INTRODUCTION
Since the early 1990s the United Nations Economic Commission
for Europe has concentrated its efforts on preventing industrial accidents
and especially their transboundary effects in its region, which stretches
from Canada and the United States in the west to the Russian Federation
in the east. Its work led to the adoption of the Convention
on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents. It was
signed by 26 UN/ECE member countries and the European Community and entered
into force on 19 April 2000.
The Convention aims at protecting human beings and the environment
against industrial accidents by preventing such accidents as far as possible,
by reducing their frequency and severity and by mitigating their effects.
It promotes active international cooperation between the contracting Parties,
before, during and after an industrial accident.
Industrial operations may involve substances that do not
usually represent a great threat to our health or our environment but
are nevertheless potentially hazardous. Even the safest plant is
never totally risk-free. In Europe, the well-publicized industrial accidents
at Seveso in Italy in 1976 and Basel in Switzerland ten years later have
brought this message home to us. Both accidents wreaked havoc with the
environment. In Seveso, the release of dioxin contaminated the surrounding
area and poisoned local residents. In Basel, the pollution of the Rhine
-- in France and Germany, as well as in Switzerland -- following a fire
at a chemical warehouse killed thousands of fish. As a result, risk assessment
and accident prevention have received much more attention in the past
two decades.
Industry itself has been trying to make its operations safer.
But these two accidents have made the international community sit up and
take notice as well. For instance, the Seveso accident prompted
the Council of the European Community to adopt the first piece of multilateral
legislation to prevent and control such accidents, the so-called Seveso
Directive (82/501/EEC), in 1982. In the meantime its scope was broadened
and in December 1996 the original Seveso Directive was replaced by Council Directive
(96/82/EC) on the control of major-accident hazards - also known as the
Seveso II Directive. It has been in force since 3 February
1999.
However, most recently, in January 2000, another industrial
accident in Romania, with severe transboundary effects, made clear that
operations involving hazardous substances may still pose a serious threat
to our common environment. A mining company in Baia Mare in northern Romania
accidentally spilled over 100,000 cubic meters of cyanide-polluted water
into the Lapus River. Within two days, the polluted water reached the
Tisza, one of Hungary's largest rivers. Not only Hungary's environment,
but also that of the Danube's other downstream countries were affected.
Their fish stocks were wiped out and their water supplies were threatened.
The restoration of the environment will take a long time and will not
be reached without international cooperation and assistance. This incident
also showed that accidental water pollution can have far-reaching transboundary
effects even if it happens at a location far from any international border.
Although the courses of rivers are not limited by any international
border, the prevention of industrial accidents will continue to be a major
challenge. Industrial accidents can be prevented and their impact on transboundary
waters can be limited by strengthening the application of both this Convention
and the UN/ECE Convention on Convention on
the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International
Lakes.
Pending the entry into force, work aimed at implementing
the Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents has
been carried out by its Signatories within the framework of the Committee on Environmental Policy.
Following the Convention's entry into force, the Conference of the Parties
was constituted as the governing body at its first meeting on 22-24 November
2000. The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe carries out the
secretariat functions for the Convention.
At its first meeting, the Conference of the Parties took
a number of important decisions facilitating the Convention's implementation
and defining the priorities of work within its framework in the years
ahead. One of the priority tasks is to enlarge the scope of the Convention's
application to the entire UN/ECE region as soon as possible. The Parties
agreed on the format and procedures for reporting on the implementation
of the Convention and set up a Working Group on Implementation to monitor
this process. They also agreed to continue work on the prevention of accidental
water pollution.
The Parties to the Convention also recognized the shortcomings
of existing international civil liability instruments. In this context,
they stressed the need for an appropriate regime, including a legally
binding instrument, in the UN/ECE region on civil liability for damage
caused by hazardous activities within the scope of this Convention and
that on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International
Lakes. A joint special session of the governing bodies of the two Conventions
will be held on 2-3 July 2001 with a view to considering entering into
an intergovernmental negotiation process.
The Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial
Accidents is part of a pan-European legal framework to protect our environment
and encourage sustainable development that has been negotiated by governments
within the UN/ECE in response to regional challenges. Apart from this
Convention , the framework also consists of four other multilateral agreements:
The aim of
the Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents is
to help its Parties to prevent industrial accidents that can have transboundary
effects, to prepare for them and to respond to them. The Convention also
encourages its Parties to help each other in the event of
such an accident, to cooperate on research
and development , and to share information
and technology .
Prevention
Since it is better to be safe than sorry, the Convention
spells out what its Parties have to do to reduce the risk and prevent
industrial accidents to the extent possible. First, they should identify
the hazardous operations that take place within their borders but could
have an effect abroad if an accident were to occur. The Conference
of the Parties, at its first meeting, adopted guidelines to facilitate
this process. Once the Parties have drawn up a list of these operations,
they should inform all the other Parties that could be affected and consult
them. New projects should be sited in areas where the risks are minimal
and any decision to allow a project to go ahead should take account of
the Convention on Environmental Impact
Assessment in a Transboundary Context. Past industrial accidents
will be reported and analyzed so that lessons can be learnt from them
in order to be able to prevent similar accidents from happening in the
future. The Parties approved the terms of reference for cooperation between
the UN/ECE secretariat and the European Commission's Major Accident Hazards
Bureau in this respect.
Preparedness
Yet, no matter how stringent the safety standards, accidents
will occur and countries must be prepared to deal with their consequences.
The Convention therefore also outlines how Parties can maintain a high
level of preparedness to respond to an industrial accident, especially
if its effects spill over into another country. Hazardous operations must
have on-site and off-site contingency plans. If several Parties might
be affected by a hazardous operation, they are expected to get together
to try to make their plans compatible or even draw up joint off-site contingency
plans.
The local
residents should be informed about
what is going on . The public should also have a
say in the setting-up of prevention and preparedness
measures and have access to administrative and judicial
proceedings if its views are disregarded. In this
context, the provisions of the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation
in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental
Matters will also prove useful.
Response
If an industrial accident does occur, the Convention expects
the Parties to take effective steps to minimize its effects, including
those of a transboundary nature. If several countries are affected by
the accident, they should work together to ease its effects. They should
also help one another
if asked to do so .
Notification
To respond effectively and in a coordinated way to an industrial
accident, Parties must be informed as soon as possible,
since time is of the essence. The Convention consequently
calls on Parties to set up special notification
systems . The UN/ECE
Industrial Accident Notification System
has been developed with this in mind and accepted
by the Conference of the Parties. It includes forms
for giving early warning, providing information
and requesting assistance. This system will make
it easier for a country where an industrial accident
has taken place to notify all the others that could
be affected and to give them the information they
need to fight its possible effects.
Competent authorities and
points of contact
Each Party must designate or set up
authorities specifically to deal with industrial accidents, following
the Convention's entry into force. Other UN/ECE member countries have
nominated focal points
.
According to the Convention, Parties must also designate
points of contact, to whom industrial accident notifications and requests
for assistance must be addressed. The network of points of contact
now comprises 35 countries and the European Community. The secretariat
regularly updates this list; however, access to it is restricted.