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention by adopting decision I/2. By the same decision, the Parties decided that the legally binding instrument should be a protocol to the Covnetion and that the Protocol should be open to all States, whether or not Parties to the Convention. Finally, the Parties decided to hold an extra-ordinary meeting at the occasion of the fifth Ministerial "Environment for Europe" Confence (Kiev, May, 2003) to adopt and sign the Protocol (decision I/3).
Progress
The negotiations on the PRTR protocol under which companies will be required to publicly disclose information on their output of pollutants came to a successful conclusion in Geneva on 30 January 2003. Although regulating information on pollution, rather than pollution directly, the protocol is expected to exert a significant downward pressure on levels of pollution, as no company will want to be identified as among the biggest polluters. The Protocol was adopted and opened for signature at the Fifth Ministerial ‘Environment for Europe’ Conference, which took place in Kiev, Ukraine, 21-23 May 2003. Thirty-six States and the European Community signed the Protocol in Kiev.
Document Title | ENG | FRE | RUS | |
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Draft protocol on pollutant release and transfer registers (MP.PP/2003/1) | ||||
Report of the second meeting (MP.PP/AC.1/2002/2) - not yet available |
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List of participants at the second meeting |
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Elements for a draft resolution on pollutant release and transfer registers (MP.PP/AC.1/2003/3) | ||||
Draft Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers - Revised consolidated text (MP.PP/AC.1/2002/3) | ||||
Provisional agenda for the second meeting (MP.PP/AC.1/2003/1) | ||||
Report of the first meeting (MP.PP/AC.1/2002/2) | ||||
List of participants at the first meeting |
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Provisional agenda for the meeting (MP.PP/AC.1/2002/1) |
Documents of the previous Working Group
Document | English | French | Russian |
Analysis of the legal, administrative, institutional, practical and financial implications of the protocol being open to States and regional economic integration organizations whether or not they are Parties to the Aarhus Convention (CEP/WG.5/AC.2/2002/12) (advance copy) |
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Draft Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers - Consolidated text CEP/WG.5/AC.2/2002/11) | |||
Draft Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers - Consolidated text CEP/WG.5/AC.2/2002/10) | |||
Report on the sixth meeting (CEP/WG.5/AC.2/2002/9) | |||
Provisional agenda for the sixth meeting (CEP/WG.5/AC.2/2002/8) | |||
Report on the fifth meeting (CEP/WG.5/AC.2/2002/6) | |||
List of participants of the fifth meeting of the Working Group |
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Provisional agenda for the fifth meeting (CEP/WG.5/AC.2/2002/5) | |||
Draft protocol on PRTRs: Scope of register, reporting requirements, reporting cycle, monitoring and record-keeping, and quality assessment (CEP/WG.5/AC.2/2002/7) | |||
List of participants of the forth meeting of the Working Group and the second meeting of the technical group |
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Provisional agenda for the fourth meeting (CEP/WG.5/AC.2/2002/1) | |||
Report on the fourth meeting (CEP/WG.5/AC.2/2002/2) | |||
Analysis of Costs and Benefits of Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers | |||
Draft Protocol on PRTRs: Objective, definitions, general provisions, core elements etc. | |||
Report of the third meeting of the Working Group (CEP/WG.5/AC.2/2001/9) | |||
Provisional agenda for the third meeting (CEP/WG.5/AC.2/2001/8) | |||
Draft Analysis of Costs and Benefits of Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (CEP/WG.5/AC.2/2001/10)(English only) |
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List of participants of the 2nd meeting of the working group and the 1st meeting of the technical group (English only) |
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Report on the second meeting of the working group (CEP/WG.5/AC.2/2001/5) | |||
Elements for final provisions of a draft instrument on pollutant release and transfer registers (PRTR) (CEP/WG.5/AC.2/2001/6) | |||
Elements for a draft instrument on pollutant release and transfer registers relating to substances, activities, transfers and validation of data (CEP/WG.5/AC.2/2001/7) | |||
Report of the first meeting of the Working Group (CEP/WG.5/AC.2/2001/2) | |||
List of participants of the first Working Group meeting (English only) |
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Elements for a draft instrument on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (CEP/WG.5/AC.2/2001/3) | |||
Report on the first meeting of the Task Force (CEP/WG.5/2000/5) | |||
Corrigendum to the report on the first meeting (CEP/WG.5/2000/5/Corr.1) | |||
Report on the first meeting of Signatories (CEP/WG.5/1999/2) | |||
Report on the second meeting of Signatories (CEP/WG.5/2000/2) | |||
Report on the seventh session of the CEP (ECE/CEP/74) |
