International Negotiations

For more than ten years, Denmark has been pushing hard to initiate global (United Nations) negotiations concerning a mercury convention.

The other Nordic countries have supported Denmark and the Nordic Council of Ministers therefore prepared a folder concerning mercury in 2007. This folder describes the key arguments concerning the necessity of a binding global instrument, based on scientific studies and the Nordic experiences of national regulations concerning mercury.

This folder can be found here:

• English version
• French version
• Spanish version
• Russian version
• Chinese version

In 2009, the United Nations  Ministers for the Environment finally decided to initiate negotiations concerning a global mercury convention ( http://www.chem.unep.ch/mercury/GC25/GC25Report_English_25_5.pdf ). This work will be concluded by January 2013. A total of five meetings are planned, with the fourth negotiating meeting scheduled for June 2012, while Denmark has the EU Presidency. Documents can be found here (amongst other places): http://www.unep.org/chemicalsandwaste/Mercury/Negotiations/tabid/3320/Default.aspx . The negotiations cover all areas, from financing and compliance with the convention to the regulation of products/processes, emissions from coal combustion, gold extraction, etc.

In 2010, the Nordic Council of Ministers issued a publication entitled "Mercury – Reductions are feasible". This report documented the existence of alternatives or treatment possibilities for many applications and emissions, and documented  that these possibilities are already in use. The report was presented at the second negotiation meeting, which was held in Stockholm in June 2010. The publication can be found here: http://www.norden.org/da/publikationer/publikationer/2010-738 .